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Apple Consumer Reports Bias Ping!
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Posted on 11/17/2010 7:05:10 PM PST by Swordmaker
Electronista reports, "The iPhone 4's disputed antenna has given Android a virtual sweep of the top phone rankings at Consumer Reports, the magazine's latest ratings showed today."
"A decision to avoid recommending the iPhone 4 has made Android-based Samsung Captivate the highest recommended smartphone on AT&T, leaving the iPhone 3GS in second place," Electronista reports.
Electronista reports, "When searched separately, the iPhone 4 held on to a 76 point score that would have given it the same ranking as the Captivate... . The magazine nonetheless reiterated that, without an actual design change, it couldn't put the iPhone 4 in the same company as some users would encounter serious reception issues. 'We agree with Apple that not all iPhone 4 owners will experience reception difficulties," Consumer Reports said. "But putting the onus on owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us.'"
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Consumer Reports is staffed by incompetent hypocrites and/or using Apple garner free publicity. Either way, or both, Consumer Reports' continuing charade is only damaging themselves.
Eric Zeman, InformationWeek, July 16, 2010:
I have both a Samsung Vibrant and Captivate on hand for testing purposes. In both phones, the internal antenna is apparently located on the back of the phone, towards the very bottom edge. When gripped around the bottom of the phone (with either hand) the signal strength drops almost immediately. The Vibrant went from three bars to zero bars in about five seconds, and the Captivate went from four bars to zero bars in about six seconds. When I let go, the signal returns immediately.
Many of the phones I review come with stickers on them. Those stickers often warn users of certain things. One of the stickers I've seen on many phones is one which warns users to avoid touching certain parts of the cell phone in order to not block the antenna. Covering the antenna of just about any cell phone made can result in a drop in signal strength.
Even when the Vibrant and Captivate lost signal strength, neither phone dropped a call, and I was still able to send text messages and surf the mobile web. With the iPhone 4, I never dropped a call or lost a data connection when it was suffering from the "death grip" phenomenon, either.
Samsung Galaxy S (AT&T Captivate) - "Death Grip" antenna attenuation - video one:
Samsung Galaxy S (AT&T Captivate) - "Death Grip" antenna attenuation - video two:
Samsung Galaxy S (AT&T Captivate) - "Death Grip" antenna attenuation - video three:
Consumer Reports has no credibility.
Electronista reports, “The iPhone 4’s disputed antenna has given Android a virtual sweep of the top phone rankings at Consumer Reports, the magazine’s latest ratings showed today.”
That’s good news. Can’t wait for gingerbread.
CR has always been a joke when it comes to this kind of gear.
During the great video game wars of the early ‘80s, did they pick Atari 2600? No. Mattel Intellivision? No. How about the new ColecoVision. No.
Consumer Reports gave its top rating to the Bally Astrocade, a device that was doomed to fail less than a year later.
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Consumer Reports seems to be maintaining their stance on iPhones clearly to get web hits.
I have the Vibrant which is very similar to the Captivate it is a very good phone. I like the Captivate hardware better.
If only Sprint had been smart when iPhone was offered to them. I’d be using one now lol
I have the first Droid. Hoping “gingerbread” will
be included. froyo is doing a good job. I may wear
out the keyboard by the time I reach 2 years.
Radio and Cell Phone engineers almost universally panned CU's testing rigs when they came out with their original report when it was learned HOW they went about their tests of the iPhone4... and it was also shown they did not test any other phones. They used the iPhone's own five bar signal strength meter as the gauge. . . and sent signals from a dumb radio source at the phone.
Add to this that on the release of the iPhone4 in the rest of the world NONE of the users in those markets can duplicate the issue... none. zero. nada. zilch. No dropped calls, no problems away from AT&T's crappy urban networks in cities where they have not been allowed to build to the demand... or in marginal areas where the AT&T service has not been upgraded to 3G yet. In the rest of the world, where the iPhone4 was released, it works fine... and the users are wondering what the American press was complaining about. Independent tests found the iPhone4 gets BETTER reception than Consumers Reports SECOND best rated phone the iPhone 3Gs... but they refuse to include the iPhone4 in their ratings because of their ignorant engineers' incompetent testing that did not account for the starting point of what was being measured and what was being attenuated... or whether the phone could still connect at those lower bar levels or not.
Apple admitted that the mathematical formula they were using to display the bars was flawed... it was the one they had been supplied BY AT&T... and had been using on the iPhone's since day the first release... and it cut off too quickly. The ONLY change that has been made is to correct that change in bars... and the cut off. The phones work.
“I have the first Droid. Hoping “gingerbread” will
be included. froyo is doing a good job. I may wear
out the keyboard by the time I reach 2 years.”
yeah, I really want a phone with a keyboard. I want to be able to use it as a laptop that I can always carry with me.
Yes, we forget HTC phone screens shorting and not accepting input, separating from the phone due to poor manufacturing, and a number of other problems with various Android phones, and say the iPhone loses because of ONE problem that Android phones have too.
Nah, CR isn’t biased.
Consumer Reports also picked NY city water as superior to all brands of bottled water, merely as a consequence of having the objective taste testers all living in NYC. It isn’t a consumer-oriented magazine; by the time its recommendations are published, the models tested are not generally available; they do a lousy job of rating autos; and the very concept of such a magazine is that one published source has the competence and expertise to rate everything they wind up rating. It’s BS on its face.
Would this be classified as an Anti-Consumer Reports thread?
I have the original Motorola Droid. Over time, it sucks. Second rate hardware and OS.
Over the years I have determined the “bars” thing is pretty useless. I had an LG phone that always showed two bars from my home and never got any reception, followed by a Motorola Razor phone that never showed any bars at home but got great reception....
Just saying.
I no longer need to give a d@mn what Consumer Reports thinks.
They have no standing whatsoever.
This would likewise be true, were it reversed (e.g. if they had given the iPhone4 the win and blocked Android phones because of something that affected a tiny percentage of Android users).
I’ve had my 4 for a while now and will attest it is better than my 3G was in reception. Have yet to drop a call and makes and holds solid calls with only one bar showing...I don’t care how the formula is calculated I just care how it works. Happy iPhone 4 camper~
Wife has iPhone 4, very happy with it. Both devices are very capable. I'd say go fool with them in a store. Get which ever one suits your style. Don't believe us tech-geeks that "feature X is a must have!" :-)
A few selected CR atrocities:
*Dodge Omni steering scandal
*Isuzu Trooper rollover scandal
*Repeated trashing of American cars while giving Camrys and Accords CR Best Buy ratings year after year
*An issue from about 2-3 years ago that was reviewing computer hardware and referred to CRT monitors as “a space-hogging relic of the 20th century”
*Repeated trashing of any American-made product
*Faulty methods of assessing car reliability
I'm not seeing the problem with that, except to wonder why they even bothered to mention CRT monitors that recently. Early LCD monitors didn't have the color quality of a really good CRT, but since about 2003 or so, the only reason to have a CRT on your desk is if you want to preview video on a NTSC or PAL monitor and your audience is going to be using CRTs.
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