| Micro Review of the Apple iPhone 4 |
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The following is strictly a mini-review based on a few hours of playing around with an iPhone 4 as part of a test of multiple phones. Subsequently not all of the usual aspects were tested, but those that were are included here. Last Updated: 30-Sep-2010 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
RF Performance
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RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
RF Sensitivity: I did not test RF sensitivity, but
I did try and reproduce the DEATH GRIP. Even when the signal was weak we
couldn’t cause the phone to loose much signal by bridging the gap between the
two antennas in the lower left corner of the iPhone. There was some loss, but
nothing quite as bad as you might have read about elsewhere.
Audio Performance
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Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Tonal Balance: I was rather surprised to find that
the iPhone 4 was a bit tinny. It also had a rather hollow sound to it that was
rather annoying. In numerous tests I found the tonal balance adequate, but
hardly inspiring. This was rather surprising, because in my review of the Apple
3G (from a couple of years ago) I noted that the tonal balance on that phone was
“near perfect”. I’d therefore expected at least the same from the iPhone 4.
Sound Reproduction: The actual reproduction of the
sound was quite clean and there was no discernable hiss or distortion in the
background during test calls.
Earpiece Volume: Sadly the iPhone 4 falls short on this issue. Even if it is
louder than the 3GS (which was in turn louder than the 3G), it’s woefully
inadequate for use in noisy environments (like a crowded food court or out on
the street). It was approximately the same volume as the HTC Desire, which I
also criticized for lack of earpiece volume.
Outgoing Audio: One of the things advertised by
Apple for the iPhone 4 is its dual-microphone noise-cancellation feature. This
feature is both amazing and disappointing at the same time. It DOES cancel
background noise exceptionally well and it is truly a wondrous thing. However,
the price you pay for this noise reduction is a very district loss of audio
quality. The noisier it gets, the more distorted your voice sounds. Even in the
presence of just mild background noise the audio quality on outgoing calls is
clearly substandard. The HTC Desire sounded much better, especially in noisy
conditions.
Speakerphone: The speakerphone is acceptably good,
but hardly terrific. The speaker in the iPhone 4 can generate a fair amount of
volume, but it does so with a bit of sympathetic vibration at higher levels, and
it sound a bit tinny all around. It is however quite acceptable in multimedia
situations and it produces audio that’s more than adequate for watching YouTube
videos or movies.
Support Features
Keypad Design: The iPhone does not have a physical
keyboard of course, and relies instead on a virtual keypad. Compared to the HTC
Desire the iPhone was markedly more accurate and I only had to correct a
fraction of the number of mistakes I’d been making with the Desire. As virtual
keypads go, the one on the iPhone is pretty good, but it lacks tactile feedback
(and as far as I could tell it didn’t even offer haptic feedback, which the
Desire did).
Display: What can I say. The Retinal Display on the
iPhone (which offered an astounding 960 x 640 resolution on a 3.5-inch screen)
is just incredible. It literally looks as though the material you are reviewing
has been painted on the glass. It is impossible to detect pixels and everything
looks sharp. The screen isn’t quite bright enough to work exceptionally well in
direct sunlight, but it does a credible job.
Icing on the Cake
Camera: I was especially interested in the camera,
given the hype its received in the press and online. Yes, the quality of stills
is much better than I’ve seen on other camera phones, but don’t expect the type
of quality that would put dedicated digital cameras to shame.
I also tried a few videos at 720p resolution and I was disappointed to find that
they were a bit more jerky than expected. So many reviewers have waxed ecstatic
over the smoothness of the HD videos, but all those I’d seen online were
less-than-silky-smooth. I put that down to the playback on browser, but when I
saw the real thing from the phone I discovered that the jerkiness was there too.
Don’t get me wrong, the phone does a pretty good job at 720p videos, but again,
don’t expect them to match or exceed what you get from dedicated digital cameras
or from camcorders.
Conclusions
I went into this test HOPING that
I would like the iPhone 4 enough to actually buy one, because I’d decided that
it would be interesting to live with a iPhone 4 for an extended period of time.
However, the disappointments far outweighed my enthusiasm and I’m likely to just
wait for the iPhone 5 to see what that has to offer.
So, if you were looking for a top-notch phone first and foremost, the iPhone is
clearly a bit of a compromise. I doubt this will sway many people buying one,
because the lure of the iPhone far exceeds any of its failings. However, if you
are like me and find yourself on the fence, you might want to think twice before
spending a boatload of money (or wasting your subsidy for a 3-year contract).
