Breathe a sigh of relief, the build-up to the iPhone 4 is finally over. We have an actual real life iPhone 4 in our eager little mitts, as so many other keen beans around the country do. We didn’t have to queue for ours, but hey – perk of the job.
Let’s take a little look-see through the box, shall we?
Short, sweet and to-the-point, there’s no extra stuff packed into the box (unless you count the ridiculous ever-present Apple stickers). We’ve got a two-part plug, the wire of which doubles as your USB wire. The illustrious white ear-buds make an appearance, too, complete with volume control and 3.5mm connector. That little gizmo in the middle is the pin you use to open the micro-SIM slot. The mechanism is a little stiff compared to that of the iPhone 3G – we were worried we may break it with our brute strength, but it was fine.
And here it is! We can’t explain to you how utterly wonderful that screen (with Apple’s Retina Display) is. We challenge you to spot a pixel with the naked eye – you won’t. It’s crisp, bright, clear and brilliant. Definitely gives Samsung’s Super-AMOLED displays a run for their money.
Skinny little thing, isn’t it? The iPhone 4 handset doesn’t really feel a great deal slimmer in your hand, but looking at it you can tell it’s much sleeker and more streamlined than its predecessors. The iPhone 3G and 3GS seem quite chubby by comparison.
The break in the outer rim you can see there is part of the three-part band antenna. Some people have been having problems with reception going down as they hold it; we didn’t find this to be too big a deal using our iPhone 4 on the Vodafone network, although we did lose a bar when holding the handset as opposed to resting it on a table.
The little hole in the centre of the sidepanel is the micro-SIM slot. It pops out quite satisfyingly.
Look at the little micro-SIM, it’s so cute! We can’t imagine you’ll need to do this process many times, but it’s very simple. If you lose the little SIM-ejector tool, a pin, needle or paperclip should work just as well.
The volume controls are much more industrial in their separate buttons, as is the mute slider. It takes a bit more of a push to move it, but it’s much more of a switch than the gizmo on the older iPhone models.
Likewise, the power button is clickier than previous efforts.
The internal speakers aren’t much to rave about, still just as tiny as ever before. The home button is also less muted than the iPhone 3G and 3GS’.
The glass back is a thing of beauty, although we found it really quite difficult to hold. It’s a slippery little thing – also prone to fluffiness, even though we’re sure we’re not wearing or even near anything fluffy.
We know, we know – you’ve already seen Recombu on an iPhone 4. But we couldn’t resist checking it out again. Web browsing is fast, slick and looks brilliant on the fabulous screen. No Flash content though, obviously.
The camera is vastly improved. The shutter is lightning fast so you’ll never miss that crucial moment, and the autofocus is very intelligent. You can switch between the rear- and front-facing cameras using the icon in the top right corner; yes, that is me pulling a hilarious MySpace-face in the gallery at the bottom right. Hours of fun.
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