iPhone 4
When Apple announced the iPhone 4 and iOS 4, anyone close to upgrade time was excited about it. There have been many articles on the phone about the all the features of the new hardware and the new operating system so I won’t go into those here. Instead I will give you my thoughts on how the device performs and the features that I find very useful.
I had not planned on purchasing an iPhone 4 just yet. I was going to wait a while to see what happened with the antenna issue. However, when I walked into a nearby Best Buy, I was curious if they had any in stock. I asked and was told that they only had the 32GB model. I walked around the store for a while longer and the temptation was just too great so I decided to purchase the phone. I walked out of the store grinning from ear to ear with my shiny new toy clutched tightly in my hand.
Of course, as soon as I got home I had to try out the antenna problem. Now keep in mind that there is a very weak signal where I live to begin with so the antenna issue was obvious as soon as I gripped the phone a certain way. I did not purchase a case at the time of purchase because Best Buy does not carry my favorite case (Incipio Feather). After seeing that the antenna issue would be a major problem when using the phone at home I immediately purchased a case to use until I could order a Feather case. My next step was to plug it into iTunes and get everything setup. I was amazed at how fast the phone Synced to iTunes, it would have taken twice as long for my old 3G to fully sync. I was also amazed at how easy it was to transfer everything from my old iPhone to the new one through iTunes. This is probably not a new development but the 3G was my first iPhone so I had not experienced this before.
So, I have been using the iPhone 4 for the past few weeks now and I have to say that I am not disappointed. The ability to group apps in folders is a wonderful addition to the OS as well as the multitasking ability, even though it is not true multitasking. The iPhone 4 is way faster than my 3G and I have found that I use the iPhone 4 a lot more because of that. One of the things that I instantly noticed is that the phone works much better with the Sync system in my Ford Edge. The Blue tooth streaming is much improved and indexing only takes a few seconds rather than the hour and a half that my 3G took. (The Sync system indexes the music on devices plugged into the USB port). The audio during calls through the Sync system is also much louder than before.
I have also noticed a vast improvement in the network speeds, especially the upload speed. AT&T’s network has some weak spots but for the most part it works well in the places I usually go. Of course if you touch the “trouble spot” on the phone with your bare hands the signal will go down so will the internet speeds. I do see some improvement in the battery life; I use the iPhone 4 twice as much as I used my 3G and I can get two days out of a singe charge (the same I could get with the 3G). So for the most part it has been a great improvement from my old iPhone.
A quick word about the antenna issue before I wrap this up. I do not see this issue as a deal breaker. I do not plan on returning my iPhone because of that. I do agree that Apple should have taken care of the issue before releasing the iPhone 4 to the public but I also am happy with their solution to the issue. There are some things I do not like about the iPhone 4 but those are issues that have been around since the first generation. The inability to set custom text message alert tones without some serious tinkering is sort of annoying. Also, Exchange support is still not that great although it is much improved.
So to conclude this short little review, I believe that the iPhone 4 is a great improvement over previous models. The design, as with all Apple products, is gorgeous and it does not have that cheap flimsy plastic feel that most phones have. It does have a few flaws but most phones do. They cannot all be perfect or make everyone happy. If you are thinking about the iPhone 4 you should definitely give it a try.