SmartPhones

Nokia was quick to rebuff Steve Jobs claim that even Nokia phones (among others) faced the ‘death grip’ issue. Nokia repeated its stance that the freedom to hold the phone naturally was important. Nokia claimed to test its phones for grip and to make sure that either hand wouldn’t block the cellular signal regardless of the position.

“Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold theirphones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design,” Nokia’s statement said.

Nokia acknowledges that a “tight grip” can mess with the performance, though they say they’ve done a bunch of research on the ways their phones are typically held so that the antennas are placed optimally. “In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand.”