iPhone RF Performance

[bmustaf]

Does anyone have any insight into the iPhone's RF performance? Moving from a BlackJack I have noticed iPhone is a bit better (anecdotally, I have no quantitative evidence) at signal acquisition and strength. Areas where I'd drop I don't drop as frequently.

One thing that particularly annoyed me about other phones was that while their radios were busy acquiring a signal or doing hand-offs the UI would freeze (esp Windows Mobile devices!) or become quite sluggish. It seems the iPhone's architecture works around this (ASICs handling this instead of going to the kernel?).

Does anyone have any detail on 1) how the iPhone compares from an RF strength perspective and 2) how the iPhone's radio is implemented?

 

[mduser63]

I think details on this sort of thing are still pretty scarce. Apple's not going to release this stuff, so looking at disassembled iPhones along with the iPhone OS is going to be the only way to figure it out I think. I'm also somewhat interested in the general RF architecture. The antenna configuration in particular seems somewhat interesting (judging from disassembly photos I've seen).

 

[diamond.g]

I too wonder if having the antenna at the bottom of the phone is better than other configurations. It seems like having your hand covering it would cause you to lose signal.

 

[bbplayer5]

You really hold your phone at the bottom? Shouldnt your hand cover the majority of the phone anyways?