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Resolved Question

The two "slots" at the top of the white iPhone 4S

Oct 6, 2011 11:18AM PDT

I have not seen these phones "in person," but pictures of the white one show two "slots" at the top, while the black one appears to have only one. Am I just not seeing the black one properly, or are they different? If they are different, why? Thanks.

Discussion is locked

Jane in KC has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Answer.
Oct 9, 2011 12:52AM PDT

The "slots" you see on these phones are not actually slots actually. The bigger one, which can be seen on both phones is the actual speaker for calls and such.
The smaller, is the proximity sensor. You can't see it on the black because obviously it blends better. However, if you were to take a bright light and shine it on the top of a black iPhone 4, you'd be able to see it.

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Answer
Oct 9, 2011 9:43AM PDT

Thank you so much! (Have been trying to post this all afternoon, and got a CNet maintenance message each time.) Anyway, I will also go to the link posted earlier and read up on this. I do appreciate it.

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slots on the top of black and white I Phones
Feb 29, 2012 11:26PM PST

Wrong. I'm holding a new Black I Phone and there is no Proximity slot anywhere, just one speaker slot and a front facing camera.

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Answer
You are quite right,
Oct 6, 2011 10:50PM PDT

watching the animation on the iPhone page at the Apple site, there is clearly a difference between the black iPhone and the white one.

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I'm intrigued.
Oct 6, 2011 10:52PM PDT

but that web site gives me an Apple page, "Not found".

I'm using Windows, does that make a difference. Happy

Mark

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Yes, it makes a great deal of difference,
Oct 7, 2011 8:58AM PDT

All windows users are sent to a special page.

Seriously though, it gave me a Page Not Found also.

This is a copy and paste of the link:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Only difference is the P in iphone

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Hmm strange.
Oct 7, 2011 9:20PM PDT

I wonder why one has, and the other doesn't.

I also wonder why iPhone fails, but iphone works? I just tried www.gOogLe.com and got www.google.com. Does capitalization make a difference? I've never noticed it before and if it does, there could be some very interesting redirect problems around. Happy

Mark

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It all depends on the web master
Oct 8, 2011 8:26AM PDT

You have to set it up to ignore whether the information comes in in caps or not.

Diana

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Yes that was my first thought
Oct 8, 2011 8:29PM PDT

and that might be the case with domain names, eg if I have the domain mywebsite.com then I might also have to register the name MyWebSite.com, (and all the variants) and redirect to my correct site. I'm not altogether sure that is the case though.

But this is a sub-page and I know with my own web site that sub-pages will work whether capitals are used or not.

Example: On my own web site, (not a domain, just on my own computer), my Home Page has a link to a page that gives all my online shopping links. The shopping page is called Shopping.html but if the link from my home page is shopping.html the link still works and the correct page is opened.

I didn't do anything special to set that up when I created the web pages. All very strange.

Mark

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Animation
Oct 7, 2011 10:39AM PDT

And that very clearly shows the difference - but again, no explanation (that I saw, anyway). Anyone?

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Answer
The two slots..
Oct 8, 2011 9:50PM PDT

Jane..

You can either wade through the second paragraph under "iPhone 4S - Design" and get the long version.

OR.....

You can read this post and take for granted he know's what he's talking about when he says:

"It's part of the antenna system. One of those is Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and the other is UMTS and GSM. And it's on both the white and black phone".

It's.... all Greek to me! Happy
Carol

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I preferred the next reply down from that
Oct 8, 2011 10:07PM PDT

"Speed holes. They make the phone go faster". Grin

Mark

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I hadn't seen the next reply
Oct 8, 2011 11:22PM PDT

I hadn't seen any of the posts below it. I thought what I posted was the last post in the thread.

Having said that, I'm glad you pointed it out. It makes MUCH more sense to me. Grin

B_bi

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Answer
The 2 Slots
Oct 8, 2011 10:55PM PDT

Jane,

The bottom slot is the earpiece speaker. The top slot is a sensor that tells your iPhone whether you are holding the phone up to your face and, if you are, to turn off the display. This helps preserve battery life by not wasting power on the display while you are on the phone.

The slot, which sits behind the glass front panel, is present on both phones, but only shows through the white glass.

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Answer
Proximity sensor issues
Oct 8, 2011 11:08PM PDT

It is the proximity sensor. Apple has left the white iphone 4s with the extra 'line' because they had a great deal of difficulty making the proximity sensor work properly with the white material they use (not sure if it's purely 'white glass' or white something + glass).
On the iphone 4, at least some, they stuck with a bunch of tiny perforations/'dots' that let the proximity sensor work better, but now have changed it to the solid line. It works much better this way. I think it looks unfortunate but not sure if it will deter me from getting the phone....
Just look up white iphone proximity sensor issues, there are plenty of articles going over the history of the white iphone 4/4s and its sensor Happy

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And
Oct 8, 2011 11:11PM PDT

I forgot to clarify, the version with the perforations over the proximity sensor made it much more difficult to see it. This time they have left out any way of concealing the censor.