The iPhone 4: Impressions

Now that the dust has settled on the iPhone 4 launch, and that I've played with it for about a week, it's probably a good time to pen a few thoughts on it. This is obviously not a full-fledged review, as you would probably find it elsewhere on the internet.

  • The first thing that hits you when you turn on the phone is the screen. It's incredible. And my iPhone 3G looked pale and washed up almost instantly. I felt sorry for it actually.
  • More significant, however, was the speed of the interface and the responsiveness of the touch-screen. It's amazing how sluggish your 3G feels when you switch between the two.
  • I believe, Apple has either worked on improving Mobile Safari's rendering, or AT&T has upgraded the towers in my area to 7.2Mbps down HSPA. I think it's the former because, even if AT&T have upgraded a lot of the towers, they're unlikely to have enabled speeds to that range. I've read somewhere, that select circles are getting increased speeds on their ATT 3G.
  • App-switching: There's much talk about multi-tasking, but until most apps are upgraded and recompiled in iOS4 they wouldn't be able to take advantage of that feature. However, fast-app switching has already been a handy addition to iOS4 and I was quite impressed by the speed at which I was able to switch between frequently used apps.
  • Camera: I am not a big camera person; neither in front of it nor behind. 99% of the photos involving me has been the result of someone begging me to stand in front of the camera. So if I don't consider the iPhone 3G as a real camera—as I'm sure a lot will agree with me—the iPhone 4 is the first real camera that I've ever purchased in any form. And a few test snaps later, I will say that it's rather impressive. It's certainly not going to make me go wild clicking pictures—because it's not something I enjoy doing anyway, but it will surely be handy when my parents come visiting. Similarly I have been impressed with the video camera.
  • Form-factor: My biggest gripe about iPhone camera is the insistence of Apple to stick to a purely touch-only interface to click. The current rectangular form factor helps in holding the phone like um, well, a camera, but why not enable, say, one of the volume buttons to click a pic when it's in camera mode? While still on the form-factor, I can understand why people might be uncomfortable with a glass back. I think the sharper edges make it feel less friendly to hold.
  • Maybe it's just me, but I feel the phone gets warm while performing basic browsing, sooner than the 3G. Or maybe it's just the glass back. I'm not entirely sure.

And no, I haven't had issues with the antenna, although I believe it could be a problem in areas with lower signals.

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 30, 2010