iPhone 4… My 2 Cents…

Right…

Well, its been a couple of weeks (and a 5 hour queue) since i got my hands on the latest and greatest (arguable) mobile technology, the iPhone 4 ! Within the last couple of weeks iv already kinda decided that i prefered my old 3GS based on the following reasons…

1. Reception… Yea, this one has been discussed in length by many many many people, especially lefties… I cant say iv had the worst problems in the world with the antennas, granted if i hold the phone in my left hand and try to cause the issue, then yes it happens, the same way that if i try and drive my car into a wall, i know it will break also… So, not really the biggest issue, but non-the-less im still a little concerened that Apple didnt think of this one in their testing department.

2. Design… Not really a fan, yes it looks a little more sleak, looks more professional, more futuristic… BUT (Yup, there is a hairy but involved), when you handle the item, which is uniform in shape front and back, am i the only one that keeps getting it out my pocket and trying to answer a call on the rear of the phone… id love to know im not the only person doing this :)

3. Bumpers… Has anyone really thought why this piece of cheap-ass rubber costs £25… ouch… and still wont protect the rear of the phone (and does nothing to help with issue number 2 hehe)…

4. Proximity sensor… I, as with many people im guessing use the iPhone as a PHONE!!!! so, why after 2 previous revisions of the iPhone design that worked perfectly well, has apple decided to move the proximity sensor from the top left of the phone to the center (above the speaker)… It was perfectly happy where it was, and successfully, on many occasions managed to determine my head was next to the device. Its new position seems to ignore my head quite a lot, and decides the screen should be on, and hence controls enabled… Thus, in the past 4 days, iv hung up on several people and had to repeat myself to half a dozen because my cheek has muted my conversation… im just waiting for it to conference call me with my parents and and a random stranger from Romania…

5. Background Processing… Does anyone else think it would be nice not to have some apps running in the background, aka tomtom… around 10 or 20 times after completing a journey recently iv parked my car, locked up and walked away, only to hear a familiar voice coming from my trouser pocket telling me to “turn around when possible”… Granted this is most likely a tweak for TomTom to make, but i can think of a few other apps you might not want sitting in that tray-bar… (AKA, some app’s of adult nature, you know who you are)

6. TomTom Dock… Would it kill these people to make some kind of small adapter which fits into the cradle to make the button stick out a little more, this comes back more to point 3, if the shape weren’t broke, dont fix it…

7. Micro-Sim… Explain that one to me… iv seen the inside of one of these things, there is tonnes of space left over for a full size SIM, why get all us “SIM-FREE” buyers to hack our sims to pieces to fit your new bloody sim-tray… Grrrr

BUT… Besides all these little annoyances, Apple got a couple of things right…

1. Battery… FANTASTIC… My old 3GS would have around 20% battery left after a day at work, iPhone4 75% easily after a 9 hour day (based on very little use i have to say, but the comparrison stands, because my 3GS and the 4 both get around the same workout during my daily job).

2. Screen… Gorgeous, makes me wanna cuddle it for hours.

3. Front facing camera… This is a little crap though, given the facetime application only works between iPhone4’s and only works on Wi-Fi… but countless female iPhone4 users are loving the pocket mirror app :)

4. Noise cancellation… nice touch.

5. Background processing… I know i moaned about this earlier a little, but its a dam good feature, it just needs an “off” switch for certain applications.

6. Speed… Dam, what was that….

In conclusion, nice phone, but Apples design process of “Throw away good ideas and start again from scratch” seems to of sneeked a few annoyances into the mix… lets see if Apple can really fix them, or is this a fix for iPhone5…