Hardware
The iPhone 4 has an incredibly premium design and feel. The iPhone is basically three parts; two pieces of strengthened glass and an aluminum band that surrounds the sides of the phone. On the top there is the power/lock button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a noise-cancelling microphone. On the bottom there is the Apple 30-pin connector for charging, docking, and transferring data, there are two speakers, and there is a microphone. Along the right side there is nothing except for the Micro SIM slot. On the left side there are the circular volume buttons and a mute switch. The front side only has an ear-piece, the 3.5 inch screen, the home button, and the VGA camera for taking photos of yourself or for FaceTiming. On the back of the phone is a five megapixel camera, single LED flash, Apple logo, and the FCC logos. The iPhone 4 is also very thin and much thinner than the 3GS at 9.3mm compared to 12.3mm. 3.2mm may not seem like much of a difference, but with the more premium glass and aluminium it feels a lot thinner and better in the hand. Since the iPhone 4's back is flat, it may take some time for iPhone 3G or 3GS owners to get used to the flat back, but it still feels very good in the hand. We can not say how premium and well the iPhone 4 feels in the hand. The new iPhone 4 design makes the 3GS feel old, chubby, and cheap in comparison.
Display
The iPhone 4 has the Apple built A4 processor which happens to be based on the older, Samsung made ARM Cortex-A8 CPU that was used on the iPhone 3GS. The new CPU is the same one on the iPad 2, however it seems clocked at a lower speed than the iPad 2's 1GHZ (the iPhone 4 probably is 800MHZ). As always, Apple is not saying anything about the RAM, but we think it is most likely 512MB. On AT&T, the iPhone has a quad-band 3G HSUPA chip. On Verizon, Virgin Mobile, and Sprint the iPhone has a CDMA chip and an EV-DO chip. When the iPhone 4 came out you could get the iPhone in three varieties; the 16GB model for $199.99, the 32GB model for $299.99, and the 64GB model for $399.99 all of which on AT&T. As of now the iPhone is available in only 8GB models for $49.99-$549.99 across Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Virgin Mobile USA, and Cricket. On every carrier except for AT&T you can get data speeds of about an average of 1 MBPS, but on AT&T you can get about an average of 3 MBPS. Speaking of AT&T, on their iPhone 4 there is a thing called the "death grip". The death grip is when you squeeze the iPhone hard enough so that the iPhone loses cellular reception as you squeeze it. You do not have to squeeze this very hard, because you can also do this by covering up the top left corner of the iPhone with your hand. These are some very big reception issues with the iPhone 4 but this is only one of the few problems with the iPhone 4.
Camera
Back in 2010, some people wondered why Apple and Steve Jobs went with a five megapixel shooter that had fewer megapixels than the more common eight megapixels at the time. Steve Jobs explained to these types of people that it is not the amount of megapixels that matters, it is the combination of the amount of megapixels and the kinds of optics that are in the camera. The iPhone 4 has a five megapixel main camera for taking stunning pictures and a front-facing VGA camera for taking photos of yourself and for FaceTiming. The main five megapixel camera is an autofocus, backside illuminated camera lens that is also accompanied by an LED flash. This new camera takes really stunning pictures that capture a large amount of detail in almost every situation. Low-light performance on this camera is okay, but it is still much better than the phones at the time this was launched. The Apple A4 processor iOs 4-5.1 made the iPhone capture pictures incredibly fast (almost instantaneous like). There are not many options for the camera, but here are a few: five times optical zoom and on/off/auto settings for the flash. We would have wanted more settings for such a great camera like this, but you do not need to fiddle with the camera to take amazing shots. For all of you camera junkies out there, you can get a third-party camera app from the App Store if you need more settings. The front-facing VGA camera, however, is a different story. The front-facing camera takes pretty grainy pictures and should only be used for video chatting. This does not mean that Apple did a bad job, because this should be expected from a VGA camera.
Video on the iPhone 4 is also very good. The iPhone may only do 720p video, but it still delivers great detail and clarity. Videos are also very smooth and run at a buttery 30 FPS (feet per second). Apple claims this in low light too and you can see that in our sample video. The low-light performance is good, but not as good as the lighted performance.
Software
The iPhone 4 ran iOS 4 when it was released in 2010 but it now runs iOS 5.1.1. The new versions of iOS still run the same old UI as the first version of iOS and we would like a little bit of change. performance is still super fast and buttery smooth. We would like to see a different UI soon and widgets come into iOS. Notifications in iOS 4 needed improvement adn were annoying, but that was fixed later in iOS 5. Multitasking in iOS was very smooth by just tapping the home button twice and swiping to go to your desired recent application. Folders were also introduced in iOS 4 and they are very elegant and smooth. The folders do not hold to many applications and these folders should have come way earlier in iOS. The Mail app was another improvement in iOS by having a unified email account to let you see emails from all of your accounts. The Mail app is not better than the Gmail app but the iOS Mail app is still okay. FaceTime was a new feature in iOs and it is a great feature. It lets you video chat with any compatible iPod touch, iPad, MacBook, iMac, or iPhone over WiFi (you can do it over cellular data on an iPhone 4s or above). This video chatting is nothing new, but we are glad it came to iOS.
Battery Life
One of the most crucial features for you purchasing a smart phone might be its battery life. Lucky for you, the iPhone 4 happens to have great battery life. With extreme hardcore use we managed about 3-6 hours of use. With normal use we managed a half a day to a full day. Sometimes you can manage to squeeze 38 hours out of the phone with extremely light use. Overall, the iPhone 4 has great battery life and will not disappoint you in the adventurous endeavours you may or may not make every single day.
Wrap Up
The iPhone 4 is just simply a fantastic handset to buy and own. It has a stunning camera, incredible hardware, and the great Apple ecosystem that so far nobody has been able to beat. iOS is a good operating system that can be improved, but us still very good. Performance on the iPhone 4 is very good and was a great option for power users. Even almost two years after it was launched it is a great phone if you do not want to spend a large amount of money. The only flaws in this marvelous phone are that notifications need to be fixed, (iOS 5 fixed that already), iOS needs a new UI, and that iOS needs widgets. If you happen to choose this handset, you will not be disappointed.
Jacob Wilson contributed to this review
Very well written. I found the review informative and non bias. I will look forward to more reviews.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading are review and we are glad that you are satisfied. We are going to have a review of the new iPad soon, so stay tuned and tell your friends about it!
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