I am known for not posting reviews for books, devices, films or whatever, but today I made an effort finally. A post about my iphone4 experience. This is my first ever Apple product, and i have no idea about 3gs so won’t compare it with that apart from the external looks. It’s been about two weeks now and am enjoying every moment of having an iPhone 4. Couple of words from every angle of this device.
Display
Retina display is just a fancy term used by apple. With display you will keep wondering if you are working with the best of your graphics card sitting in front of your best spec desktop or its still a phone experience. You open a webpage, you will see its easily readable no matter small/big font on the webpage, it’s so pixelated. If you feel its small you can use the touch screen to zoom in/out and display won’t wear out (4 times pixel density than 3gs). This has to be the real experience, make sure when you visit some mall next time, spend some time in apple store. I am in no mood to promote it, but have never seen such a phone display till date.
Design
Apple is known for its sleek designs, it’s an engineering firm but i would prefer to say they master the art before releasing these designs. Used to compare it with 3gs before which is altogether different shape, however, must say stainless steel external frame with black color looks stunning. On the left side, you got three buttons with top metal tiny switch for silent on/off mode than a number of profiles in other phones. After sometime, 3gs feels fat bloke in front of this now. However, a little drawback is its slippery being glass surface.
I might be biased as my favorite is black when it comes to devices, machines etc.
Worldwide iPhone availability: 1. Original iPhone was available 2. Now iPhone 3G and 3GS 3. Coming soon
User experience
A total of 4 buttons on side, 3 on left and 1 on top external edge and a tap button on main screen. 3 on left as told in other points above/below include one for silent on/off mode and other two marked + and – for volume controls. The one above is for screen lock, standby on/off modes for phone which is also used for restart (enabled by touch sliding the finger to right side to turn off/restart). This single tap-button on main screen is comfy and is not pressed easily against your fingers while removing from pocket or say with slight touch.
Removing application is one click function, you need to touch the icon of app you want to remove, hold it for couple of seconds then little cross marks appear on top left of the icon, click that (x) cross symbol and app is removed.
Similarly, with drag and drop functions, you can create new folders like games, etc to have similar apps in one. Double tapping the home button, shows all the process at the bottom of the screen, you can close the apps from there. Overall, it’s easier and less complex for non techie users and your phone really works like a computer.
Facetime
I haven’t used it properly so going to skip it. Just used it with a colleague using ichat and it worked fine but that was on wifi connection sitting nearby each other.
Processing/speed/multi-tasking
This is my best favorite feature of the handset. Speed, speed and speed !! You can work like you do on computer just that keyboard is tiny o’wise you do whatever you want. 512MB ram is enough for this for the moment with A4 processor by apple. It is quite fast and the issues you heard about are mainly with people upgraded 3gs device to iphone4 operating system not the iphone4 handset itself as it has different chipset.
Camera
5 mega pixel camera, good for nothing. I don’t use it much but it’s not disappointing when you wish you had camera with you. It does not take great pictures but good enough for you. you can use some free applications to shape up / apply your photo skills to improve it.
Applications
Thousands of applications really make it worthwhile for killing your time. Think of anything and you got applications from fitness, encyclopedias, jokes, games, studies, ebooks, audio,video… anything. It is much larger library than android based apps though they are increasing rapidly if you prefer going for android based phones. For instance, in games I am finding it really good, played iSniper for a start and i ended up buying the application because graphics, speed of the game looks like a console experience on smaller screen.
Antenna
This little black strip near the left bottom is trouble maker without doubt. If you are left hander, don’t care to read about the news as you will type with left hand and hold it in right hand. In my case or mostly people hold it on left palm and use their right hand to type a text. If the handset is enclosed within the palm or is slightly pressed against your palm, it’s signal drops immediately to 1 and half bars or so. This does hampers handsets’ ability to receive GSM signals no matter what they said about problems with algorithm or not.
Some Drawbacks that i noticed:
- I noticed one big drawback with camera, there is no zoom. I saw this thing solved on youtube by an application that enables you to add zoom function .
- Apple does not allow you to change battery of this phone. I was wondering around one day while playing with phone and googled to know it’s pending serious issue from iphone3. This is a pending serious issue, no idea why it was not addressed in iphone4.
- I felt phone gets little warmer when its charging, particularly my reasoning seems due to the glass being good conductor of heart unlike some sturdy cases earlier.
Overall, you don’t text while walking, if you are standing somewhere or sitting on chair/sofa, is when you use to text and so far it is not impacting hugely in my routine that i need to think about it as major hurdle in phone usage.
Overall, I am satisfied and am happy Apple fan. Hope that makes sense, apologies for lose English. If you are planning on it or are tempted with the idea, think about your usage. If you’re going to use it like computer or you really need it. Money is well worth and apple products are as always expensive without discussion.
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SSA Harman Sia
Saray punjab Walay V iphone Lai Crazy Nay pai Mai Tay Simple phone Hi Like karda Yaar
Drive Karday Time Apple use karna Aukha Jeha lagda Touchpanel karkay
Baki iphone Hai bali Changi Cheez
informative article harman :)
application removing process is same as that of i-pod..right..? i dont like that.. cross mark appears on all the icons while u hold it for one.. this sometimes irritates me
I should have done that properly had I known that its for article section, like adding pics n better englisssss.
Removing programs is same as on ipod, but by locking the screen avoids unnecessary execution of other programs. Infact ipod can be used for phone purposes check here
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/ipod-touch-turned-into-a-phone-using-yosions-apple-peel-520/
thanx bro. gr88 review.
wel everyhting is fyn but video call (secondary cam) is only possible on WiFi?
yes, only based on wifi. its good in a way it adheres to IETF standards ( intenet engineering task force) and not mobile industry consortium standards which limits the bandwidth.
Good article Harman. Stay ready for the Article hunt, we might use any post of yours for the article lol.
waiting for my iPhone 4 from USA or AUS, Jithon v pehlan aajawe,
jaali ja phone hai…..same style, shape, software etc etc..blaa blaa…nathing has changed from last 3-4 years…just a little bit difference in speed…
wats a point to buy same phone again and again…
jaago garaahak jaago…
i m using iphone from last 3 years by different models( from 2g to 3gs) with different firmwares. now i hv 3gs with iphone 4.0.1 firmare n planning to buy a 4g on contract basis. they didn’t made any large difference between changing models. i only like apple produsts bcs of their good service they may also have some extra feature as compare to some other phones but it also may hv some irritating features which irritates a lot sometime. the main thing is tht we spend a lot of money on iphone to make just call n sms. if we need to do something extra with iphone we hv to buy a third party software extra. this thing is a very wrong for apple n apple till not have a flash player in all iphones.
Yes there are limitations, but that is really a trade off between those limitations and other tasks that this phone provides. There may be better phones coming out very soon.
I feel there’s lot more now in iPhone as it offers whole range of stuff that has literally chucked out my need for a netbook at home. Infact am reselling it now as surfing, tweeting, text, calls, alarm, stop watch, calendar, notes, events, meetings, emails are all handled by phone instead of a mini-computer when you are traveling.
But all these features make more sense if you have wi fi free zones. I’m experiencing a whole lotta new experience with ipod touch over here. Otherwise it was just a toy in India. Over here, its a powerful device for me. It makes sense now. So im sure IPhone is what it boasts of in better internet areas. In India, its probably a device to show off.
There are better phone available in he market with huge discounts and high speed we can do that if we d’nt want to have contract with AT&T for two more years and thats what i d’nt want AT&T the network is kind of RED TAPE.
Very well written article Harman :)