Consumer Reports critical Verizon iPhone 4

AT&T iPhone 4 (left) and Verizon iPhone 4 (right) have several shortcomings in top antennas. (Matthew Rivera/msnbc.com)

By Suzanne Choney

Consumer Reports is dissing Verizon iPhone 4 antenna, just as it did last year with the same model sold by AT&T, although the antenna on the Verizon version of the phone has been moved to a new location on the device.

"The iPhone Verizon 4 has an issue that could cause the phone drop calls or be able to make calls in weak signal conditions, Consumer Reports engineers have found in laboratory tests," the publication said on his blog on Friday.

"Holding Verizon iPhone 4 in a specific way, but natural enough can cause dropped calls in weak signal conditions, our tests found."

For Verizon iPhone 4, Apple has moved the antenna of a prominent place in less than the version of the phone sold by AT&T.

Wilson Rothman of MSNBC.com noted last month: "Although the shortcomings of the lower antenna — that on iPhone AT&T 4 can be gripped to recreate the ' death grip ' known to reduce the receipt and occasionally drops calls — are still in the same place, we moved the antenna higher gap. Instead of being up next to the headphone jack is located on the side, above the mute switch.

"Even if this does not necessarily correspond to any difference in performance, it did cause the buttons switch and volume drop ' ever so slightly, '" according to another employee msnbc.com who tested the phone.

Consumer Reports is adamant on the issue:

Verizon iPhone 4 looks like the original iPhone AT&T 4 under many positive aspects, including offering great multimedia features sharp screen, and the best MP3 player that we've seen on a mobile phone. Unfortunately, also shares with his brothers the possibility of compromised performance in low-signal when used without a bumper or case.

As noted earlier, there were widespread reports of reception with the Verizon iPhone 4, and Verizon's network, unlike AT&T, has received above-average scores by our readers for the voice service reliability in the past. (These scores reflect data collected before the launch of iPhone Verizon 4). But given our findings, we believe that there is a possibility for individuals to experience the problem because the low signal conditions are inevitable when you use any cellular network.

For this reason, we are not including Verizon iPhone 4 on our list of featured smart phones, despite its high ranking in our evaluations. Even if Apple doesn't offer more a case free for buyers of the iPhone 4, as it did for a time after it was discovered the problem about AT&T, the company said in the past that will consider requests on a case free from customers who buy the phone and subsequently experience reception problems.

We've reached out to Verizon and Apple for the comment on this and are awaiting word. Those of you with Verizon iPhones, what are you finding to be the cause? Let us know.

More information on iPhone on msnbc.com:

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