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What's the deal with my iPad?!

  • iPad is pooched, just like the iPhone!

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • All this iPhone hoopla is getting out of hand!

    Votes: 10 90.9%

  • Total voters
    11

Worthy.Of.Ed

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 14, 2008
24
0
In my possession I have a 3G iPad. Purchased by myself on launch day in Canada. I've noticed definite increases/decreases in browsing speed, while browsing in landscape mode, depending on where my hand is placed in proximity to the 3G antenna strip.

In my house, i get 4-5 bars, with the iPad sitting on the table or my lap. When I hold the ipad in landscape, I rotate it to the right (so the top is in my right hand, the bottom with the home button is in my left hand). I'm holding it in my hands, on my lap, at about a 45 degree angle, so it's angled at my face (of course, ha).

Just now I demonstrated multiples times (although very unscientifically I'm sure) that when my right hand is NOT covering the 3G antenna, I get 4-5 bars. When I grasp the right side of the iPad, after about 5 seconds the bars steadily start to drop to 1 or 2 bars. Letting go, after 5 to 10 seconds, the bars steadily rise back to 5 bars.

With the speedtest.net app, I conducted a few tests.

No hand covering the antenna, 5 bars: DL @ 870 Kbps, UL @ 137 Kbps
With hand covering antenna, 1-2 bars: DL @ 287 Kbps, UL @ 13 Kbps

Multiple tests yield similar results.

I'm too lazy/tired to make a video or post pictures right now, but I'd gladly reconduct tests to prove these findings.

So... Does the iPad have a signal issue as well? Or is the iPhone 4 issue just a little blown out of proportion? Or something else?
 
By covering the antenna the signal drops there is no surprise there. This is the same with any device not just Apple / iPad specific...
 
Yeah. Exactly my point. People seem to expect it to not happen at all on the iPhone.

My iPad signal drops when I hold it the way I do. Are you going to tell me that I am holding it wrong? Probably not. I have to adapt the way I hold my new wireless device as to not cover the antenna.

Why are people being such babies about the iPhone. Either all devices are screwed up, or people need to chill about the iPhone. Because I have evidence of the EXACT same signal drop on my iPad as with the iPhone. But so far.... Nobody cares.
 
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