Update on iPhone 4 Issues, Part II
It’s not good news. I had my faulty initial iPhone 4 replaced. But the replacement wasn’t much better. Signal strength seemed much better and I didn’t drop any calls, but the proximity issues remained. So they replaced it again. Now I am on my third iPhone 4.
Unfortunately, proximity sensor issues remain. They seem to happen less frequently with this third phone, and so I gave up on replacements for the time being. I truly believe this is a combination of software, hardware and face shape. The more I’ve played and investigated this problem, the weirder it gets. Here’s the gist:
- The first 5 minutes of a phone call are always fine. The proximity sensor behaves.
- Once a call goes over 5 minutes, weird behavior starts, but it starts at random intervals. This is not simply the proximity sensor turning the screen on and off—the sensor acts completely differently. In the first 5 minutes of the call, I can pull the phone up to 3/4 inch away from my face without the screen activating. But at random points after 5 minutes, the sensor will suddenly have a completely different sensitivity, where more than 2mm away from my face will activate the screen. This will continue for a minute or two, and then the sensor will return to its normal behavior.
- This is reproducible on every call, although the duration of call required for the issue to start the first time varies. On average, it seems to be about 6 minutes.
- When the sensor starts misbehaving, it not only changes the sensitivity to millimeters, but it will also sometimes just randomly turn the screen on and off without any change in position of the phone or my face.
I genuinely believe this bug exists in all iPhone 4s in the wild, but that certain face shapes or usage patterns minimize the likelihood of users noticing it. Because it requires making a call that lasts at least 5 minutes, and then also managing to activate a button with your cheek while the screen is on, certain users might never experience it. But I do believe software could solve this problem, or at least minimize it. Or so I hope.
