Here's Why Your iPhone 5 Isn't Going To Need A Bumper
by Joe White
September 15, 2012
The last time Apple released a redesigned iPhone handset, there were a few problems. Namely, "antennagate" - a crisis involving the iPhone 4's design, and the handset's resulting poor reception - meant that Apple had to develop, release and give away a huge number of "iPhone Bumpers," which corrected the problem. If you were wondering whether the iPhone 5 is going to require a bumper, the good news is that the answer is a firm no. Read on to find out why.
As most of you will already know, signal dropped on an iPhone 4 when those two antenna ridges (located at the bottom of the handset), were bridged. Apple kind of rectified this problem in the iPhone 4S, by including not two, but four antenna-ridges, making it harder to bridge all four with one hand. However, with the iPhone 5 (Apple's sixth-generation handset), this problem has been further eliminated. As Cult of Mac explains:
Instead of an antenna that wraps around the entire handset, the iPhone 5 has two antennas that aren’t connected [...] the iPhone 5’s back panel features a cell antenna on the top and bottom of the device, surrounded by a thin strip of glass that allows Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and other signals to “peek” through. These antennas are so far apart that unless you have freaklish long hands, it’s impossible to “bridge” them with your grip. So long Antennagate.Furthermore, the website notes that the iPhone 5's new design means the handset is even tougher than the iPhone 4S. Because the glass of the sixth-gen handset is built right into the frame of the smartphone, this means "[t]he only way you can shatter the glass is by dropping it face down." You can't shatter the front glass of the new iPhone by dropping it on its side, as you could with the iPhones 4 and 4S, further eliminating the need for a bumper. Just another reason why we all need the iPhone 5. Source: Cult of Mac