Engineer Dismisses Consumer Reports iPhone Tests
Consumer Reports has often taken flack for their coverage of the Macintosh, and that trend may be continuing into the iPhone world. On his blog, electromagnetic engineer Bob Egan claims that the RF testing that Consumer Reports did with regard to the iPhone 4 antenna issue was seriously flawed.
He doesn't say it's seriously flawed, he says the number CR came up isn't precise: "I have not seen CR’s claim directly that the finger effect reduces the iPhones sensitivity by 20db as reported elsewhere, but unless CR connected to a functional point inside the iPhone that number is fantasy."
So he doesn't dismiss the report, he says that the number isn't precise. There is no doubt at this point that touching the iPhone antenna at the edge of the phone worsens the signal. The question is by how much.
He says it's flawed in the title of his post, and uses terms like "uncontrolled" and "unscientific." He's not saying, and neither am I, that there isn't a problem, just that this test that purports to show there is a problem is flawed.
For what it's worth, I can't reproduce any sort of problem with my iPhone 4 either.