Confirmed: Verizon iPhone Comes With New Antenna - Requires New Cases
January 11, 2011
The recently leaked photos of iPhone antenna parts were legit. According to pictures taken by Engadget during the hands-on at the Verizon iPhone event, it seems the Verizon iPhone does indeed have a new antenna design.
The antenna is now split in more sections, and some buttons have been relocated, as you can see in the image above. Officially, the antenna redesign only has to do with the fact that this new iPhone works on CDMA networks. Yet, the increased number of separate parts make us think the antenna issues of the AT&T iPhone 4 had something to do with this redesign. We assume that bridging gaps will not affect the handset anymore, as it has multiple antennas. Of course, we'll have to wait for the release to confirm this.
A further consequence of the change; some cases might not be compatible with the Verizon version of the iPhone 4, notably the official Apple bumper. Needless to say, this is going to cause quite a mess in the case ecosystem, and we wonder if this was really worth it.
