Left-handed people should avoid the iPhone
I’m right-handed, but could easily have been born a leftie as both my dad, sister and nephew are left-handed. There are a lot of disadvantages to not being right-handed, although it’s not as bad as it once was, thanks to the introduction of things like left-handed scissors.
One modern issue you may not be aware of though, is being left-handed can seriously impact on the quality of calls you make and receive on a smartphone. Or, more precisely, on an Apple iPhone.
According to a report (pdf), commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers (and based on the mobile systems in the Nordic mobile networks and on both speech and data services), if you hold your iPhone in your left hand, or on the left side of your head, you will likely experience a weaker signal strength, which could lead to poorer call quality and dropped calls.
Tests were performed on a variety of makes and models of smartphone, and the results were interesting. While the Microsoft Lumia 640 showed little difference in call transmission strength when held in the left and right hands (in fact, the left hand was marginally better), the iPhone 6s suffered significantly, and the iPhone 6s Plus was even worse as you can see in this chart below.
As for the reason, the report suggests "for some phones the antenna design does not take body loss in different usage positions into account. A well designed antenna solution has a low body loss in both right and left hand usages".
Clearly, Apple needs a few more left-handed people testing its iPhones (something to add to the company’s diversity goals, perhaps).
"For many phones, the voice communication performance depends strongly on which side of the head the phone is used", the report concludes.
Photo Credit: GaudiLab / Shutterstock.com