• iPhone's 3G antenna put to the test in a $110,000 metal box

    Monday, August 25th, 2008

    Greg Kumparak is the Mobile Editor at Techcrunch. Greg has been writing for the TechCrunch network since May of 2008. Greg was born just outside of San Jose, and now lives in the East Bay of California. → Learn More


    SCIENCE.

    When murmurs of the new iPhone’s purported subpar 3G performance made its way around to Sweden, a company called Bluetest decided to try and determine once and for all if we all just had a case of the crazies.

    They stuck an iPhone 3G into a $110,000 noise-free chamber along with a simulated base station, and tested communications in both directions. Then they did the same tests with a Sony Ericsson P1 and a Nokia N73. Turns out, they all performed about the same. Great news, right?

    Unfortunately, the test doesn’t really prove anything. It appears that they only tested one of each handset, which wouldn’t expose flaws between batches. More importantly, it seems they only tested it against 3G, which completely ignores the EDGE/3G hand-off that many people believe to be the problem.

    Oh well. At least we know the iPhone works great in a noise-proof box.

    Full test details and results here

    Sponsored Ads

    blog comments powered by Disqus

    Sponsored Ads

    Sponsored Ads

    Upcoming Events

    Disrupt SF 2012

    San Francisco, CA