When the Verizon iPhone 4 made its debut earlier this month, one question many people had was whether the Verizon smartphone would suffer from the "death grip" problem that plagued the AT&T version last summer.
Consumer Reports, which made headlines last year for failing to recommend the popular iPhone 4 because of the "death grip" issue, has weighed in on the Verizon version, and did not like what it saw.
"Given our findings, we believe the possibility exists for individual users to experience the [death grip] problem since low signal conditions are unavoidable when using any cell-phone network," the publication wrote in a Friday blog post. "For that reason, we are not including the Verizon iPhone 4 in our list of recommended smart phones, despite its high ranking in our Ratings."
Overall, Consumer Reports found that the Verizon iPhone 4 has a problem that could result in dropped calls or the inability to place calls in weak signal conditions.
"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 publication said. "The phone performs superbly in most other respects, and using the iPhone 4 with a case can alleviate the problem."
In the wake of the "death grip" controversy, Apple temporarily provided buyers with a free case that solved the problem. That program expired in the fall, however, and it has not been extended to buyers of the Verizon version.
PCMag mobile analyst Sascha Segan tested the Verizon iPhone in our labs, and experienced the death grip with the Verizon iPhone. He noted, however, that that it's been shown before that various phones have varying "death grips," though it's easier to create a death grip on the iPhone than on certain competitors. It was also easier to recreate the phenomenon on an AT&T iPhone than a Verizon one.
PCMag editor Lance Ulanoff also tackled the death-grip issue in his analysis of the Verizon iPhone 4.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the Verizon iPhone 4 and the slideshow below.