I talked to a colleague who owns one today. He has a case, and swore he didn't have any problems. With the case (resembling Apple's bumper), holding the phone dropped to 2 bars. Without the case, no bars, and inability to make a phone call. So then he says well, you have to try hard. But there wasn't anything hard about it.
The problem with veteran iPhone owners, they've already convinced themselves that this is normal.