I’ve had my iPhone 4 for a week now and overall am enjoying it. I love the new screen, front and rear cameras, and overall speed. However, I’m sure most have heard of the few problems that have been found. The big one is the reception issue which can be caused by bridging the two antennas with your hand, causing the phone to lose signal. I’ve been able to forcibly replicate the issue with my phone, but have never accidentally lost a call because of it. The other issue that I have had, is with 3G. Sometimes I’ll go to use my data and nothing will happen. The wheel icon will spin next to the 3G icon and sit there for minutes trying to load a page or email. When it does work though it is really fast. Apple, publicly has been silent about these issues except for a few supposed emails from Steve Jobs saying “Don’t hold it that way” and it is “not an issue”
This is affecting enough people that I certainly have a feeling that Apple is working to correct this. Many have been pointing directly at the hardware, but I also personally feel that it can be corrected via software. Here is a pretty good article to support that claim. I would hope Apple would have thoroughly tested the hardware before launch and that just maybe a bug was introduced into the final build of iOS 4 causing the problem.
I think people are really jumping the gun wanting free bumper cases and already a class action lawsuit. They need to give Apple time to create a workable fix or diagnose what the problem is. The phone has been only out a week and I know I would want Apple to fully test the fix before releasing it to the public instead of potentially creating more problems. If people are having such a big issue with this, then my recommendation is to take the phone back, get your refund, and use a cheap AT&T phone for a month and see if in that time the problem is fixed.
Unfortunately, with new hardware, problems like this can crop up. I had one of the very first Macbook Pros which had a problem known as the CPU whine. It took a month or so, but Apple came out with a revision to the Logic Board that solved the problem. I had mine replaced within a couple of days. I fully believe that they will fix this either by software or a later hardware revision that us early adopters can replace our phones with. Only time will tell.
Here’s a video showing the signal issue.