I know this review is late, but due to some hesitations in June I managed to purchase an iPhone 4 only at the end of July and I received it on Saturday evening, so I only had one day to familiarize myself with it before this article. Many of you have probably heard through other reviews what I will say in this article, but because I received many review requests, I will share my experience (of one day) with the iPhone 4.
First impressions
It always matters and I was pleasantly surprised by the design of the iPhone 4 terminal ever since before purchasing, to appear on gizmodo.com. I have seen the terminal in dozens of videos and hundreds of pictures, but only when I held it in my hand for the first time did I realize how big the difference is between the old design of the iPhone 3G/3GS and that of the iPhone 4. iPhone 4 is in - really more square, it doesn't have the same wavy back that seems to mold better in the hand (maybe it will be a little harder for some to get used to it but you will and you will forget about the old terminal), but you will get used to the new one form quite easily and it won't seem so strange when you hold it in your hand. All in all, I like the design of the phone, it's different, but I for one embrace the change and congratulate the people from Apple for the courage to switch to a new design.
Apple has also redone the box in which the iPhone 4 phone comes, and you can see in the picture below the difference between the old box for the iPhone 3GS and the new one for the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 comes in a smaller box but brings much, much more.
display
Many, many questions related to the phone screen: if it is better than the one on the iPhone 3GS, if it is better to see, if it backfired, etc. At first glance I wasn't amazed by the Retina Display, there really was a difference, but it wasn't until I started browsing through applications, loading web pages, that I realized how big this difference is between the screen on the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4. In a few words, it's the transition from a 17" CRT monitor to a 22" LCD monitor or the difference between watching a movie in Xvid format and one in 720p format. I realized this after noticing how clear the fonts are, how well the images are visible in some games, how clear the content of a page seems now even when zoom is not enabled. Out of curiosity, I copied a movie on my phone and found that the new technology implemented makes it practically difficult to differentiate between my 22" screen and that of the iPhone, in terms of image quality (I'm talking about 720p, of course).
In short, Retina Display is worth the money because the phone screen "comes to life" and the displayed images are much, much clearer than on any other iPhone. I am very satisfied with the screen, so satisfied that I will recommend it to anyone looking for a phone with a screen that performs close to AMOLED ones.
I do not recommend applying an InvisibleSHIELD film to it because it has a negative effect on the quality of the image displayed on the screen. Everything looks more "erased" than when the screen is not covered. If you want to apply a foil to it, then I recommend you look for a very clear one, otherwise you lose the "magic" of the Retina Display.
Performance
In terms of performance, I must tell you that the iPhone 4 is faster, not by much, but definitely faster than the iPhone 3GS. I say this because in one day of use I did not manage to do something twice as fast as on an iPhone 2GS. It is true that: Cydia loads much faster, web pages load faster, applications open faster, working in the system is a bit easier; but I encountered lag when using the camera application and exiting it, sometimes when exiting the Phone application, so the phone is still "cooked". Some say that the high resolution requires more processing power than on the iPhone 3GS and that's why the performance increase is not that great. I don't know what the truth is, but the iPhone 3 is fast enough to be worth switching from the 4GS.
Camera
The camera amazed me from the very beginning, right from the moment I saw the first photos (supposedly modified) taken with the 5 megapixel camera in the iPhone 4. The photos are much, much better than those taken with the iPhone 3GS, not even the 720p video recording. I say, clarity as much as possible and much better quality than the 3GS and even other smartphones with 5 megapixel cameras.
The LED flash is powerful, illuminates well and does its job during nighttime filming, but also when taking pictures. Practically, the bulb is strong enough not to allow you to look at it for a long time, so it is not quite as weak as some people thought.
The front camera is quite good, don't expect any quality, but in good lighting conditions it takes decent pictures, basically it was put there to allow the use of the FaceTime function at a relatively low resolution. The Camera application allows you to choose the front camera to take pictures, so you don't have to turn your phones when you want a picture with your girlfriend/boyfriend.
FaceTime
It's activated, I haven't used it, but I want to tell you that activation cost me 12 cents, that is, the cost of an international SMS probably sent to Apple's servers.
Signal loss
I covered this issue in the article from yesterday and I have nothing more to add to it. The problem exists, but it is not as serious as everyone says. I recommend you to buy iPhone 4 without worry, and if the problem with the antenna was the only thing holding you back, then forget about it and buy the phone. If you expect some miraculous "solution" from Apple, then you have a long time to wait because Apple will not solve anything at all.
I thought that the InvisibleSHIELD kit with foils for the antenna would solve the problem with signal loss, but unfortunately it is not like that, the phone loses signal even with these foils installed, so don't buy the kit for something like that. When I hold the phone in my palm, the signal decreases, but when I put my finger, it does not decrease, and the problem is that the foils do not cover the antenna completely, but only in proportion to 98%, so that 1mm remains exposed on each side of the InvisibleSHIELD band. When you cover it with your palm, you make contact with that tiny surface and it loses signal, when you just put a finger, nothing happens, so InvisibleSHIELD = fail.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRuDQZwNljQ[/youtube]
Build quality
I heard a lot of stories about iPhone 4 terminals that were scratched out of nowhere or that cracked upon release, so I was very careful not to scratch/break it until I installed the InvisibleSHIELD. Due to the glass mounted on the back of the phone, it becomes a bit more slippery, so be careful with it so that it does not slip from your hand or where you put it. Otherwise, it has a very pleasant appearance with glass, it looks much better than with the old plastic. The combination between the metallic aspect of the antennas/buttons and the glass on the front/back is successful, I like it and you will get used to it if it hasn't attracted you so far.
The buttons have been modified, but you will quickly get used to the new round shape of the volume buttons, but you will probably have problems with the "Silent" button, which is quite difficult to use because it is quite small.
Conectivitate
Here everything depends on the WiFi network or the data connection you are connected to when using the Internet, so it would be redundant to say now that the phone is very fast/or not because the results differ from one person to another/from one area to another. I noticed a slight improvement in the download speed via WiFi and that's about it, I haven't tried it on 3G yet, but when I do I'll give details.
Micro SIM card
Of course, I didn't have a Micro-SIM card at home because I couldn't get something like that from Orange because I have a subscription and the operator only allows the use of one card per phone, so I made my own card by cutting the original one from Orange , and you can see the result in the image below. The operation took about 5 minutes and I used a cutter, scissors and a file to contour the card so that it fits in the slot. As a model, I used a Micro-SIM card from the operator 3 Italia, thus avoiding the defective cutting of a card.
I had heard that the package comes without the key to remove the SIM tray, well that's not true, it also comes with that key. After you find that key, you will have to struggle a bit to remove the tray because Apple mounted it well there and it requires a little more force than the iPhone 3GS.
Battery life
I can't tell you much here because I only tested the phone for one day and I didn't have time to put it through several full discharge cycles. However, I noticed that as I used it, the battery decreased quite a bit and the usage times were like this: on the 3GS - 30 minutes = 10% and on the iPhone 4 30 minutes = 6%. An obvious improvement in battery life, but I can't tell you more than that for now, I'll come back with other information as I use it more.
Multimedia
The iPhone 4 is, among others, a multimedia device, but unfortunately I could not test this aspect too much yesterday, however I noticed that the sound is somewhat louder (than the iPhone 3GS) both in the top speaker and in the bottom speaker. I don't know if you have also experienced the same difference, but from what I noticed, the loudspeaker from the iPhone 4 is somewhat better.
I got to test a movie yesterday, more precisely I uploaded a 720p movie in YXflash and Oplayer in the original .avi format, so not the .mp4 format that iTunes accepts. The result was semi-disappointing, that is, the movie runs at a decent framerate, but not good enough to say that the iPhone 4 plays movies well in 720p format. The playback was cumbersome, it was slow and the sound was lagging behind, so to see such a movie on the iPhone 4, it must first be converted to .mp4 format.
Way of ussage
I will now explain the procedure that must be done after opening the phone to be able to use it correctly. After you start/activate it in iTunes, you must register it with your iTunes AppStore account. That is, iTunes will ask you to register your phone with your data and I recommend you to do this because without this registration (probably) you will not be able to use some functions of the phone. For example, until I registered my phone, I couldn't use the WiFi network at home (and after registration, the phone connected to it by itself) and I couldn't even call. So register it because you have nothing to lose.
How I bought it
Another question that I have answered dozens of times, but I will explain it again for the last time: I bought the phone from Apple Store Online Italy for €659 with a Romanian card but with the address and contact details of a person from Italy. So the money was taken from a card from a Romanian bank (VISA card), but the phone was delivered to Italy and was brought to Romania by the person in question. So I did not order directly in Romania, for now this cannot be done from any Apple Online Store in the world.
Apple has the habit of withdrawing the money on the product a little later, it withdrew my money 4 days after delivery, so if you buy a product from an online Apple store, wait for them to withdraw your money and do not rush to trick them by withdrawing and you
conclusions
iPhone 4 – a phone that doesn't let you down at first, but after you start using it, you discover that it was worth the investment and you won't want to go back to the old iPhone 2G/3G/3GS. I, for one, am very happy with the purchase and will sell the old 3GS in the near future because I have (finally) moved on to something better. The problem with signal loss is negligible and does not affect your daily use of the phone, so don't be afraid of it.
