The iPhone 4 has a very sleek stylish feel and is much thinner than the iPhone 3GS, which was already considered to be very, slim. The iphone 4 weight is the same as the iphone 3GS which is different considering its slimmer in design. The iPhone 4 feels solid and the good news is that even with a case on it still feels compact and sleek.
the iPhone 4 is all new inside as well. For starters, Apple has moved on from the Samsung-built ARM Cortex-A8-based CPU used in the 3GS to its custom A4 chip used in the iPad, which funnily enough… is an ARM Cortex-A8-based CPU. While the company hasn’t yet said what the clock speed of the processor is, we’re guessing it’s something below the 1GHz touted for its tablet cousin. The phone is definitely snappier than the 3GS, so we’re not about to volley complaints just yet — in particular, graphics seemed to render faster, and overall responsiveness was slightly higher, though admittedly, it wasn’t blowing the doors off the joint. It’s certainly faster, but the 3GS wasn’t hurting on speed to our eyes, so it’s not as wildly noticeable a leap as the 3G to the 3GS.
As usual, Apple isn’t fessing up about the RAM situation, though we have on very good authority that the iPhone 4 has 512MB onboard, a big step up from the 256MB in the previous model and the iPad. We would have liked to see it futureproofed with something like 1GB, but then again, Apple’s got to sell a new phone in a year. As far as internal storage goes, the capacity is fine for now, but since the company has just introduced 30FPS 720p video recording, you could find yourself outgrowing that number pretty quickly. It’s a little odd, in fact, that the company didn’t double down here and bump the capacity to 64GB, as it’s recently done with the iPod touch. In terms of wireless, the iPhone 4 is packed with an 802.11n WiFi radio, as well as a quad-band HSUPA chip and Bluetooth 2.1.
The redesigned housing allows for a much larger lithium-ion battery on the inside, though it’s still not easily replaceable. Additionally, the new phone has those two new cameras (VGA up front, five megapixels with LED flash around back), a new second microphone used to combat background noise while on calls (similar to the Nexus One), a gyroscope in addition to the standard accelerometer, a light sensor, and a proximity sensor. As with the 3GS, an AGPS chip and compass are bundled somewhere in that tiny frame as well.
Of course, the big internal story is what has become external: namely, the UMTS, GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth antennas. Apple has made the stainless band around the phone essentially a couple of big antennae, and they seem to be doing a pretty good job at hanging onto radio signals. The big question is obviously whether or not this fixes or helps with the constant dropped calls iPhone users on AT&T’s network have gotten used to. Well in our testing, we had far, far fewer dropped calls than we experienced on our 3GS. Let’s just say that again: yes, the iPhone 4 does seem to alleviate the dropped call issue. It wasn’t perfect, and we had some connection issues in downtown New York City in particular, though it’s tough to say if it was the fault of our phone, the cluster of buildings we were near, or the person we were speaking to, who was on a 3GS in the same location.
By now you should know that iPhone 4 has an all-new display, as well. Apple is calling the LED backlit, 960 x 640 IPS screen the “Retina Display” due to its high resolution and pixel density. At the same 3.5-inches as the older screens, the new display manages an insane 326ppi pixel density along with an 800:1 contrast ratio. Steve made a huge point about the science behind this technology during his keynote, claiming that the resolution of the screen essentially tops what is perceivable by the human eye. There have been some debates as to whether or not this argument holds water, but we can tell you this: to our eyes, there has never been a more detailed, clear, or viewable screen on any mobile device. Not only are the colors and blacks deep and rich, but you simply cannot see pixels on the screen. Okay, if you take some macro camera shots or get right up in there you can make them out, but in general use, the screen is free of jaggies of any type, unless you’re looking at a last-gen app that hasn’t had its artwork updated. Text rendering is incredibly clear and clean — webpages that would be line after line of pixelated content when zoomed out on a 3GS are completely readable on the iPhone 4, though the text is beyond microscopic. It’s impressive, and doubly impressive when you look at higher-res graphics or watch 720p video on the phone — the detail in moving images is particularly striking. What’s nice is that most apps with text in them will benefit from this tech whether or not they’ve been updated, as long as they’re using Apple’s font rendering. Text in the Engadget app, for instance, looks cleaner, clearer, and much easier to read on the new iPhone 4.
Not only are the colors and blacks deep and rich, but you simply cannot see pixels on the screen. Okay, if you take some macro camera shots or get right up in there you can make them out, but in general use, the screen is free of jaggies of any type, unless you’re looking at a last-gen app that hasn’t had its artwork updated. Text rendering is incredibly clear and clean — webpages that would be line after line of pixelated content when zoomed out on a 3GS (say, Engadget or the New York Times) are completely readable on the iPhone 4, though the text is beyond microscopic. It’s impressive, and doubly impressive when you look at higher-res graphics or watch 720p video on the phone — the detail in moving images is particularly striking. What’s nice is that most apps with text in them will benefit from this tech whether or not they’ve been updated, as long as they’re using Apple’s font rendering. Text in the Engadget app, for instance, looks cleaner, clearer, and much easier to read on the new iPhone 4
As far as video goes, we were definitely impressed by the 720p capture, though there are stability issues with the lens and the all-too-familiar “jellyvision” CMOS issues that tend to rear their head if you’re not holding the phone very steady. Still, we can’t see carrying around a Flip HD instead of just keeping this in our pocket (though as we said, we’d like to see a higher storage capacity). Everything we shot looked crisp and mostly artifact-free, and we didn’t see any hiccups in the 30 FPS rate Apple claims, even in lower light. Adding iMovie to the mix for on-the-fly editing is a nice touch too.
We’re not going to beat around the bush the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely formidable package so why not go have a play and see what you think.
see Below for iphone 4 at a glance.
iPhone 4 Specification
· Processor: Apple A4
· Storage: 16 & 32 GB
· Firmware: iOS 4 (Mac OS based)
· Dimensions: 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm (24% thinner than 3GS)
· Weight: 137g
· Display:
3.5-inch, TFT capacitive, Multi-touch, Scratch-resistant surface
960 x 640 Resolution
800×1Contrast ratio (4 times improved)
IPS Technology ( For superb colors and wide viewing angle)
Higher pixel density and enhanced precision with Retina Display
326 pixels per inch
· Camera:
5 MP with LED Flash
2592 x 1944 pixels
Autofocus + Touch to focus
Geo-tagging
· Video Recording:
720p HD video recording @30fps + Editing
LED video light
Geo-tagging
· Front Facing Camera: VGA for Video Conferencing (Over WiFi only)
· 2 Mics (One for Active noise cancellation)
· GPRS, EDGE, 3G (HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps)
· Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
· Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR
· USB v2.0
· aGPS
· Micro SIM only
· Digital compass
· TV-out
· Accelerometer
· Three-axis gyro sensor
· Ambient light sensor
· Proximity sensor
· Gyroscope (3-axis)
· Integrated Antenna
· Scratch-resistant glass back panel
· Black & White Colors
· 300 Hour Standby Time
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