Despite ‘Don’t Buy’ Recommendation, iPhone 4 Is Consumer Reports’ Top-Rated Smartphone

John Paczkowski:

In short, the iPhone 4 is hands-down the best smartphone available today, but Consumer Reports advises against buying it.

Seems nutty to me to give it a “don’t buy” for this single annoyance alone.

Update: A bunch of people are giving me shit on Twitter for saying this is “nutty”. What’s the sentiment behind that, though? That the iPhone 4 antenna issue is so profound, that the problems are so severe, that the iPhone 4 is a bad product (or at least a bad phone) and people shouldn’t buy it? Then how come so many iPhone 4 users love their phones? And, to the point at hand, how come it’s still Consumer Reports’ top-rated smartphone? If the problem is that bad, shouldn’t the product be poorly rated? And if it’s not that big a problem, why give it a “don’t buy”? That’s what’s nutty.

Think of it this way: if they can’t recommend their top-rated smartphone, their buying advice must be to buy a lower-rated product. What should people buy instead? An iPhone 3GS? (That’s their second-highest rated smartphone.) Sorry, but that’s nutty, because the iPhone 4 is way better — antenna attenuation when held in certain ways or not — than the 3GS.

Update 2: CR didn’t actually give the iPhone 4 a “don’t buy”, they just didn’t give it a “recommended”.

★ Tuesday, 13 July 2010