The first batch of iPhone 12 users became "guinea pigs": countless people were caught in the crossfire of "signal failure"

"Everyone else has a signal, why don't I have one?" "Don't even mention 5G, there's no signal." Complaints about poor iPhone signals have repeatedly appeared on social networks. According to a reporter from IT Times, many Chinese users who have purchased the iPhone 12 series have been "hit."

"Although it is not to the point where it is unusable, these problems have appeared from time to time not long after I got the new phone, which has greatly affected the experience. I feel like I bought a fake iPhone." A user who bought an iPhone 12 Pro Max told the IT Times reporter.

As Apple's first generation of 5G-enabled smartphones, these problems hurt the hearts of Apple fans.

01 Frequent disconnections and restarts

As soon as the iPhone 12 series was launched, Mr. Liu from Beijing quickly grabbed a Pro Max through Apple's official website. Not long after receiving the new phone, Mr. Liu encountered a situation where he could not access the Internet. "The signal showed full bars, but I just couldn't connect to the Internet. I couldn't find the reason."

The phone did not return to normal until it was shut down and restarted.

At first, Mr. Liu didn't pay much attention to it, thinking it was an accidental phenomenon. "Later, I encountered this situation several times in different places, and the network signal was restored by turning off the phone or turning it into airplane mode."

Once, Mr. Liu went to a convenience store downstairs in his office building to scan a code to pay. When he just walked out of the elevator, the signal showed 2G network, but it never recovered. After Mr. Liu turned on and off the airplane mode, 4G signal appeared, but WeChat and Alipay still could not be opened. In desperation, Mr. Liu could only shut down and restart the phone, and then he was able to connect to the network and scan the code to pay.

In order to confirm whether it was a problem with the phone or the signal, Mr. Liu tested it with an Android phone when the problem occurred and found that the Android phone could access the Internet normally. "I don't know when the problem will occur, and I haven't figured out the pattern yet." This made Mr. Liu depressed.

Mr. Liu was unable to access the Internet, while Mr. Sun in Shanghai was unable to make phone calls. "Sometimes a call starts out fine, but suddenly it's disconnected. There's no Internet or signal, and the only solution is to restart the phone."

In Apple's official website community, some Apple fans complained about the problem of iPhone 12 Pro signal dropping, and some users said that the iPhone 12 was slow when switching between WiFi and cellular data, and sometimes the switch failed.

Apple’s official advice is to “update the system to the latest version and replace the SIM card for testing.”

The iPhone 12 "signal gate" problem is very common, and there are quite a few users affected. The networks they use come from different communication operators.

A Chinese operator has conducted special tests on the iPhone 12 "signal gate". The results show that when the iPhone 12 was disconnected, there was no abnormality in the network at the same location.

In fact, the signal problem of the iPhone 12 series has also been criticized by foreign Apple fans. According to US media reports, quite a number of iPhone 12 users have reported that their phones have no network service in some places, and the only way is to turn the airplane mode button on and off, sometimes restarting N times a day. These users are from different operators, both from Verizon and AT&T.

02 Software upgrade or problem solving

In the promotional slogans of the iPhone 12 series, there are slogans such as "5G speed" and "iPhone's fastest chip yet", making Apple fans look forward to the speed of iPhone 12.

Some users said that although the iPhone 12 series uses Qualcomm's baseband, the signal problem has not been well solved. Sun Yanbiao, director of the First Mobile World Research Institute, told the "IT Times" reporter that the signal problem is not unique to the iPhone 12 series. Since the 3G era, the iPhone has had problems such as poor network switching and poor signal. "After the iPhone 4 was launched in 2010, it caused a large number of complaints from users due to poor signal, but Apple insisted that there was no problem with the iPhone 4 antenna, but asked users to change the way they hold the phone."

In Sun Yanbiao’s opinion, the signal problem of iPhone 12 has nothing to do with which manufacturer’s baseband is used. The main reason is that the network matching is not good enough. Especially when the 5G network has not been fully built, the solution can only be through software upgrade.

It is actually a consensus in the industry that the iPhone's signal performance is not as good as that of Android phones. However, for "hardcore Apple fans", network stability should be the basic quality of a mobile phone as a communication tool, not to mention that the iPhone 12 sells for nearly 10,000 yuan.

Sun Yanbiao said that the signal problem of iPhone 12 is also related to its "birth environment". It is a product of the epidemic. Field testing has been reduced by about 50%, and it will inevitably cause various problems after it is launched on the market.

The iPhone 12 "signal gate" did not occur in a certain batch or model of hardware, but was a universal problem. Therefore, some industry insiders believe that the poor signal of the iPhone 12 is not simply a baseband problem, but has a lot to do with the antenna design of the full-screen iPhone.

The strength of a 5G mobile phone signal depends on the antenna. As early as the beginning of this year, some analysts were worried that if the iPhone 12 was equipped with an antenna module designed by Apple itself, then even with Qualcomm's 5G baseband, its signal might still not be very satisfactory.

After all, this is the first time Apple has made a 5G mobile phone, and it is quite difficult to design a perfect antenna.