iPhone 4 Review

Posted by Steve Lawrence to Mobile Phones on 05th July 2010 - 0 Comments

It seems that since its launch the iPhone 4 has been shadowed by the reports of signal problems and supply problems; but everyone seems to be missing the positive aspects of this great new phone.

Apple have not rested on their laurels with this and have once again pushed the boundaries of how we view and interact with our phone. Lets have a look at some of the new features this phone has to offer:

Gone is the rounded plastic, slightly tacky feel of the 3GS. Now you have a more sophisticated, more professional feel to the phone. The case is made up of 3 parts, two pieces of smooth, strengthened glass and a stainless steel band in the centre. Separate volume buttons now adorn the side instead of the single rocking switch from its predecessor. While it still weighs almost the same as the 3GS at 136 grams, the thickness has been reduced from 12.3mm to 9.4mm. For me this is the most important consideration for a phone as it spends most of its life in my pocket.

The strengthened glass is said to be 30 times harder than plastic and gives optimum scratch resistance at the cost of being more brittle. Dropping the phone onto its corner onto a hard surface from a normal holding position could easily break the glass.

With its new chip inside, graphics and animations seem smoother and quicker to respond to input, and with its upgraded battery you get significantly longer life.

The iPhone 4 has an all-new display with a backlit, 960 x 640 IPS screen named the Retina Display due to its high resolution and pixel density. At the same 3.5-inches as the older screens, the new display manages an insane 326ppi pixel density along with an 800:1 contrast ratio.

Not only are the colours and blacks deep and rich, but you simply cannot see pixels on the screen. Okay, if you take some macro camera shots or get right up in there you can make them out, but in general use, the screen is free of jaggies of any type. webpages that would be line after line of pixelated content when zoomed in on a 3GS are completely readable on the iPhone 4.

Speech quality is improved by the inclusion of a second microphone to help in noise cancelling, and two new cameras (VGA up front, five megapixels with LED flash around back) have been added as part of Apple's attempt to make portable video telephony a viable option.

Everything about this phones shows the design considerations we have come to expect from Apple and succeed in making this the benchmark for style and usability.

The speaker has been upgraded and the call quality and clarity are far superior to the 3GS. I would still like the loudspeaker to go a little louder but that's just me.

The new IOS4 is a dream to use, whereas before sometimes responses to gestures and touches were sluggish, now they operate instantly and with far greater precision.

Personally, I feel that the iPhone 4 is the best Smartphone available at the moment. How long this will last I don't know. There are several newcomers snapping at Apple's heels and Apple's dominance in the smartphone market is starting to look under threat.