Apple iPhone 4 review

The iPhone 4 has been released for the past 3 weeks now, and it has received much fanfare.  While it is by far one of the best smartphones out there, it does have a fewproblems that people already know about…the antenna.  While I’ll get to the antenna issue a little later, it’s been such a major issue that pretty much everyone has heard about it.  But is this phone a significant upgrade from the 3GS?  Or is it just another phone to make people buy it?  As with most Apple products, it is one damn beautiful phone.  As with everything, this phone isn’t for everyone and there are a number of factors that you should think of if you’re looking at buying this phone.  But let’s get into the actual review here.

As of writing this, the only color available for the iPhone 4 is black.  The white one has been delayed until the end of the year, as it supposedly harder to paint a phone white, as opposed to black.  So for the people that are waiting for the white iPhone, or just like reading real reviews, this review is for you.  The first thing that you notice about the iPhone is it’s new design.  It’s made with a glass front and back, with an aluminum frame.  The phone is not only thinner than the 3GS, but you’ll notice that it’s completely flat, as opposed to the 3GS’ roundish design.  This new design is a thing of beauty, and it truly shows once you have it in your hand.  It feels like you have a million dollar phone in your hand, and not some plastic thing like so many other phones are.  It just feels sturdy.  The front glass is using Corning Gorilla Glass that is impressively strong; however the back isn’t, and is quite fragile to drops.

So now we’ll get to the elephant in the room, the antenna.  Pretty much everyone has heard that if you touch a certain part of the phone, the bars drop to next to nothing.  Now people are crying fowl with this, because they can get it to drop to 0-1 bars.  While it’s true that you can get the bars to drop if you touch the black band on the bottom left of the phone, I personally have yet to get the call to drop because of it.  I live in a great service area, where I have 4-5 bars at all times, so honestly this doesn’t affect me at all.  My friend on the other hand, he has major problems where he live, drops calls all the time.  So to resolve this, Apple is giving everyone who ordered the phone a free case of their choice.  They can choose the regular iPhone bumper, or a selection of 5-6 different cases from different companies.  I chose the InCase one, since they made a really great case for the iPhone 3GS.  So the case fixes this issue, but is it truly an issue?  While I agree there is a problem if you live in a low signal area, I don’t see this as a HUGE issue.  If you’re personally having issues with the phone, take it back, plain and simple.  I don’t have any problems with mine, so I’m not taking it back.  Now that we’ve covered this, let’s talk about something more important.

While the design is going to be the first thing that people look at, it’s the screen that will get people to stay.  Once you turn on the screen you’ll instantly notice how amazingly gorgeous it is, especially when you compare it to the 3GS.  Text looks beautifully crisp, images look so nice, everything just looks better.  How did Apple do this?  Well they employed what they call the “Retina Display”.  Essentially what this is, is the same 3.5″ screen, but they upped the resolution to 960×640, AND increased the pixel density to 326 dots per inch.  If you see one in person, try looking at the screen, you’ll be pressed to find ANY pixels at all.  You’ll notice how amazing this screen is, by either viewing email or by using Safari.  This is one feature that I much have on my phone at all times.  If a phone doesn’t have this beautiful a screen, and a pixel density of 326 or greater, I won’t use it.  Just try looking at a 3GS once you’ve used the iPhone 4, you just can’t!  I’m even using it to browse the web more often than I am on the iPad (mainly because everything looks so much nicer).

There are other things in the new iPhone, like a gyroscope, a better GPS chip (which IS much better), a noise cancelling microphone on the top of the phone to block out noise, 802.11n WiFi (though no 5Ghz band), 720p video recording, a MUCH, MUCH better 5MP camera, and probably a slew of other things that I don’t quite have the room to talk about.  There’s no badmouthing a phone that can sell close to 2 million iPhones in the first weekend, including international.  This phone is without a doubt the best phone I’ve ever used.  The only gripe I honestly have with the phone is that because it’s made of glass, it can get slippery sometimes and is a little difficult to hold some times.  This of course is going to be fixed with a case, as the 3GS was very slippery for me too, but the case fixed that as well.  All in all, if you need a new smartphone, buy this phone.  AT&T is only as bad as your location, so if it’s bad, then obviously don’t buy it.  I’ve used an Android phone (I actually got a Nexus One), and quickly went back to the iPhone.  If you want the best mobile experience around, you’ll want an iPhone.  Sure it’s not the best “phone” out there, but I honestly don’t have any problems with it, and you won’t either (Unless you live in San Francisco).  I’ll do my best to add new posts that aren’t Apple related next time, I’ve just gotten so busy lately, I haven’t had time to write as much as I’d like to.  I actually have 3-4 topics in drafts right now, that I just need to get around to write, but I’ll get off my ass and write them.