iPhone 4 : Loss of ambidexterity

Up till now, I’ve stayed away from the iPhone hoopla with a good reason – I have nothing new to contribute. My quoting (and possibly reinterpreting of) facts from people who’ve actually got their hands on the device, be it friends or writers from technology websites, is nothing short of a deception.

If you really must know all about the iPhone, and haven’t heard enough about it yet, I suggest you head over to my friend Pulkit Kaushik’s blog, enlisted under my blogroll as TheDolt.

The reason I decided to break my silence is simple – there’s an issue which has cropped up with iPhone 4. Apparently, due to the new design, with exposed metal bands on the sides of the phone doubling up as antennae, holding the phone in a way such that the lower left corner of the phone is covered by one’s hand severely hampers connectivity and reduces signal strength.

To read more about this issue, this links to a PCWorld article containing and unofficial test conducted by one of the columnists, and this links to a correspondence that Engadget had with Apple.

This is not a new problem with the iPhone, apparently it existed even in the old iPhone 3G and 3GS, and is even an issue with Google’s Nexus One. But since it’s come to be attention only recently, I’ll use this opportunity to voice my opinion.

Technically, there are several reasons why this is bad. Apart from the obvious results of dropped calls, reduced voice quality and reduced browsing speeds, the lower reception implies that the iPhone will try to boost signal strength. This will lead to the battery draining quicker than usual, and will also pose a potential health risk to users, as being consistently exposed to abnormal levels of radiation from cell phones is not a good idea.

Apart from the technical details, there’s also the issue of the stand that Apple has taken on this issue. The writing on the wall is very clear – hold your phone differently, or get a case. But this just got me wondering – we’re talking about an yearly update of one by one of the world’s most popular technology companies. I sincerely doubt that this design flaw had gone unnoticed during inception or testing. It’s the complacent stand that Apple took afterwards, willing to let the inferior product reach the market that worries me.

Consider another smartphone – I can only refer to the one in my possession with utmost authority, naturally – the Nokia 5230. The 5230 borders on the bottom end for smartphones. Yes, it is a derivative of the hugely successful 5800, but the phone’s utility is in no way hampered. Holding the phone in any orientation, or any grip does not significantly alter reception quality. Agreed, Nokia, in most of its manuals suggest that users not cover the upper back portion of the phone while making a call, that is a perfectly reasonable suggestion, as the natural grip for holding a phone is by the sides.

Which brings me back to the title of the post – a loss of ambidexterity. One reason why I’ve always admired iPod and the iPhone is the equal level of ease with which both right-handed as well as left-handed people can use them. Of course, the iPod Touch and iPhone could never pose such a problem, the other iPods, based on physical buttons could. But no, Apple’s design was such that the buttons were all centrally located, showing impartiality towards both camps. This was something I noticed, was a little celebrated fact. If you compare Apple’s PMPs with many of those in the market, you may find that the competitors often align the buttons along the right side of the device in order to include a landscape oriented display.

Even the same can be said about the iPod Touch and iPhone – orient them either 90 degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise, and the phone adapts. Apart from the physical volume buttons, which unfortunately, have to show a partiality towards one side, because they are located on the sides, there is little complaint in this department. Compare this with the Symbian 60 Version 5 operating system that is implemented on most of Nokia’s touchphones. At least on my phone, as well as the Nokia 5800, orienting the screen 90 degrees anti-clockwise does not auto-orient the screen. For some absurd reason, the accelerometer causes display reorientation only when its rotated anti-clockwise, something that comes more naturally to right-handed people, in my opinion, especially as the physical buttons then become positioned away from the fingers for left-handed people.

But with this new development, southpaws will be forced to either hold their iPhones in a different way, because naturally, the part of the palm near the thumb will naturally cover the lower left end of the iPhone 4. The only alternative will be purchasing a “bumper cover” from Apple, or one of the many other cases on sale for Apple products such as the iPhone. And this is despite the fact that Apple usually subtly hints that their products do not need cases or covers, which is another show of hypocrisy.

In essence, this is just a small niggle for Apple’s sales department, but for me, it’s left a somewhat lasting impression about the somewhat dictatorial corporation that is headquartered at Cupertino.