Mossberg Reviews iPhone 4 Voice Calls

Listen up, iPhone 4 owners: get thee to a strong AT&T cell. That’s the advice of Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg on Apple’s latest handset.

Mossberg said the iPhone 4 works best in areas with “average or strong AT&T coverage”, however, he said the iPhone 3GS is a better choice for users living, working or traveling in spots with weak coverage by Apple’s exclusive U.S. carrier partner. AT&T “operates a network that has trouble connecting and maintaining calls in many cities,” he told readers.

Although he noted the reception bars on the iPhone 4 would “fluctuate” when held in the now infamous ‘death grip’ position, Mossberg wasn’t overly concerned. Indeed, he said the bars actually increased in some cases when the antennas were touched. Apple recently announced a free ‘bumper’ offer to lessen complaints of poor reception when the iPhone is held.

Mossberg’s comments followed a six week period of testing, using two iPhone 4 handsets: one review unit from Apple and another the reviewer purchased. This latest review appears to mirror a previous one in which Mossberg praised the new iPhone’s design, but slammed being locked-into AT&T as the only carrier option.

[AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Wall Street Journal]

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Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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Chris
What I am wondering about: how is reception when using the sim card of another carrier than AT&T?
Seems to me the reception issues have a lot to do with mediocre cell coverage by AT&T which seems to notoriously bad (I been reading bad things about their network since day 1 of the orginal iPhone and coverage hasn’t gotten any better since – cell nor media).
I’m curious to see how the iPhone is gonna perform on European networks… I been using a cell phone for 11 years now – living in Belgium – and I can’t remember having a dropped call in my life (except for tunnels)…
Given the fact that Apple keeps on selling the iPhone4 by huge loads and there haven’t been massive outburst of public outrage of over a million owners, things can’t be really that bad…
Where there is smoke, there is fire… but looks like the wood used for burning is quite wet…
Erin’s Dad
Shooting an iPhone with a Mossberg would be more entertaining…
Alex
Mobile networks are more reliable in Europe than in the US. Haven’t had a dropped call either in Greece for quite a few years. To be honest I never remember to have had one… This whole death grip issue has been blown way out of proportion…
http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com Jordan Wyatt
iPhone 4 was just launched (hours ago) in New Zealand, from people who managed to get one during the couple hours they were available for on account customers, they CAN replicate the “death grip”, but it never seems to affect the calls?
I finally managed to order one for myself from Apple…THREE WEEKS WAIT?!? Crazy…I’d been counting down until today…to just get another near month long wait?