We have 300 million people in this country and we can't find 11 guys to beat Ghana in soccer?
[NOTE: This is not a detailed technical review and is not endorsed by many readers as anything like a review at all. Mostly, it's just me doing some free writing on what I think about this new device. Enjoy.]As you probably know, I picked up the iPhone4 on Thursday by standing in line at the mall. And while most of my time that night was dedicated to setting up my old 3Gs for my kid, I did manage to play around with 4 enough to post this on my Facebook page: "Just got the iPhone. Meh." And of course people were all like 'Wha…??" and "I told you so, Droid rules!" and things like that.
I've had the phone for a couple days now and am qualified to give it a non-geek review. The list below are the primary features as per the Apple website.
Face Time – I haven't used this feature yet. And while it seems really cool, I don't like talking much on the phone anyway, and when I do, I'm often not presentable for a face-to-face convo. Which leaves any routine relevance of this feature to talking with my wife. And she still has a 3Gs – so she doesn't have this feature. So basically this selling point is irrelevant to me right now.
Retina Display – Amazing. Crisp. Beautiful. The most obvious upgrade when you pick up this phone. Everything jumps off of the screen. Brilliant.
Multitasking – I love the idea of multitasking, but until the apps I use catch up to the OS, I really can't tell how this works.
HD Video – I haven't uploaded any video and watched it on my TV yet, so the only thing I know about HD video is that when iTunes tries to synchronize events from iPhoto, that the videos I shoot on iPhone4 aren't compatible with the 3Gs phones we have.
5-Megapixel Camera w/LED Flash – The camera is amazing. Sharp and beautiful images. Great upgrade on an already great camera in the 3Gs (versus the Blackberry I had before my first iPhone). Also very cool is the front-facing camera feature. No more guessing on whether the photo you shoot of you and your friend from arm's distance is composed properly or not. However, the LED flash sucks. Everyone looks like they have jaundice. I don't reckon a simple software upgrade's going to fix this, so I feel a little jipped on the flash.
Folders – More an OS thing than hardware, the folders feature is solid. Just drag and drop one app onto another and voila – a folder appears. Folders can only hold 12 apps, however, so you may have to be pretty specific with your folder naming conventions.
iMovie – I only add this because this app launched last week and it's as bad as the iLife application for Mac. Limited and with little relevance, save your $4.99.
Antenna – There were some early reports of iPhone4 losing connectivity when held a certain way, but I was lucky enough to get a rubber bumper and haven't had any issues with calls (or rather, bars) dropping. I even tried it without the bumper, and it works fine. And to be honest with you, this was my #1 selling point. I get a lot of dropped calls for two reasons: 1) AT&T and 2) ancient plaster walls. If you tell me you have an antenna that can compensate for these things, I'm all over it. And after two days with this phone, I can tell you that the antenna seems to be the real deal. My wifi sticks better. I have more bars. I haven't messed with bluetooth, but I'm sure that it's better too.
Bottom line, I really like this new iPhone. Then, I loved 3Gs. Don't get me wrong – iPhone4 is a nice upgrade, but I'm guessing that 3G users will be more impressed than those coming over from 3Gs.
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Jim Mitchem/@smashadv
Tedpax
Jun 29, 2010
Honestly, this wasn’t a good review, even for the non-Geek.
– Facetime; you didn’t use it
– Multitasking: not sure how it worked (did you try it?)
– HD Video: not tried on a big screen
These were some of the hot selling points, but you neglected to dig deep enough to tell your readers about them. I’m not sure why you decided to write such a simple piece, but even more confused on why the Observer would print it?
Nothing personal, I’m sure you’re a good writer, but this was a very simplistic review and added nothing to what most people already know.
Then, I followed your link about your purchase, only to see this line: “Before all you Droid and Blackberry people get all giddy – next to an iPhone, your phone is still a pussy.” I’m not sure who your audience is, but this sentence seemed very juvenile. As an iPhone user myself, I would agree, but I doubt I would’ve phrased it like that in an article targeted at such a wide age range of readers.
Perhaps you could do a follow-up once you have time to explore all the features? Either way, glad you’re enjoying your phone.
Jim Mitchem
Jun 29, 2010
Obviously, you’re not a regular person and you require some in-depth reviews. I recommend Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/) or cnet (http://www.cnet.com/) for those.
My blog is ironically named for a reason. And you’re right, I am a fine writer. But as an iPhone user, I’m just a normal guy who picked it up last Thursday and who had a forgettable experience in doing so (live blogging, actually). Thus the expletive – I was feeling a bit mean. My regular blog readers know that I use language liberally at times. It’s part of the irony of the title. Now that I know the Observer posted this, I’ve removed the link to that post.
Anyway, I pulled the features to talk to directly from the Apple site, and wrote something to each one. No, I haven’t had a chance to dig too deep because I’m not a tech reviewer.
I’m sorry you were disappointed with the review.