Hands on with iPhone 4 [gallery]

iPhone 4

Ok, Steve and I currently have no iPhones. I know, how do we survive, well to be honest we are struggling and if it weren’t for the iPad it’d be pure hell! So when we were given the chance to go and have a play with a shiny new iPhone 4, well how could we say no. Hit the read more for an overview of our first hands on and a gallery of pics.

Design

Beautiful Design

When I first saw the design of the iPhone 4 I was unsure about it. It was strange, I liked it but there was something about it that didn’t sit quite right. I figured out what it was, two things, one was those two gaps in the surround for the antenna and the second was that I had seen it before it was announced by Steve Jobs. There was something about seeing it early that kinda ruined the Keynote. Anyway, after now holding it and seeing it in person, I love it, we love it. From its crisp clean lines to the glass on the front and the back, it feels more usable, certainly more durable and less fragile. It has a weight to it that, although not a lot greater than the 3GS, makes it feel solid. The black ‘gaps’ in the surround aren’t actually gaps or even indents at all, I thought that there would at least be a ridge where they are, but no, it is a continuous design.

One other thing….. I won’t be using a case, which for me is a big deal. Why? Well, firstly because of the glass back and front and the more durable feel of it I just don’t think I’ll need to. One of the big factors in me using a case on my 3GS was to protect the Apple logo on the back, but that is no longer an issue with the iPhone 4 now that it is behind the glass. Secondly, I couldn’t replicate the ‘death grip’ issue – but more about that later.

Retina Display

iPhone 4 vs iPhone 3GS

OK, so what can I say about this screen that hasn’t already been said? Not a lot. But what I can do is reiterate how stunning this thing is to look at. Words really can’t express how crisp this thing is. When people say the screen is amazing, trust me they mean it. You know when you see a dummy phone in a Vodafone or Telecom Store and the screen is actually a printed sticker? Well, that’s what this looks like. It’s perfectly crisp, like a printed page, and so flush to the glass that when viewing it from a side angle it appears to be literally ‘on’ the glass as opposed to recessed underneath like the 3GS.

You will see throughout this post pictures of the screen and of the icons and you can even see in the pictures how good it is. Take for example that picture above, taken with the same camera, from the same distance, under the same conditions.

iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS viewing angles

How does it compare to other devices? We did some tests against a 3GS, Motorola Droid (that’s the Milestone on XT) and the HTC desire. Well lets face it, it blows the 3GS and Droid out of the park. There really is no comparison. The HTC Desire’s 800 x 480 AMOLED screen actually looks very good against it, but again there really is no comparison. The viewing angle on the iPhone 4 is unbelievable, just check out that image above. At the angle the picture was taken from, the 3GS’s screen has gone inverse, dull and very blue-toned, but the iPhone 4 is still perfectly bright, clear, and the colours are correct.

Old and new icons

The quality of the new stock icons is also stunning. The developers have a lot of work ahead of them updating all the images in all of the apps. As you can see in the image above the TomTom icon looks very pixelated, and even though this is zoomed in you can see it quite clearly on the device.

Camera

The camera on the iPhone 4 is stunning before you’ve even taken a picture. Just seeing the view-finder image in such high resolution is stunning and really helps you tell how in (or out) of focus your shot is before you take the photo. The number of times a shot would look in focus on the screen of my 3GS but then sadly out-of-focus when viewing it on the screen of my Mac is now a thing of the past.

The two big differences you’ll notice in the UI is the ‘flip’ icon which allows you to switch between the front and rear cameras. Yes, you can use the front-facing camera to take shots and this will be of interest to the incredibly vane among us who agonise over the perfect profile picture!

The second is the flash which can be set to ‘auto’ or manually turned on or off. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to test it out in a dark-enough situation to do it justice, but it’s very bright – much brighter than I had anticipated and dazzling enough to leave those purple spots in your vision if you look into it for too long.

The HD video quality is pretty awesome. Hit YouTube and type in ‘iPhone 4 test’ to see a miriad of examples. Below is an example that I think works pretty well in full-screen 720p – you’ll see there is good depth-of-field, excellent detail, and the camera constantly adjusts for optimal lighting and focus. Notice the detail in the flower-beds.

We unfortunately didn’t get a chance to test FaceTime, as we needed two iPhone 4′s, but hopefully next week we’ll be able to bring you a video demo of it in action.

iMovie

I was very impressed by iMovie — the speed at which it deals with some really quite complex effects and transitions is just amazing for a pocket-able device. When previewing your work the timeline scrolls across the screen like a hot knife through butter – so, so smooth without even as much as the occasional judder. While this isn’t a stock app (i.e. it isn’t included on the iPhone 4), it is relatively cheap and will be the first thing I buy for it!

Performance

I guess the first thing to discuss is the “Death Grip”. I stood holding it tightly for a few minutes and couldn’t get it to drop any signal (this was on Vodafone).  My opinion of it is this: if it affects you then it is an issue, if it doesn’t then it is not. Simple as that. Don’t worry about it unless you experience it – until then, it’s just something that some other people have seen. Does everyone remember when the white 3GS suffered from discolouring on the back? How many of you did that affect? Probably none, yet it was blown out of all proportions.

Looking at actual performance, well the whole thing just seemed smoother to use than my 3GS, everything seemed to flow. The difference wasn’t massive, but everything seemed just slightly slicker.

The best thing for Vodafone users is going to be the 900Mhz HSDPA. In the video below you can clearly see the speed difference in loading the NY Times in Safari. Suddenly XT can’t play the speed card any more.

Conclusion

As if it was ever in any doubt, this is the best iPhone yet, hands down. It’s also the best smartphone ever made and addresses many of the issues where people felt Apple were falling behind such as the screen and the camera / video quality. Whenever this thing is launched I will be queuing for as long as it takes and I am sure my family will miss me for a few days! Bring it on!