Much to my surprise calls were generally crystal clear, and the infamous Antennagate “deathgrip” completely failed to drop calls, or lose reception bars. Seems that problem may have been specific to America’s AT&T network, and simple case of mountains out of molehills. Granted, I do live and work in a metropolitan area, so those who live a little further from the hustle and bustle may experience issues.

The phone’s number of cameras have been increased twofold; There’s a a 5 mega pixel camera with an led flash, which takes some surprisingly good pictures. With iOS 4.1, it adds to ability to take HDR photos. What this does is take 3 concurrent pictures using different levels of exposure; one overexposed, one underexposed, and normal – and then combines them to produce a picture that’s intended to be closer to what the human eye perceives. It’s a bit hit-and-miss, especially in low light conditions, but in bright daylight certainly does help the phone take some pretty snappy snaps.

CameraPic

The front facing camera can be used for taking self-portraits or for Facetime, another of the iPhone 4’s touted new features. It is, in essence, video chat. It’s not a revolutionary feature by any means, having appeared on many Japanese and European handsets, but this is probably the first time it’s been so easy to use. You can start a Facetime chat from within a regular phonecall, or from your contacts list-  and it just works, provided you’re within range of a suitable fast Wi-Fi hotspot.The camera’s also capable of shooting 720p HD video, which you can then upload directly to Youtube, or transfer to a PC for editing. Sending HD video directly to Youtube requires Wi-Fi, but SD can be sent through the magical 3G airwaves. Handy!

The hardware only tells half a story, and it’s in the useability of a smartphone and its underlying operating system that makes or breaks the user experience. In this regard, the iPhone 4 with iOs4 excels. Thanks to the Apple A4 processor and the whopping 512mb of RAM, the interface is fast, slick, and never sluggish – even with the new “multitasking” feature of iOS4. I use inverted commas because it’s not true multitasking; background apps are put in to an idle mode and re-awoken when required. Double-clicking the phone face’s singular “home” button brings up a list of background apps, and tapping the app brings it back to life.

Last Updated: October 1, 2010

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4 Comments

  1. EchoZA

    October 1, 2010 at 14:25

    Congrats on the phone, now just don’t put it face down or back down on a glass table 🙂

    Reply

  2. flmboy

    October 1, 2010 at 20:34

    Bastard.

    Reply

  3. al360

    October 4, 2010 at 09:35

    nice review since i got the 3g wasn’t really interested in it but u’ve peaked my interest again

    Reply

  4. Draken

    October 7, 2010 at 14:00

    Great review. All you got to do is jailbreak your iphone if you want every negative point in this post to change to a positive lol 😛

    And at @echoZA , ive dropped an iphone4 and iphone1 from chest height onto concrete and they both survived with basic dmg to the corner that hit. Iphones are VERY tough to break, even thou they look flimsy. You can take a key and scratch it along the front or back of an iphone 4 and not create a scratch. P.S My iphone4 is on my glass table right now lol.

    Reply

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