I work in a company that, as part of our day to day work, has to test WWAN devices: Phones, pocketPC's, WWAN cards, laptops with embedded WWAN chips, you name it, we've seen it. And I'll attest that any device's reception can change depending on its orientation, or whether or not you're blocking its antenna with large masses of RF-absorbing material (like a glass of water or a hand or a body or a desk drawer, etc.)

I think that the reported changes in reception are simply due to people looking at it more closely now, when they didn't have a reason to look at fluctuating signal strength before.

It's interesting to note that some people are saying the unit has better reception than prior units in optimum conditions. I wonder if this is just a question of scale.