Update on the
iPhone 4 reception situation.
This morning, I went to the
Novi Apple Store and spoke to a technician, bypassing AT&T completely (from whom I ordered the phone on launch day). I explained my problems, how I more or less hated the iPhone 4 and its unreliability made the phone unusable for anything other than novelty.
Karl, my tech, seemed to understand my story completely. He ran a few diagnostics on my iPhone 4, saw my problem, and quickly offered to swap out my phone for another. I agreed. Truthfully, it was the only solution I was willing to accept, as I have tried a ton of other quasi-solutions that are
posted all
over the
web.
Curiously, the phone he gave me was something he called an 'engineering' phone, one he claims has been tested
very thoroughly to ensure it's a error-free device. It came out of a hard-shelled black plastic/composite box, and Karl said each of them ship in two
other padded boxes to ensure safe travels. In his words, it's a 'known-quantity' unit. If I have problems with this, they'll likely be a result of the AT&T network, software or a drop on the other end of the call, but ostensibly not because of this particular iPhone 4 unit. These phones, he told me, more or less eliminate hardware issues from a diagnostic equation. At the very least, they represent a clean hardware slate.
(The new phone also is likely a product of a later manufacturing build; i.e. it's not a day-one launch unit. Could Apple have been tweaked in manufacturing since pre-launch? Possible, but who knows?)
I've no idea yet if this phone will wind up being an improvement, but I'll say this: Apple has always taken care of me as a customer. Would Motorola do the same thing? Could they? One might argue that a Motorola Droid X wouldn't be dropping the calls like an iPhone, so support wouldn't be necessary. Perhaps. But that's missing the point. When I've needed support from Apple, I've gotten it. Every time.
So, we'll see how this goes. If the problem persists, I'm afraid it'll be time to move away from the iPhone and AT&T.