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Consumer Reports' Mike Gikas described these findings in a post on the Yonkers, N.Y.,-based magazine's site this morning:

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. We also tested several other AT&T phones the same way, including the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4.

As a result, CR declined to recommend the new phone, declaring that "Apple needs to come up with a permanent -- and free -- fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4."

The magazine also questioned Apple's explanation of the problem--"totally wrong" software that overstates the strength of AT&T's wireless signal.

"Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that "mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength."

As a temporary fix, CR endorsed the remedy that my colleague Michael Rosenwald suggested weeks ago, as noted in my review: covering that gap with some non-conducting tape. CR also plans to research which iPhone cases prevent this problem.

All this puts Apple in an awkward spot. One of the most trusted consumer publications in America just said its flagship product is defective and, in the bargain, just implied that Apple made up its excuse for the problem.

I've got a query into Apple for comment.