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Not wanting to miss out on the hype, Nokia has decided to beam us over its thoughts on Apple’s antenna issues, admitting that while the way you grip your phone may affect signal strength, Nokia puts its phones through vigorous testing which should allow you to hold your phone however you want.

“Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades,” boasts the firm, claiming to be the “pioneer in internal antennas” (the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was purportedly the first commercial phone with this feature.)

The firm reckons it has spent “thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on,” saying this is something you would expect from a phone whose tagline is “connecting people.”

Acidly, Nokia points out that it prioritizes antenna performance “over physical design,” unlike some, ehem, more fruity companies.

The firm confesses, however that “antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held.” But this, says Nokia, is why its phones are tested for “acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand.”

We were almost convinced by Nokia’s pseudo sincerity, but then we saw this video, courtesy of the good people at Electronista:

The poster of the video, a Mr. SmackMule, noted in a follow up comment that the signal loss was “caused by me covering the antenna on the lower back portion of the phone, below the battery cover. Thus, one can’t just cup the phone in one’s hands, but instead must deliberately avoid touching that area to avoid signal loss.”

“Just wait till Nokia sues Apple for copying their ‘feature’,” joked another commentator.

Good stuff!