The iPhone 4 has a slick glass covering on both the back and front. If I place it on a couch in the exact same spot as an iPhone 3GS, the older iPhone stays put while the new iPhone slides right to the floor- that’s the worst thing about the iPhone 4.
I’m glad I have carpet, and I’ll have to buy a case.
That said, iPhone 4 is a powerful machine empowered with several features out of the box that put it a step above the competition. It enables, with absolute ease, ways of communicating, consuming media and capturing memories that hasn’t been accomplished before in a real world setting. But there are also some very big limitations to iPhone 4 that will become clear differentiators in the next year.
FaceTime Video chat
Video chat on iPhone is a truly revolutionary feature. It isn’t, by a long shot, the first phone to deliver video chat just as Apple wasn’t the first company to deliver an MP3 music player.
But they got it right, and it will change everything.
The problem with FaceTime is that the number of people you can chat with is minimal at present. Video chat only works when you’re connected to a wifi network, which means, for now, AT&T isn’t letting video chat anywhere near its network. It is iPhone to iPhone only “for now,” according to Steve Jobs, which leads one to believe what Apple says it is introducing as an open industry standard will someday be compatible with other machines, like computers or perhaps the iPod Touch.
FaceTime delivers a different experience from that of computer-to-computer video chat. A computer requires you to stage yourself in front of the camera and stay there for the duration of the conversation. It’s generally very awkward. But the iPhone 4 with FaceTime provides mobility. You can be chatting face to face and, with the tap a button, the front-facing video camera switches to the rear-facing camera and you can show what you’re looking at.
I had a FaceTime call with my brother in Texas. He has a 1-month old daughter, his second child, and I’ve never seen her before.
He has a laptop and we’ve connected over video chat before. This was different.
He put his iPhone 4 on the ground and I watched my new niece’s face up close as she tried to turn her head from one side to the other on her own. It was an emotional and meaningful moment only possible because we connected with the quality, mobility and simplicity of this service.
Apple has set the bar high for video chat, so let’s just hope, as consumers, that FaceTime or a superior service sees universal adoption so that everyone can communicate this way whenever they want.
HD Camera and iMovie
The new iPhone comes with an upgraded built-in camera – up from 3 megapixels to 5 megapixels. This is a far cry from the top-tier competitor phones, like the Droid Incredible and Evo 4G, which carry 8 megapixel cameras. In the coming months expect this difference to be one of the recurring themes in advertising and marketing materials denigrating the iPhone.
At the end of the day, all these phones take photos that are probably good enough for a person to leave their point and shoot camera at home and that’s what really matters. Five megapixels is enough detail for photos to be printed at most sizes and the overall photo quality on iPhone is good.
The rear camera on iPhone 4 also enables HD videos to be made on the phone as well. Apple released iMovie, a $4.99 version of their Mac video editing software, for the iPhone. It enables basic stuff like titles, transitions, trimming video clips and setting music to your videos. While iMovie for iPhone is no replacement for desktop video editing software, it’s still welcome to have on a phone.
Here’s where we run up against the first major limitation of the iPhone and easily one of the biggest features other phone manufacturers will be able to hold over iPhone in the next year.
The iPhone is capable of shooting high definition video. High definition video is notoriously a hog for storage space and it’s no different on the iPhone. A 13-minute video shot on iPhone takes up more than one gigabyte of space or 1/16 the amount of space available on the entry level iPhone.
When you consider the apps, documents, photos and, of course, music, that will be synced to the average iPhone – that’s not a whole lot of space left for high definition video capture. The high-end 32 gigabyte iPhone, which sells for $299 with a two-year AT&T contract, helps matters a bit. But anyone considering using the iPhone as a replacement for a home video camera will have to figure out a way to deal with iPhone’s lack of removable storage.
Many phones, including those top-tier competitors mentioned earlier, allow the use of microSD cards to supplement the storage capacity of the built-in memory. If you fill up a card with stuff on other smart phones you just swap it out for another. On iPhone, you’re stuck using whatever Apple sold you when you bought the phone. It’s the same story with the battery. The battery on the Evo 4G, though it can be drained quickly, is removable. When you’ve done too much to your phone, you just stick in a new battery and you’re good to go. That’s definitely preferable to a battery that may start to age after a year.
As far as video, you’ll have to figure out a way of transferring, uploading or deleting your videos as that space will fill up over time.
Retina Display
The screen on Apple’s new iPhone has a resolution comparable to that of a printed page. If you’ve ever experienced the slightest degree of discomfort reading text on a computer monitor or mobile phone, then you’ll enjoy this feature.
Text rendered on this new phone has a clarity that makes individual letters look like they were stamped out of a typewriter instead of rendered on a screen. It’s a pleasure to read, and you can access thousands of books on the iPhone either from Apple or from Amazon using the Kindle app.
Videos and photos also look bright and beautiful on this new screen, too.
iOS 4
The new operating system, which debuted the same week as iPhone 4, also works on the previous generation iPhone 3GS. It enables multitasking for the first time on iPhone as well as fast app switching. For the first time on iPhone a GPS navigation app can tell you where to go even while you read an email and music can continue to play from a third party app while you read a book. Switching between all these things is better than ever because of the fast app switching.
These features erase many complaints people had about the iPhone ever since it was first announced.
Conclusion
iPhone 4 is a step forward in every way from the previous generation of iPhone, with the exception of its ability to sit in one spot on a couch.
The phone is a huge step forward for communication and has set the standard for mobile phones yet again.
That’s not to say this is the phone for everyone. There are still gaping holes in Apple’s pristine ecosystem of form and function.
There’s the lack of removable battery and removable storage. There’s the lack of choice when it comes to using AT&T as a carrier, a provider which apparently isn’t ready to handle video chat on its network when competitors are. It doesn’t have Google’s superb free turn-by-turn navigation app built-in, though there’s a host of navigation apps for purchase from the App Store.
I picked iPhone as my next phone, but, for the reasons stated before, that might not be the best choice for you.
Other Reviews
If you’re thinking about buying iPhone 4, don’t stop here. Check out some other reviews of the phone below:
Contact the writer: 949-229-2426 or ihamilton@ocregister.com
