iPhone 4 Review

Today, I got my hands on Apple’s latest revision of it’s jesus-phone, It’s a solid update with plenty of new things to keep the device fresh, there are also some problems which may put users off the device.
I am going to cover the specs and the main tent-pole features of the device.

1. FaceTime
With the iPhone 4, Apple added a Front-facing Camera for video-calling (Something which has been present on 3G phones since 2005) and have implemented it with a protocol they are calling FaceTime, which they have made an open standard, which people can use in their own applications.
At the moment FaceTime is only available to iPhone 4 users over a Wi-Fi connection.
The call quality is great, with the front facing camera producing a similar quality to that of the Mac’s iSight camera.
FaceTime will be great for long-distance calling, especially because the actual service is free, although if your broadband provider limits your data usage you may be charged.
This is in my opinion the most important feature of the new iPhone 4, and it’s going to be a real game changer
2. Retina Display
The iPhone 4 has a new display known as the Retina display which has 4 times the pixel density and 4x the contrast of the previous iPhones and iPod touches
What this means for the user is that when you are watching HD content on your phone or browsing photos, they will look amazingly sharp on the iPhone’s display, It just looks better, and on-screen elements really stand out on this device, even at unusual angles.
With the greater resolution of the screen it also means that 3D games look a lot smoother because… *technical jargon here*
The pixel density causes 3D games to have a near anti-aliased effect, that makes games look very smooth, and they have great frame rates.
*technical jargon over*

3. Apple A4
The iPhone 4 uses the iPad’s Apple A4 chip that allows for clock speeds of up to 1GHz, this leads to a great increase in performance over previous iPhones and iPod touches, It is very fast, and basic tasks like surfing the web and reading mail seem just so much faster, you also notice performance increases throughout every app, and with the iPhone’s new multi-tasking features, it’s amazingly smooth at switching between apps.

4. iOS 4

iOS 4 is the latest revision of the iPhone software, and it works much better than the iPhone 4 than other devices,It introduces many great new features, like multi-tasking home-screen wallpapers, iMovie and iBooks (Available in App Store)

4a. Multi-tasking

You can see why Apple took it’s time introducing this feature into iOS, It’s much better than implementations of Multi-tasking on other smartphones. (With the possible exception of the Palm Pre) You can now double tap the home button to access a multi-tasking panel, with all the apps running on the device.

How multi-tasking works

Apple have introduced some background services available to Apps

Location: This allows Apps to access your location while running in the background, while removing the memory footprint of the App’s interface.

Audio: This allows Apps to play audio in the background on the device, while the rest of the app is not running, a good example of this is Pandora, a radio app only available to American iPhone users, it uses the iPod control widgets in the Multi-Tasking panel, so you can change your tracks while using another app, It also works with the remote in Apple’s headphones that are included with the iPhone 4. This works very well and I have not had any lag problems while running audio apps in the background.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

This is useful for Applications like Fring and Skype, it lets people call you while you have the App closed, and it works the same way the built in phone app on the iPhone works.

Task completion

This allows Apps to close when they have finished the processing task, this is great for uploading files and photos with the Dropbox app, you can close the App and it will quit when the App has finished uploading.

Pausing

Game apps can pause when you close out and when you return to the App it will continue from where it left off. That’s it

4b. Home screen wallpapers.

As the name says you can now have wallpapers on your home screen, a feature that has been available on most smartphones for years, it does what it’s supposed to, there’s nothing special about this.

4c. Game Center

iOS 4 will soon have a feature called Game Center, which is a multi-player matchmaking service for the iPhone like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

I have used it in developer builds of iOS 4, I cannot comment how well it works yet, because it has no features at the moment, but the UI is great, It has a feature that lets you find your friends on Game Center by their E-mail address.

Game Center uses your Apple ID for login. The same account used in iTunes, App Store, MobileMe and iBooks.

Works seamlessly with your Apple ID. That’s it.

4d. Future OS Support.

The iPhone 4 will be supported up till iOS 6 or 7, as opposed to the 3G S which will be killed off after iOS 5.

5. iMovie.

This is the second best feature of the iPhone 4, It uses the super-fast A4 processor to let you edit movies on the go, using the same familiar interface as iMovie on the Mac.

Works very well with the 5 Megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 with HD movie recording.

6. five megapixel camera

This great new camera has a bigger sensor that previous revisions of the iPhone, that captures HD images and HD Video at 720p

It has the same tap-to-focus features as introduced in the 3G S and it works ever so well. A very good reason to upgrade to iPhone 4

7. New colours.

The iPhone 4 is available in two colors, like the iPhone 3G S, White and Black, the difference here is that the display is now the same color as the back

So if you buy a white iPhone it will have  a white front and back.

I personally think that the Black iPhone 4 looks better, but it’s all down to taste.

8. All glass design.

The display and back are now made out of glass so, the device looks a lot more premium that the 3G S which had a plastic back.

9. Now for the negatives.

There have been reports that left-handed users of the iPhone 4 have been experiencing serious signal problems caused by covering the device’s GSM antenna, located in the left hand corner of the device. This problem can be lessened by using Apple’s Bumper accessory.

There have also been reports of yellow blotches on the screen, most noticeable when the device is showing a white screen, this is caused by the bonding process of the device, and the fact that some of the devices have not not fully bonded yet, this is probably due to the fact that the device was rushed to release, but fortunately this will go away with time.

10. Accessories

Apple have introduced to accessories for the iPhone 4.

Bumper case.

This is a case that wraps round the border of the device, it helps somewhat alleviate the signal problems for left-handed users, charity wristbands work just as well though and they are available from charities like Livestrong for about £1 as apposed to £25

iPhone dock.

Apple have introduced a new style dock to accommodate the shape of the New iPhone, this works much the same way as previous revisions did.

11. Overview.

I believe that this is the best iPhone yet, and all the problems are overshadowed by the great improvements to the device. If you are an Owner of the iPhone or iPhone 3G. I highly recommend you upgrade. As neither of these devices will get access to next year’s software update. whereas the iPhone 4 will be supported up to iOS 6 or 7 and the 3G S till iOS 5.

12. Specs.

Retina Display

Gyroscope (review coming soon)

512MB Ram (2x memory of 3G S and iPad)

16GB or 32GB models

1GHz Apple A4 chip

Front facing camera (VGA)

Rear Camera (5MP backlit sensor with Auto-focus)

802.11n Wi-Fi (The fastest type)

13. SIM-Free (unlocked) Pricing

£499 for 16GB and £599 for 32GB

Contract prices may vary depending on carrier.

14. Thanks.

I would like to thank you for reading my iPhone 4 review.

I will update this when I have had a chance to see the Gyroscope in action.

Bye.