@MacStoriesNet is today reporting that mobile analyst Bob Egan has stepped up to the plate in challenging the recent report published by Consumer Reports about the iPhone 4.

In the report, the consumer analysts stated that they had fully tested the device and deemed the device unfit for market, consequentially pulling it for its highly respected ‘recommended’ product list.

“We reached this conclusion after testing all three of our iPhone 4s (purchased at three separate retailers in the New York area) in the controlled environment of CU’s radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber. In this room, which is impervious to outside radio signals, our test engineers connected the phones to our base-station emulator, a device that simulates carrier cell towers… When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.”

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However, mobile analyst Bob Egan has today refuted the method and surrounding conditions in which the site tested the device, stating that Consumer Reports RF engineers “should know better“.

Consumer reports “RF” engineers should know better than to think they can run an engineering grade test for an issue like this in a shielded room. And certainly not one with people in it.

To even reasonably run a scientific test, the iPhone should have been sitting on a non-metallic pedestal inside an anechoic chamber. The base station simulator should have been also sitting outside the chamber and had a calibrated antenna plumbed to it from inside the chamber.

Bottom line. From what I can see in the reports, Consumer Reports replicated the same uncontrolled, unscientific experiments that many of the blogging sites have done.

I’m not saying that Apple has no h/w problem and they surely have a s/w issue. But I’m still wondering that if the software signal algorithm was not AFU’d in the first place how many, if anyone would talking about this “problem”

You can read Egan’s full argument on the original report here.

[@MacStoriesNet via Bob Egan]