Before you turn it on, you will notice the construction and weight of the iPhone 4. It's relatively heavy since there is little plastic in the chassis. It's made primarily of tempered glass and metal. No, it does NOT feel like a toy as compared with a lot of phones out there. When you feel it in your hand, it feels very solid, no creaking when you squeeze it, it truly feels expensive... and it is... which then makes you want to treat it very gingerly. Thus the next thing you want to do is to apply a screen protector and a good case. Choosing a case and screen protector is a whole blog by itself....
The iPhone 4's new Retina Display is really impressive. It is to date the highest resolution of a mobile phone. The pixel resolution is 960-by-640, which implies that it can play 720p HD video, which I've tried and it does! There are pages-upon-pages of descriptions out there talking about how great the Retina Display is, so I'll just say that it really is as good as they say! That being said, I think it would be a shame to mute such a display with a matte type case. Although these cases are more fingerprint and smudge proof as well as being anti-glare, the one I put on my iPhone 4 decreased the brilliance of the screen such that it decreased the significance of it's clarity over the iPhone 3G.
Migrating from a 2-year old iPhone 3G, the most significant advantage of the iPhone 4 is the speed. It is TRULY ZIPPY! Apps (HandBase in particular) that used to crawl in the 3G now pops open immediately. I have a trio of ebook readers (iBooks, eReader, Kindle Reader), all of which have search features that are quite slow. The iPhone 4 searches significantly faster. With the speed also comes the ease at which you can switch between apps through the iPhone 4's unique brand of "multi-tasking". Pundits may say that it isn't "true" multi-tasking, but who actually needs "true" multi-tasking in a phone?!! The only task that I want to multitask from the background is music or even Pandora. I'd use a full Mac computer when I need multitasking.
What about this issue on antenna reception and dropped calls? I haven't experienced any so far. I've got a bumper case on mine so that was said to fix the problem. As far as antenna reception, it wasn't truly outstanding (as compared to my old Nokia 8910 had excellent antenna performance) but it wasn't so bad either. As compared to my old 3G, I'd say it was roughly equal. In any case, the issues happen when:
- Your network's coverage is borderline.
- You aren't using any case that covers the metal frame.
- You touch the gap in the lower left side.
Since Globe's cellular coverage in NCR and most parts of the country is quite good, that counts #1 out. I doubt if many Filipino iPhone 4 users will be leaving their "precious" naked. Filipinos generally "overdress" their personal technologies.
For a more detailed explanation, check out this nice article from eWeek.com.
One feature that I've been eagerly awaiting for them to improve significantly is the camera. The first iPhone and iPhone 3G had 2.1mp while the 3GS had a 3.1mp. My own personal opinion is that for casual photos, the minimum should be 5 megapixels. The iPhone 4 now has a 5 megapixel camera with 720p video, autofocus, digital zoom, and LED flash. It won't be able to compete with a dedicated digital camera or camcorder, but considering everything else that it can do, that's good enough for me... for now!
Couple of years ago, my clutch bag had, a compact Canon iXUS 65 digital camera, a Palm TX, a 16gb iPod Touch 1st Gen, and an 8gb iPod Nano 2nd Gen plus a Sony-Ericsson z610i on my belt. When iPhone OS 3.0 came out, and the apps for kept getting better, and HandBase was finally ported over, I ditched the Palm TX. When a larger iPod Touch came out (32gb), I could let go of my 8gb iPod Nano since now it could handle apps, videos and still have space for music. Then the iPhone 3G came out along with iPhone OS 3.0, I got rid of the feature phone. Only now can I totally leave the digital camera at home... finally, the only personal technology that I wear is the iPhone 4. The dream of a true "convergence" device is nearing reality!
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