AntennaGate All Over Again Verizon iPhone Suffers 'Death Grip'

The Verizon iPhone 4 may be a new incarnation of the old AT&T iPhone but it appears as though Apple didn't fix one of the phones old issues, the so called 'death grip' problem that led to AntennaGate.

According to Consumer Reports, lab tests have shown that the Verizon iPhone 4 suffers from a "death grip" problem similar to last summer's AT&T model. This resulted in the phone suffering the same issue of dropping calls, weak signals, the inability to place calls and an overall poor performance.

"The problem is similar to the one we confirmed in July with the AT&T version of Apple's newest smart phone. It can occur when you hold either version of the phone in a specific but quite natural way in which a gap in the phone's external casing is covered. The phone performs superbly in most other respects, and using the iPhone 4 with a case can alleviate the problem," said Paul Reynolds, the magazine's electronics editor, in a blog post.

The issue facing the new iPhone meant Consumer Reports again declined to put the device on its "recommended" list, even though the device is among its highest-rated smartphones.

Apple no longer offers a free case to buyers of the iPhone 4, as it did for a time limited time after the problem was first discovered on the AT&T version. However Consumer Reports says that a bumper for the Verizon version should alleviate the problems much like it did previously with the AT&T phones.