Hi all~ just thought I'd sound off with my impressions of the iPhone 4 after waiting for so long to get it...
Speed
Initially I had restored from backup and I was underwhelmed by the performance. I found that a lot of the animation frame rates were a little jittery, opening apps wasn't necessarily very fast, etc. etc.
However, after restoring it as a new phone to solve some other unrelated issues, it actually does appear to run much more stable.
Apps like Camera tend to open a lot faster, games that barely ran on 3GS like We Rule are smooth on iPhone 4, Mail on iPhone 4 receives new items minutes before the 3GS receives them, and the GPS
Multitasking on iPhone 4 OWNS multiasking on the 3GS. Seriously, it kills the 3GS, a lot, with fire.
Body / Antenna Issues
"With great power, comes great responsibility"
Very relevant to the iPhone 4's design...
The phone is beautiful. Undoubtedly the most beautiful smartphone I've ever seen. However I've already dropped it once, and from a height that wouldn't have harmed my 3GS, I managed to get a barely visible scratch on the front of the device which I can feel when using it. I'll end up returning it due to some issues I'm having with the speaker anyway, but I will always be feeling very wary of dropping the phone which I didn't worry about so much with the 3GS.
In regards to the antenna, I live in a basement apartment in a relatively good coverage area. I usually have 2 or 3 bars in my apartment and I was already dropping calls on the 3GS when I wander around my apartment.
The dropped calls have become much more frequent with the iPhone 4. I wasn't really paying attention to whether or not I was covering the deadspot, I was kinda trying not to but I can't exactly see that when I'm on the phone. I had 2 long calls to customer service at Rogers trying to do something with my account, and it dropped both times. After the second drop I was really angry, and Rogers apparently doesn't think it's a good idea to call people back when the call has obviously dropped unintentionally...
While web browsing on 3G in my apartment (which I never do, but did to test this), the dead spot was literally a pause/resume button for loading data, to the point where it was almost comical. In practical use, it's not so comical, more like infuriating, as it's really not hard to obstruct the antenna even lightly with your hand or finger.
Outside, it's a different story. The signal may drop 1 or 2 bars, but calls don't drop and data connections remain intact. Signal is actually stronger than it was before, and data connections are faster, especially upload speeds which are sometimes faster than download speeds.
On WiFi, my download speeds are actually slower than on the 3GS. Why, I can't imagine, it could possibly be my router configuration but I know it is configured for N use...
Display
The display is mind-blowing. MIND-BLOWING. Before I even activated the thing I was simply marveling at the density of the pixels, the darkness of the blacks, etc. etc. It's just fantastic.
However I must call up that same quote from above, because 320x480 apps on the iPhone 4 look like crap. No, they don't look the same as the 3GS, they look horrible. When I first heard of this new display at the same size I thought, OK great, so the apps will look the same which is fine, but when updated they will simply look better! ... WRONG. For some reason, the anti-aliasing of the 3GS's screen is much stronger, which gives the impression of smoother lines compared to showing the same image on the iPhone 4's screen.
It won't be a problem for long, but I really wish there was some extra apple magicks left to make these 3GS apps look less bad than 2x on the iPad...
Battery
More betterer. 'Nuff said.
Camera
FREAKIN SWEET. Much better stabilization, flash performs well both in photos and videos, and the front-camera is surprisingly better than I thought it would be.
My only problem is that it makes everything in my apartment look yellow. Outside in natural light it's great, but the 3GS was much more colour-accurate inside.
Speed
Initially I had restored from backup and I was underwhelmed by the performance. I found that a lot of the animation frame rates were a little jittery, opening apps wasn't necessarily very fast, etc. etc.
However, after restoring it as a new phone to solve some other unrelated issues, it actually does appear to run much more stable.
Apps like Camera tend to open a lot faster, games that barely ran on 3GS like We Rule are smooth on iPhone 4, Mail on iPhone 4 receives new items minutes before the 3GS receives them, and the GPS
Multitasking on iPhone 4 OWNS multiasking on the 3GS. Seriously, it kills the 3GS, a lot, with fire.
Body / Antenna Issues
"With great power, comes great responsibility"
Very relevant to the iPhone 4's design...
The phone is beautiful. Undoubtedly the most beautiful smartphone I've ever seen. However I've already dropped it once, and from a height that wouldn't have harmed my 3GS, I managed to get a barely visible scratch on the front of the device which I can feel when using it. I'll end up returning it due to some issues I'm having with the speaker anyway, but I will always be feeling very wary of dropping the phone which I didn't worry about so much with the 3GS.
In regards to the antenna, I live in a basement apartment in a relatively good coverage area. I usually have 2 or 3 bars in my apartment and I was already dropping calls on the 3GS when I wander around my apartment.
The dropped calls have become much more frequent with the iPhone 4. I wasn't really paying attention to whether or not I was covering the deadspot, I was kinda trying not to but I can't exactly see that when I'm on the phone. I had 2 long calls to customer service at Rogers trying to do something with my account, and it dropped both times. After the second drop I was really angry, and Rogers apparently doesn't think it's a good idea to call people back when the call has obviously dropped unintentionally...
While web browsing on 3G in my apartment (which I never do, but did to test this), the dead spot was literally a pause/resume button for loading data, to the point where it was almost comical. In practical use, it's not so comical, more like infuriating, as it's really not hard to obstruct the antenna even lightly with your hand or finger.
Outside, it's a different story. The signal may drop 1 or 2 bars, but calls don't drop and data connections remain intact. Signal is actually stronger than it was before, and data connections are faster, especially upload speeds which are sometimes faster than download speeds.
On WiFi, my download speeds are actually slower than on the 3GS. Why, I can't imagine, it could possibly be my router configuration but I know it is configured for N use...
Display
The display is mind-blowing. MIND-BLOWING. Before I even activated the thing I was simply marveling at the density of the pixels, the darkness of the blacks, etc. etc. It's just fantastic.
However I must call up that same quote from above, because 320x480 apps on the iPhone 4 look like crap. No, they don't look the same as the 3GS, they look horrible. When I first heard of this new display at the same size I thought, OK great, so the apps will look the same which is fine, but when updated they will simply look better! ... WRONG. For some reason, the anti-aliasing of the 3GS's screen is much stronger, which gives the impression of smoother lines compared to showing the same image on the iPhone 4's screen.
It won't be a problem for long, but I really wish there was some extra apple magicks left to make these 3GS apps look less bad than 2x on the iPad...
Battery
More betterer. 'Nuff said.
Camera
FREAKIN SWEET. Much better stabilization, flash performs well both in photos and videos, and the front-camera is surprisingly better than I thought it would be.
My only problem is that it makes everything in my apartment look yellow. Outside in natural light it's great, but the 3GS was much more colour-accurate inside.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram