17 May 2012 | POSTED IN Uncategorized
Sources have revealed that Apple may be on the brink of purchasing German luxury television brand, Loewe.
AppleInsider stated that the German compa...
While the 3GS was only an incremental upgrade over the 3G, the iPhone 4 brings some improvements to the table - though as ever with Apple products, is not without its limitations and design flaws.
Features and Performance
Perhaps the best thing about the iPhone 4 is its fantastically high resolution screen, which allows graphics or video to look extremely crisp and is ideal for rendering the high-density content such as web pages. The competition might have adopted AMOLED instead for top-end models, but Apple’s alternative route has produced great results.
The iPhone 4’s operating system has also received a substantial overhaul, due in part to its use in Apple’s iPad tablet range as well. Ease of use is still there, but the new iOS now allows a limited degree of multitasking between applications, which is a great boon. On the downside, some real basics such as USB mass storage are still missing – you’re forced into using iTunes to transfer any files to and from the iPhone. It’s a given that the iPhone 4 still makes a great music player, with high audio quality, a large amount of onboard storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and access to the iTunes music store – though radio listeners will be disappointed by the omission of an FM radio.
Apple’s App Store also remains the best-populated at present, with a huge range of applications and games available. Many of the games can also take advantage of the iPhone 4’s new tilt sensor (a more sophisticated version of the accelerometer present in most touchscreen phones) for control.
The iPhone 4 brings an improved 5MP camera which can also record video in HD (720p) resolution. The iPhone is by no means a brilliant cameraphone, but it’s no longer a great distance behind the competition either.
The rest of the core specifications are also top-end, as expected: WiFi, HSDPA and HSUPA, GPS with a compass, and a noise-cancelling secondary microphone to clean up sound quality in calls. The internal storage is generous, but it cannot be further expanded with microSD cards. Those considering purchasing an iPhone 4 may already be aware of one key design flaw though. The iPhone 4 has its antenna for mobile network, WiFi and Bluetooth reception as a thin strip wrapped around the edge of the phone - with a small gap in the bottom left corner to separate the two antenna halves. It’s very easy for your finger to bridge that gap, severely affecting the iPhone 4’s mobile network reception. There’s no solution available other than to buy an insulating rubber case for the iPhone or to follow Apple’s advice that customers are just holding ‘the phone wrong, and try to keep your hand from touching the sensitive area - far from ideal!
Conclusion
If you can look past the design issue, the iPhone 4 is a very impressive and - to judge by the queues upon launch - still hugely desirable mobile phone. While it faces a lot of very strong touchscreen competition, principally from Android models such as Samsung’s Galaxy S, the iPhone series has a large and loyal customer base for good reason. Available in 16GB or 32GB options.
