* Update: Well, after a few thousand quick votes it seems some 86% of us BlackBerry Bold 9700 users think El Jobso's evidence is a big pile of BS. As for the 14% who think it may hold water, well, I'm sure some of those must be legit... but the numbers speak for themselves. Sorry Steve - it seems you became part of the media you like to beat up on with this one... making a story where one doesn't actually exist. *
If you're on the internet today anywhere near a tech website, you've probably heard and/or seen posts surrounding Apple's iPhone 4 press conference that focused on the hoopla surrounding the device's apparent antenna issues (check out TiPb.com's full coverage). According to Apple, well, there are none. Phones aren't perfect. And furthermore, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 they tested out apparently had antenna issues of its own too.
Apple's test? Go to an area where you have full bars while holding the phone gingerly, then change that loose grip to a bit more of a death grip. They show off a video where the Bold 9700's signal basically drops to one bar, until the death grip is released (click the image above to jump over to Apple.com and watch the whole video).
Since seeing the press conference, I've been trying to duplicate their results and I simply cannot do it. My Bold 9700's antenna kicks ass from what I can tell (disclaimer: I'm not on AT&T, but rather Rogers, so maybe Rogers kick a bit of ass too for signal coverage). I either get no drop in coverage, or after realllllly covering up the phone i see a temporary drop of a couple of bars, but only for a second or two, and then the bars come back up to basically full. RIM has been building radios for a lonnnng time. I'm guessing it senses the sudden drop in signal strength and automatically ramps up the power to increase it to full bars again. I'm no engineer though, so I hope somebody smarter than me comes forward to shed more light on this (hopefully RIM does).
In the meantime, if you have a BlackBerry Bold 9700, put it to the test. Can you duplicate Apple's results? Or are you seeing what I'm seeing... no issues at all. Cast your vote and sound off in the comments. I'm sure this isn't the last we've heard of the new smartphone antenna debate.
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