It’s been a long wait but it’s well worth it. Fresh from the WWDC10 keynote, Steve Jobs finally announced the latest iPhone. Readers, here are the details of the iPhone 4.
iPhone 4G
After months of speculation, it turns out most of us were dead wrong as to what the new iPhone will be called. Well maybe those who banked on the new iPhone to be called iPhone 4G can argue that they we’re very close to nailing it.
Now we all know that the new iPhone is not called the much expected iPhone HD nor is it the iPhone 4G, its simply called the iPhone 4. We like this name, its simple and elegant, rolls of the tongue nicely too. We can get use to saying iPhone 4 all day long.
The built and construction
From the keynote, we saw the iPhone 4 has excellent built quality and engineering. We’d go as far as saying that the iPhone could probably be the most advanced smartphone (soon to be) available to date.
It is, at the very least, a smartphone built like no other. Nothing in the market today and perhaps in the near future can come close to the level of engineering design on par with the iPhone 4.
First up, both the fron and rear panels of the iPhone 4 is made out of glass. Super tough aluminosilicate glass sanwiches the innards of the iPhone 4. These glass panels itself is extraordinary. The two glass panels making up the front and rear of the iPhone 4 is the same type of strengthened glass used in the windshields of helicopters and high-speed trains. Apple claims the glass is 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, ultradurable and more scratch resistant than ever. It’s also recyclable.
We’re not sure how the new iPhone is going to stand up again drops and knocks but a full glass smartphone is indeed something very sophiticated. Definitely way ahead of the rest.
With a stainless steel band wrapping the two glass sheets, the iPhone 4 also promises to be one of the stiffest smartphones in the market. Apple claims that the alloy used in the stainless steel band is proprietary and is five times stronger that standard steel. The steel band makes the sleek and thin design of the iPhone 4 possible. So thin in fact that the iPhone 4 is 24% thinner than the 3GS. The steel band also functions as the iPhone 4 antennas.
The Display
Everyone’s pretty much expected that the display on the iPhone 4 is going to be special but no one could imagine how advanced the display is compared to other smartphones.
The iPhone 4 sports what Apple calls “Retina Display” with a 960 x 640 resolution LCD making up a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch and a contrast ration of 800:1. By comparison, the display on the iPhone 3GS is exactly half that of the iPhone 4 (480 x 320), this make the iPhone 4 the highest-resolution phone ever.
Apple did some research on displays and how our eyes perceived them. It discovered that the absolute pixel limit a human retina can discern is 300 pixels. The Retina Display shows 26 additional pixels per inch on screen making text and pictures appear sharper than ever before. To put it simply, the eye is not able to perceive a higher resolution display. Looking at an element on the Retina Display it would be almost impossible to make out the individual pixels.
Many who’ve had the chance to play with the device are saying the the display must be experienced in order to fully appreciate it. We haven’t seen the Retina Display ourselved but judging by the technology alone, it is safe to say that the display on the iPhone 4 is one of the best features of the device.
The Cameras
The iPhone 4 packs two cameras, one forward facing camera that enables you to make video calls (a service that Apple calls FaceTime video calling. More on this later); and the other is a 5MP main camera with built-in LED flash.
The 5MP main camera is nothing like we’ve seen on other handphones. Engineered to take better pictures, the main camera features a backlit sensor to allow for better low-light performance and a larger pixel sensor size to take full benefit of the increase in MP count. Most smartphone simple pack more pixel count but the size of the pixels itself are reduce to fit into the same size sensor. The 5MP camera on the iPhone 4 has a larger sensor that is able to accomodate lager pixels thus producing much better pictures.
In addition, the main camera records HD videos in 720p at 30fps. The iPhone 4 offers extensive video editing on the fly with iMovie, a paid app for the device. The iMovie app is intuitively simple to us but it is very powerful considering its running off a smartphone. Though, we’re a bit perplexed why the app is not offered for free.
The secondary forward facing camera is nothing special and functions like many secondary cameras allowing users to take self portraits and make video calls. Dubbed FaceTime video calling by Apple, this is the first time iPhone owners can make video calls. We’ve yet to see how the FaceTime video call workd so we can’t really comment on the execution but we find it odd that the iPhone 4 only allows video calls to be made over a WiFi connection.
Jobs mentioned in his keynote that Apple had to work out some kinks with the operators before they can offer the service via 3G. Another downer, is that you can only make FaceTime video calls with someone who has an iPhone 4 as well. Depending on how you look at it, this could be a good or bad thing but we’ll reserve our judgement until we’ve tried it out.
The inards
At the heart of the iPhone 4 is a A4 processor, the same one that’s running the iPad. With a 1Ghz clock speed, you can expect the iPhone 4 to be blazing. It’s worth noting that the silky smooth 3GS runs on a 800Mhz processor underclocked to 600Mhz, so you can expect very impressive speeds on the iPhone 4.
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