(Image courtesy of MacRumors)
Apple’s iPhone 4 launched in several international markets today, beginning with Australia, where one of the largest publications claims there are “no major reception problems” with the device. Meanwhile, it appears neighboring New Zealand had a little failure to launch at first.
AppleInsider is reporting on all the latest iPhone 4 news “down under,” kicking off with a recap on the glowing review given to the handset by Stephen French, the technology writer for Australia’s The Daily Telegraph. After using the device for nearly a week, he’s happy to report not a single dropped call nor any real impact on the device as a result of the fabled “Antennagate” problem.
That doesn’t mean that replicating the “death grip” didn’t result in a replication of the signal bars dropping, but at least in Australia, there doesn’t seem to be an issue throughout Sydney with any of the four carriers offering the iPhone 4 there -- Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and 3.
"I tried the 'death grip' on the bottom left while making test calls in areas I knew to have weaker reception and the times I did manage to reduce the signal bars... my calls were still not affected," French wrote. "The worst thing that happened was a web page I was loading timed out but after refreshing it came up fine. I even managed to watch a YouTube video over 3G while in the 'death grip.'"
French also writes that call quality was improved over the previous iPhone 3GS. "The iPhone 4 is not just a slight improvement over the iPhone 3GS, it is a massive jump," he said. "There are so many great enhancements across the board it will be hard for existing iPhone owners to resist and a great place to start for users who are new to the smartphone market."
Meanwhile, neighboring New Zealand managed to avoid a national tragedy after iPhone 4 buyers who lined up overnight to be the first to get the handset walked away disappointed when the launch was delayed a few hours. No one is saying what caused the delay, but shipping problems appear to be the culprit.
According to stuff.co.nz, the iPhone 4 did finally make its New Zealand debut by midday, at least in select Vodafone stores. About 100 people lined up outside the carrier’s Lambton Quay store in Wellington four hours after the morning launch delay, which one customer reportedly referred to as “an epic fail.”
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