http://www.anandtech.com/print/3794 Has a great write up.
Also from a Slashdot...
Re:Actual formula change (Score:3)
by BasilBrush (643681)
on Friday July 02, @11:39AM (#32774108)
The problem as reported is that the signal strength weakens consistently when the phone is held in a certain way. This is clearly a hardware issue
All mobile phones will have signal strength weakened when you cover the antenna area with the hand. That's physics, not a design problem. Whether you notice the problem or not depends on how strong the signal from the base station is in the first place.
The problem reported was the number of bars that this lost. e.g. from the article that was linked to from the first slashdot article on this issue:
"Signal drops from 4-5 bars to 'searching for signal...' when I hold it in my palm or cover up the line on the lower left side of the phone," reported a user identified as "yoshjosh" on the thread. "I understand that cell signals may degrade when you cover up the antenna, but I have never seen anything this severe, and I'm not holding the phone differently than I think most people hold their phones. This is a real issue."
Other phones might drop one bar when you cover the antenna with your hand. The iPhone with it's current software might drop 4 bars.
That doesn't mean that the signal to the iPhone is dropping more than the other phone. Just that the algorithm used for the display is different.
If Apple is switching to the algorithm that the US carrier suggests, then that is a perfectly reasonable move.
Want to see the same issue with other phones?
Nokia E71.
[youtube.com]
HTC Droid.
[youtube.com]
Blackberry.
[youtube.com]
