According to Consumer Reports (CR), the Verizon iPhone 4, which went on sales February 10, is plagued with the same problem as its July-last-year-released AT&T counterpart – that is, the capacity for dropped calls when held in a particular manner.

In a blog post, CR’s Paul Reynolds elaborated the ‘dropped calls’ issue with the Verizon iPhone, saying: “The problem is similar to the one we confirmed in July with the AT&T version of Apple’s newest smartphone.” Reynolds further added that the problem can be ‘alleviated’ with the use of a case.

As per Reynolds, tests by the CR engineers have proved that the Verizon iPhone 4 has an engineering issue which causes the handset to drop calls or its inability to put calls through in case of weak signals.

The CR engineers found that the performance of the handset can decline when users placing a finger across a metal band on the lower left side. But, they have also pointed out that consumer complaints about the Verizon iPhone flaw are not as widespread those with the AT&T version.

However, going by Reynolds blog post, CR has given the Verizon iPhone high marks for the handset’s “great multimedia functionality, a sharp screen, and the best MP3 player we’ve seen on a phone” – an observation that is almost similar to the one for the AT&T iPhone.