iPhone 4 – Does it Change Everything? Again?

Scribbled by Lethal Illness @ 2:51 PM on June 30th, 2010.

I guarantee that you’ve heard of the iPhone 4 by now, in fact over 1.7 million of you own an iPhone 4 [while AT&T owns you for the next 2 years]. Tech and Mac sites alike have been posting their 10 hour experiences with them since a few days before the consumer launch. If you haven’t noticed a lot of Apple “fanboys” praise it like the second coming of Jesus, while Gizmodo has been trying to start an uproar of complaints and riots (must have something to do with the whole prototype fiasco a few months ago). But where does the iPhone 4 stand on a real world non-bias standpoint? The question truly is does it change everything like Apple claims? Again?

Appearance

From the original iPhone to the 3Gs the design has always been very similar with their silver bezels and rounded backs. With the iPhone 4 they’ve made its appearance slimmer, lighter, and more beautiful then it has every been. Seriously, there aren’t many phones with a design this beautiful. The iPhone 4 comes in all black or all white, personally the white looks childish.

Black iPhone 4 - Picture from ComputerWorld

In the new design Apple decided to include a glass front and back (uh-oh for phone droppers) which makes the iPhone look really slick and more grown up then the previous ones. On the top, bottom, and sides of the iPhone is a stainless steal “band”, which gives the phone a really solid feeling. Around this band the iPhone 4 sports it’s UMTS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS antennas. The volume buttons are no longer a rocker and now have individual buttons. The buttons are also stainless steal now unlike my iPod Touch 3G. The iPhone 4 now includes two, yes two, cameras which both take pictures and video. The front camera is equivalent to a web cam while the back has a LED flash with a camera that shoots 720p video and takes pretty amazing pictures for a phone, more on that a little later though. So we have two sides of glass and two cameras (and a two year contract), but what isn’t as obvious is two microphones. Why would we want two microphones? Professional audio engineers know this is useful because the top mic works as a noise cancellation. Which in theory means the person on the other end can hear you clearer. Basically this industrial design on the iPhone 4 works very nicely and doesn’t have a kiddie look to it.

My iPhone 4 - Horrible Pictures I know!

Inside the iPhone 4

Sure it could be beautiful on the outside, but that doesn’t guarantee it’s as nice on the inside (just ask Sean Kingston, beautiful girls will have you suicidal). However the iPhone 4′s specs aren’t bad compared to other smartphones on the market. In fact, I think the iPhone 4 and EVO 4G are the top two smart phones out.

The iPhone 4 comes in 2 flavors; 16GB or 32GB version – I wonder why no 64GB was made? The iPhone no longer runs on a Samsung processor because Apple has put its very own A4 processor, the very same one used in the iPad. Unlike any other iPhone, the iPhone 4 has 512MB RAM onboard. In the computer world 512MB might not be enough to even properly run an OS, but with smartphones 512MB RAM seems to be the cream of the crop. This extra boost in RAM has caused the iPhone 4 to be much snappier and responsive then its previous brothers or iPod Touch cousins. Another big internal change would have to be the much larger battery of the iPhone 4, I wonder how this will help. Apple also included a three-axis gyroscope, wonder how game makers will use this to their advantage.

iPhone 4's A4 Processor

Display

Apple calls its new 3.5 inch, 960×640, 326ppi, backlit IPS screen “Retina Display”. Why? Because Steve Jobs (the king to all Apple fanboys) claims this new screen goes beyond the naked-eye because you will never be able to see a pixel. The screen is absolutely the most beautiful clear screen I’ve ever seen on any phone. However older applications that haven’t been updated for iOS 4 aren’t as pretty looking and you indeed get a choppy pixel look.

I would show a picture between my iPod Touch and iPhone 4 but those of you who own anything but the iPhone 4 will never look at your screen the same way. Instead here is a picture showing the ppi difference;

iPhone 3Gs vs. iPhone 4 ppi

iOS 4

When iPhone OS 4 was announced I did a post on it. Since then the OS has been renamed iOS 4. Does it live up to my expectations from then? – let me explain. The multi-tasking is a nice feature, but it isn’t true multi-tasking. Instead it is more of a you can pick up from where you left off, thanks to the APIs used. However it isn’t really a bad thing, the enjoyment of listening to music and checking my mail is welcomed. I like the folders, custom backgrounds, and mail improvements. It is sure all welcomed and makes my phone that much easier and funner to use. One of my favorite things about iOS 4 is it’s much faster, whether due to its A4 processor or 512MB RAM the OS is definitely meant to be faster and smoother. You can see some of the interfaces look a bit different and it’s a nice minor change. Also now comes the capability of 5x digital zoom, its not very beautiful though. The one thing I’m still scared about is iAds which I’ll find out how disastrous will be in a few days when they go live July 1st. There is a lot of other changes in iOS 4 actually there is too many to mention. For more about iOS 4 you can check out Apple.

Battery Life

As I said before the battery inside the iPhone 4 is much larger than in previous generations. Apple claims for talk time: up to 7 hours on 3G, 14 hours on 2G, standby time: up to 300 hours, internet use: up to 6 hours on 3G, 10 hours on Wi-Fi, video playback: up to 10 hours, and audio playback: up to 40 hours.

I’ve had my phone since Friday and have only charged it three times, mind you I’m constantly checking my mail, texting, on Facebook, viewing a few favorite sites, or playing Tetris. Apple claims about battery life seem pretty realistic to me.

Cameras

iPhone users, welcome to the world of HD video recording and FaceTime sex parties! As I stated above the iPhone 4 has two cameras, one in the the front and the other in the back. The front camera takes advantage of the iPhone 4′s FaceTime feature with a mediocre camera at web cam quality so that you may see yourself and the other person on the beautiful “Retina Display” screen. Lets face[time] it, in a matter of time I can see all those sex hotlines like LavaLife using this feature to their advantage, in fact I’ve already seen a post on Craigslist looking for models who would be interested in a discrete hotline firm. How discrete can it really be if you’re on a video call?

Inside an old computer - shot with iPhone 4

Forget FaceTime for now because there is something so much better, the camera on the back of the iPhone. This camera shoots 720p video at 30 FPS all with a phone functionality, this is better then some point and shoots can do at the same price, just look at the photo above, way better then the camera I took the other picture with! The camera in the back might only be 5 megapixels, but proves Steve Jobs claim that “megapixels aren’t all that makes up a cameras image quality”. Even the pictures at night are quite lovely. The iPhone 4′s camera beats out many other smartphones that have higher megapixels including the EVO 4G and Driod X while point-and-shooters only beat the iPhone by a tiny bit.

Performance

As I’ve said before the iPhone 4 is incredibly fast and has no problems running 10 applications “multi-tasking”. Call quality isn’t bad and signal has improved since the day I got my phone, this is probably because there was so many phones being activated simultaneously the network was under pressure. Although the signal isn’t perfect as parts of my house have little to no service, but no matter how Apple designed the phone it couldn’t make up for AT&T’s network. Overall the iPhone is 40x faster and better performing than my old G1.

Accessories

One thing I’m not liking so far is the limited number of accessories slated that work for the iPhone 4. Sure most car adapters should work, but some 3G users were in for a surprise when they upgraded to the 3GS and when somethings $50 I can’t afford to take a guess.

I have an amazing InvisibleShield by ZAGG on my iPhone now and it is really nice. It makes my iPhone shinier and most people couldn’t even tell I had it on my phone. Bumpers are expensive for something that will just cover the beautiful stainless steel band. I don’t expect much from big companies like Speck and Incase since it took 3 months just to update their cases for the new Macbook Pro adapters. Guess I’ll be waiting, but honestly with a scratch proof InvisibleShield I’m not to sure about a case covering it’s beauty.

Update on InvisibleShield – Seems the heat and humidity has made it prone to moving and is a little scrunched looking. Will be calling the company.

Flaws

Many people are reporting yellowing on the screen, left hand signal dropping, and easily scratched band/glass. I must have gotten the phone meant for Steve Jobs himself as I do not have one of these problem *knocks on wood*. However a real problem would be the iPhone 4′s fragility, although it is made sturdy a simple drop could break the now double sided glass screens. Aside from the fragility of the iPhone 4 I don’t see many flaws, aside from a possible ad infested iAd implementation.

Conclusion

The iPhone 4 is sleek, sexy, and truly smart[phone]. I definitely think this is one of the best smartphones available on the market. It is a welcome change from Android and the Apple App store has a much more refined, less junk filled selection over the Android store. This is most definitely the best iPhone yet, however I don’t know if it changes everything again. It sure takes a strong lead over the smartphone market with the exception of the EVO 4G trailing slightly behind it, but lets face it iPhone users have been waiting years for such things as multi-tasking and an all-in-one mail inbox.