There’s no hiding that the iPhone 4 has been met with grumblings of discontent since its launch on the 24th of June. The whole antenna fiasco has caused a lot of negative chatter. With Apple’s official statements appeasing few, and upsetting others it was about time we heard an official view from an independent outsider.

Consumer Reports released a report stating it would not recommend purchasing the new iPhone 4 to prospective customers. The company spent some time meticulously testing Cupertino’s new mobile alongside the 3GS and the Palm Pre. The organization sent staff out to purchase three iPh4′s from three different stores in New York, and set about testing it in a unique room that blocks out outside radio frequency interference.

It stated: ”In this room, which is impervious to outside radio signals, our test engineers connected the phones to our base-station emulator, a device that simulates carrier cell towers. We also tested several other AT&T phones the same way, including the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4.”

In a controversial statement it said: “Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4′s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that ‘mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.’ The tests also indicate that AT&T’s network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4′s much-reported signal woes.”

A solution was found however. If any users experiencing a drop in reception cover the divide with a small piece of duct tape the problem is gone. Although it’s not the most attractive of solutions, it’s a darn sight cheaper than a $30 Bumper.

Apple’s response to the issue a week or so back was that every handset experiences signal issues when held improperly. Then in a further statement they explained that it was a software problem, and not hardware, which bemused the smartest of us. Consumer Reports originally had backed the handset because of it’s display, front-facing camera and other excellent features. After the antenna issue the company has changed its mind.

“But Apple needs to come up with a permanent — and free — fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4,” it stated.

Via: Apple Insider