Samsung Captivate/Vibrant Caught in Grip of Death

By Geoff Duncan July 16, 2010

The “grip of death” antenna issue with the Apple iPhone 4 has become a bit of a PR albatross on the device’s back. Apple has (correctly) pointed out that a number of phones from a broad range of manufacturers also exhibit significant signal loss when held in particular ways—there’s just no denying that putting a big insulator like a hand or a skull right next to a small radio is going to cause some signal loss. Similar signal loss has been demonstrated with Apple’s previous iPhone 3GS model, as well as phones from the likes of HTC, Nokia, and RIM.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Now it seems Samsung’s new line of Galaxy S Android-based smartphones aren’t immune either: according to Information Week, both the Samsung Vibrant (available on T-Mobile) and Samsung Captivate (available on AT&T) exhibit very similar “grip of death” signal loss when held with either the left or right hand around the bottom of the phone. The author of the article reports the phones drop from three or four signal bars to zero in the space of a few seconds when held in this seemingly ordinary way, and regain signal when the grip is released.

The article notes that neither phone dropped a call while in the “grip of death,” and the author was still able to send text messages in that state. But on the other hand, the author also notes he has never lost a call or data connection with the iPhone 4’s “grip of death” either.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Samsung

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Mobile

A surprise phone just beat the Galaxy S24 Ultra in a big way

Digital render of a silver Realme GT Neo 6 SE held in bionic hand.

The global Android phone market is expansive beyond comprehension, and brands continually jockey to establish supremacy. Today, it's Realme's turn to lead one such race as it has unveiled the brightest smartphone display that has ever been launched to the general public.

Realme, a spinoff of the Chinese phone brand Oppo (which also birthed OnePlus), announced the GT Neo 6 SE earlier today in China. The phone boasts an impressive juxtaposition of internal hardware, but one that instantly stands tall is the new display. The Realme GT Neo 6 SE features a 6.78-inch OLED display with a spectacular 6,000 nits of brightness -- brighter than the displays on any other phone or consumer device with a screen built into it.

Mobile

Samsung’s Galaxy AI is about to get a lot more useful

A Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus laying on concrete.

Not long after releasing it for a handful of flagship phones from 2023, Samsung has just announced a substantial update to its Galaxy AI platform. More specifically, a lot more people will soon be able to use Galaxy AI as Samsung is updating it to work with more languages and dialects.

At some point this spring, Galaxy AI will support Arabic, Indonesian, and Russian languages. Samsung's also adding Australian English, Cantonese, and Canadian French dialects.

Mobile

Having Galaxy S24 Ultra camera issues? A fix may be coming soon

The back of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, resting against a post.

It looks like Samsung is finally heeding the concerns about camera woes from Galaxy S24 Ultra users and will patch things up with a software update. According to a reliable leak, a software update will take stock of the “telephoto image quality, inaccurate white balance ,and abnormal red color” issues that are currently being reported by users on public forums.

“Too much optimization on 50 MP and 200 MP sensors even when everything is set to minimum,” says one Galaxy S24 Ultra buyer. “I feel like photos taken are always very washed-out and grainy,” notes another owner. “50mp and 200mp is simply useless because of the Intelligent optimization. It's downgrading the pics,” reads a complaint on the official Samsung community forum.