Apple iPhone 4 – Gorgeous Retina display
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Improved performance, great display, sexy looks, tons of new features added
Thumbs Down:
Multitasking has some tradeoffs, AT&T reception needs to be improved, home screen folders are limited to just 12 apps
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: GSM/UMTS
Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 (Quadband)
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: , EDGE, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer sensor, AGPS, Touch screen
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Apple iPhone 4 is 2.31 inches wide, 0.37 inch deep, 4.5 inches high and weighs 4.8 oz. The phone is based on GSM / UMTS technology with GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 (Quadband) support. The device has candy bar design. Wireless Interface options include IEEE 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. Additional Features include EDGE, AGPS, Accelerometer sensor, Touch screen, Proximity sensor. Included Accessories are Apple earphones with mic and remote, USB power adapter and Dock connector. The battery has a rated talk time of 840 minutes for 2G and 420 minutes for 3G.
Razzle Dazzle:
If you have used iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, you might have noticed that the latter two phones have just been tweaked versions of the original iPhone. This is not the case with iPhone 4 though. The phone has undergone a lot of changes. For instance, it is completely flat on both ends and hence there is no wobbling when you put in on your table. The earlier iPhones wobbled a lot.
Inside Dope:
Apple iPhone 4, as you all might be knowing, is the newest product by Apple and it is the device that everyone’s been waiting for. It has plenty of features and the design too has undergone a lot of changes. To start off, the box is changed and the new packaging looks quite attractive. Inside the box, you have the instruction manual, power plug, USB cord and the headphones with microphone built in.
As compared to the iPhone 3G, the new iPhone is quite thin, actually, it is 25 percent thinner. Apple says that this is the thinnest smartphone out right now. This is true for now but you never know because there are lots of smartphones coming in the market all the time and hence you might get a thinner handset tomorrow. The competition in smartphone market is very stiff.
Apple iPhone 4 is clad with glass on the front and back and we noticed that the phone attracts a lot of fingerprints particularly on the back. You might want to carry a cleaning cloth along if you like to keep your gadgets clean. The previous device’s body didnt have such finger print prone body.
You might have noticed a thin metal band surrounding the phone. It is contains the antenna for the Apple iPhone 4. Apple doesn’t say that this improves the signal quality and we think this is an effort to improve the call quality. Another new feature here is the noise cancellation mic on the top located next to the 3.5 mm headphones jack. The SIM card tray is also now moved to the sides. Remember, it is a micro SIM slot. Iphone 3GS had a single volume rocker button but this phone has two separate volume control buttons. Ergonomically speaking, we prefer the singler rocker button since it is easier to find by feel and the nature of the button gives you good tactile feed back as well. On the bottom, the phone has the 30 pin cable connect along with speaker and microphone. Again on the surface, there is the same home button.
Looking at it from the front, it is hard to tell any difference between this and the previous version. Both the phones weigh the same even though the Apple iPhone 4 is thinner. The new iPhone now has a VGA camera above the screen for making video calls. You can also use it for taking pictures of yourself but remember that the photos will not look that good. On the back, there is a five megapixel camera which records HD video and this phone is the first smartphone every to have a HD capable video camera. Video quality was superb and certainly better than previous iPhone cameras. There are no advanced settings though. The camera now comes with flash and so you get a corresponding button for it on the touch screen. There is also a dedicated onscreen button for switching between the two cameras. We made a few video calls to our friends and liked the quality. You need to be on 3G to make video calls.
The best feature of the phone is the Retina display. Apple calls it that because according to them, the pixels on the screen are not visible to the naked eye and it is true. This is by far the best display we have ever seen on phones. Watching movies, or surfing the Web was a superb experience. Colors look fantastic and text too looks great. Pixels weren’t seen even when I zoomed in.
Apple iPhone 4 comes with a new processor now, it is a proprietary one. Previous iPhones were based on Samsung chips. The new processor makes the phone faster than its predecessor. We did notice the increase in speeds for applications.
Nitty Gritty:
We have no major complaints about the new Apple iPhone 4 it has been improved upon over the earlier device and this has to be best smartphone out there right now.
