The Members Forum

Consumer Reports today said that its lab tests show the Verizon iPhone 4 suffers from a "death grip" problem similar to last summer's revelations about AT&T's model.

Holding the Verizon model in certain ways can "cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions," the magazine said Friday.

Similar problems with AT&T's iPhone last summer raised a ruckus that Apple first dismissed, then dealt with by offering free cases to all owners. Apple discontinued the offer last September.

As it did last year with the AT&T version of the iPhone 4, Consumer Reports today declined to put Verizon's on its "recommended" list because of the dropped call problem, even though the device is among its highest-rated smartphones.

"[Dropped calls] can occur when you hold either version of the iPhone in a specific but quite natural way in which a gap in the phone's external casing is covered," said Paul Reynolds, the magazine's electronics editor, in a blog post.

Covering the gap at the lower left of the steel band encircling the Verizon iPhone 4 resulted in dropped calls and an inability to place calls when the cellular signal was at a low strength -- at the level of one bar in the iPhone's indicator -- said Reynolds.

"Reception typically dropped notably within 15 seconds or so of the gap being bridged," Reynolds reported.

Computerworld has the details HERE!