Antenna changes prompt expert speculation

AntennaSys president and antenna engineer Spencer Webb believes Apple has redesigned the antenna on the Verizon iPhone 4 not just to accommodate the change to CDMA from GSM, but also to solve a problem that has famously plagued Apple (even though other smartphones suffer the same issue) -- the "grip of death." Webb, quoted in a ComputerWorld article, says there is "evidence" that the change in the antenna bands -- evidenced by the new fourth "gap" and the different placement of the gaps -- could show that Apple has solved the issue by employing a second cellular antenna.

Anandtech and other tech sites have pointed out that Verizon's network requires dual-receive antennas, so the fact that the Verizon iPhone may have them wouldn't be surprising -- but rather than do what other phone providers have done and place the second cell antenna inside the case, Webb believes the Verizon iPhone has both cell antennas in the frame -- one on top and one on the bottom. The Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS antenna may have moved inside the case, he says, using space made available by the lack of a SIM card.

Webb's theory is based on the symmetry of the new antenna design, indicating that both "parts" perform the same function redundantly. If correct, a user would be hard-pressed to accidentally recreate the conditions needed to significantly weaken a cell signal -- as compared to the original iPhone 4 design, where the attenuation of the antenna gaps by holding the phone in a normal fashion was easily reproducible in a significant percentage -- but not all -- iPhones. Despite the negative publicity Apple received over it, videos and tests quickly showed that the attenuation problem was not unique to the company and could be induced on most other brands.

Webb would not speculate on whether Apple had genuinely solved the industry-wide issue, saying he had not having had any hands-on time with a Verizon iPhone -- but said that based on photos, FCC testing documentation and his own antenna expertise, he feels that "Apple may have done something clever here" which he called "antenna diversity (two antennas in the frame with switching between them)" in a later blog post. Webb noted that Apple referred to the Wi-Fi antenna in the Verizon iPhone as a planar "inverted F" antenna in their FCC certification applications, which would not correctly describe that part if it remained part of the frame as it does in the AT&T version.

"We'll see how it works next month," added Webb, "but I think the steps Apple took were all good." [via ComputerWorld]

By Electronista Staff