The device

The casing

Without even turning the new phone on you can instantly tell it’s a premium product – the glass front and back with the aluminium bezel running around the edge feel sturdy and weighty, but without being heavy – it’s all a bit mysterious. Oh and it’s thin, real thin.

The screen

When you turn it on for the first time, prepare to be astounded. The screen is incredible, maybe you’re happy with your current phone’s screen, but that’s just like being happy with a horse when cars were first being developed – i.e. once you’ve tried the newer tech, you wouldn’t go back. The resolution of the new screen is 326dpi (dots per inch) which is higher than print (generally 300dpi)!

“If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford

You don’t really notice the screen too much when viewing photos, but for text the difference is night and day; reading a book or PDF on the 3G was a pain, the text was too blurry so you’d have to zoom in and scroll across as you read, this is simply not needed on the iPhone 4.

The cameras

Let me set the record straight: megapixels don’t count for anything, for example an SLR that’s only 6 megapixels (mp) will take MUCH better photos than any 10mp point-and-shoot. When the iPhone 3G came out it’s 3mp camera was better quality than most of the phones that had 5mp cameras. It’s all about the size and quality of the lens and sensor. The new iPhone doesn’t disappoint, it has now been able to justify that move upto 5mp because the quality is much greater.

Also, you can now record 720p HD video via the rear camera, which is a nice feature. For me, the iPhone 4 is basically replacing the lower end of cameras (both image and video), which is great – originally I needed a phone, iPod, photo camera and video camera, but with the iPhone 4, there is no need for these separate devices – unless you’re looking for professional quality photos, of course.

The addition of the front-facing camera is to allow for easy video chat, the quality is not as high as the rear, but personally, I’d rather people not see every imperfection of my face anyway! You can switch between the two cameras easily during a video chat, or when taking a photo.

Other

The iPhone has now brought across the A4 CPU used in the iPad, meaning it’s much faster. The chip runs at 1Ghz, which is quite an improvement over both the 3GS and the 3G and it certainly feels that way – there is no delay on anything. Previously my 3G struggled with viewing PDFs in iBooks, but the iPhone 4 don’t blink an eye.

The use of external antennas (using the aluminium bezel) has boosted the speeds of the 3G (network) – it’s basically upto twice as fast

The battery life is also said to have increased, I’ve not had the phone long enough to comment on this, but it seems to be holding out well on it’s first charge.

‘Issues’

There have been numerous reports of people losing signal whilst gripping the phone in a particular way (to cover the bottom antenna), I was very worried about this, Apple now claim it’s just a software bug that’s incorrectly reporting the signal strength, either way it’s only the bezel of the bottom 1cm of the phone and which I rarely use to hold it. Each to their own I suppose.

I have a distinct feeling this is going to be the first phone I purchase insurance for, whilst Apple claims the glass is stronger than Chuck Norris, there has been reports of people dropping and badly cracking their phones. I’ve dropped the 3G numerous times, it’s cracked, but not noticeably, I don’t think the 4th generation would crack in any subtle manner.

With the high resolution of the new screen, apps using Apple’s native controls and text will be scaled automatically to look amazing, but any custom controls will have to be recreated. So far the only apps that have done this are the official Twitter and Facebook apps, which look incredible. The apps that haven’t been updated yet look slightly blurry – especially in their icons.

Summary of updates

• New glass & aluminium casing
• ‘Retina’ display – the highest resolution on any phone!
• Much higher quality rear-facing camera, with the addition of a flash
• Newly added front-facing camera mainly used for FaceTime video chat – not as good quality as the rear
• Gyroscope for better gaming, if that’s your thing
• Insanely quick 1Ghz A4 processor (3GS was ~600mhz, 3G was ~300mhz)
• Increase RAM now upto 512mb (3GS was 256mb, 3G was 128mb)
• Switch to a MicroSIM card instead of a normal sized one. This will quickly become the industry standard I’m guessing…

Verdict

Yet another incredible iPhone release, all iPhone 3G owners should be looking to upgrade – the speed increase will lead to massive productivity improvements. Those with the 3GS the speed is less of an improvement, so unless FaceTime or the high resolution screen are a requirement – you should be happy with your current device.