Yesterday I was finally rewarded for my patience in waiting to upgrade my phone when my new iPhone 4 arrived by post. I ordered it the day the phones hit the shelves here in Australia and ended up switching carriers (from Vodafone to Three) in order to be able to get my order in that day.
After getting quite frustrated with the 3G iPhone, due to it’s sluggishness following installation of OS 4 for the iPhone, I was half expecting to be at least somewhat disappointed by the new phone. But, I’m happy to say those fears have proven to be unfounded.
The biggest difference I was looking for was a speed increase over the 3G version and that’s the first thing I noticed. I wondered initially if this was because I didn’t have any apps installed, but even after installing all the apps I wanted and loading the phone up with my photos, music, videos and data it’s still no slower than it was when new. It feels like the new phone finally has the performance to live up to the potential created by all of the apps that have been created for it.
Some of the things I’ve tested so far on the phone and the things that I noticed about them in no particular order are:
1.) Contacts – heaps faster than they used to be (thank heck for that – it used to be almost unusable)
2.) Video – works great and there doesn’t appear to be any random limit to the amount of video you can record, it just depends how much space you have
3.) Camera – it’s cool to be able to switch between the camera on the front and the back. You really notice a difference between pics taken from the front of the phone and those taken from the back though, due to the difference in lenses. Images tend to be a bit grainy taken from the front camera.
4.) Voice recognition – I’ve been playing with this in the Google Mobile app and as is to be expected it’s not super accurate (when trying to recognise what you say). For example I tried to search for the terms “Unique France” (a client of mine) today and it took three attempts before the phone got it right. Though I do have a cold…
5.) Multi-tasking – this is an interesting one. Where clicking the home/menu button used to exit your apps, now it doesn’t. I found this out when using Tom Tom today while driving. At a certain point I wanted to stop using the app so I just hit the Home button and I started browsing the web, but lo and behold, Tom Tom stayed in the background and kept giving me directions. Interesting… Potentially very useful, but also annoying if you actually are trying to quit the app.
6.) Battery life – is significantly improved. This was something Apple had to get right with this phone and it appears they have. I’ve been using my phone as often as I could for a day and only used about 40% of the battery life.
7.) Screen – the new Retina display really is something. Super clean and crisp and makes looking at just about anything on the phone a joy.
Another funny thing I’ve noticed, the shape of the phone, which is now considerably more square than the previous models, means that you can’t tell as easily which way the phone is sitting in your hand (without looking at it). This isn’t a big deal though and I can see the design reasons for it as it permits more room for components in the phone.
In summary, I have to say that this is one of the best upgrades I’ve made. The phone has totally lived up to expectations and is definitely worth looking at if you’re planning to upgrade from a 3G/3Gs version of the phone or any phone for that matter.
. While, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to purchase one of these new fangled devices, as they haven’t yet been released in Australia, it sounds to me like Apple have provided a much needed boost to a device which has both over and underwhelmed (somehow both are possible at once) the phone’s critics and supporters.
