Does the Verizon iPhone 4 Drop Calls?

The AT&T iPhone 4 received a blaze of harsh criticism last year because of what the tech media saw as a major flaw in the device. When held a certain way, the AT&T iPhone 4 would repeatedly drop calls. This is obvious a major setback for any type of cell phone, since the primary purpose of a cell phone is to-you guessed it-enable its users to make calls.

Here's a look at whether the Verizon iPhone 4 suffers from the same call-dropping problem of the AT&T version, but first, we'll look at whether the infamous engineering flaw was such a big deal in the first place.

The Great Call Dropping Scare. Apple was quick to point out in 2010 that the iPhone 4 wasn't the only phone that dropped calls when held a certain way. In fact, many major cell phones drop calls when their antennas are obscured, and the AT&T iPhone 4 has three metal sections that act as its antennae. Block them and your call will drop. Other smart phones work the same way.

Nevertheless, Apple offered customers the chance to exchange their iPhone 4s for the iPhone 3GS, and virtually nobody decided to do this. Why? Because it really wasn't such a big deal in the first place.

Now, I'm not a huge Apple fan by any means. I believe that many of their products are overpriced and have numerous minor flaws. However, their iPhone series has been excellent, and they received some unnecessarily bad press for what amounted to a minor problem.

The Verizon iPhone 4 Antenna. Despite what amounted to a lot of fussiness from technology journalists across the board, it appears that Apple did try to make its Verizon iPhone 4 less likely to drop calls. It's not hard to imagine why. Apple didn't want the same unfair bad press that they'd received in 2010.

The Verizon iPhone 4 has four metal sections instead of three. This means that its antenna is more difficult to obscure.

How The Verizon iPhone 4 Works. I tested out a Verizon iPhone 4, and experienced no dropped calls unless I used both of my hands to hold the phone like a conch shell. Even then, it was difficult to get the phone to drop every call that I made.

The bottom line here is that if you're really worried about your iPhone dropping calls, the Verizon model seems to have fixed the call dropping issue of the original iPhone 4. However, it really wasn't such a big deal in the first place.

How do you think the Verizon iPhone 4 stands up to the AT&T model? Post in the comments section below.