AppleInsider | Radio engineer: Consumer Reports iPhone 4 testing flawed (u)

AppleInsider | Radio engineer: Consumer Reports iPhone 4 testing flawed (u): "An engineer experienced with electromagnetic issues like those now affecting Apple's iPhone 4 says that the tests performed by Consumer Reports were scientifically flawed. More...

In response to the iPhone 4 technical findings reported by the consumer buying advice group, engineer Bob Egan observed on his own site that 'Consumer Reports' [radio frequency] engineers should know better than to think they can run an engineering grade test for an issue like this in a shielded room. And certainly not one with people in it.'

Egan explains, 'To even reasonably run a scientific test, the iPhone should have been sitting on a non-metallic pedestal inside an anechoic chamber. The base station simulator should have been also sitting outside the chamber and had a calibrated antenna plumbed to it from inside the chamber.

'I have not seen Consumer Reports' claim directly that the finger effect reduces the iPhones sensitivity by 20db as reported elsewhere, but unless Consumer Reports connected to a functional point inside the iPhone that number is fantasy."