Sunday 30 October 2011

Apple iPhone 4 16GB Black Review


Apple iPhone 4 16GB black


Apple iphone 4 review * a huge range of quality and unique apps available, miles ahead of anything provided by any of it's rivals 9/10
* screen is a thing of beauty 9/10
* music player is awesome, nothing on the market is in it's league, for me it is the best thing about the phone, perfect 10/10
* iTunes store very simply to navigate and instantly purchase a huge range of music, films and other stuff 9/10
* iTunes sync makes it a breeze to transfer files as well as keeping everything organised 9/10
* build of the phone is of high quality, really feels and looks like a premium product 9/10
* ideal size a phone should be (for me)
* multitasking and folders are really easy to use and adds great flexibility 8/10
* responsiveness and interface makes it a real pleasure to use 9/10
* camera and hd camcorder produces great results, results you would not have thought possible 8/10
* usability is the cornerstone in all apple products, iPhone 4 does not disappoint in this area, anyone could pick it up and use to it straight away, its just so easy 9/0
* battery life is a huge improvement lasts 24 hrs straight comfortably (heavy usage) and charges fairly quickly 9/10
* Internet and Internet speeds are good 8/10
* ability to use the phone as an ebook reader 7/10
* FaceTime adds another dimension to the way we communicate 6/10
* a huge range of dedicated third-party accessories available

Cons
* antenna issue (not a problem for me as I always keep the phone in a case)
* lack of flash support (not a problem for me as the videos I watch on the Internet work; YouTube, skysports, catch up tv and iplayer)
* expensive
* no removable memory card
* widgets have not been incorporated would add a lot to the interface
* not all apps have been updated to allow multitasking and are not compatible with the high res screen (not sure if this is apple's fault or the developers)
* no fm radio
* issues with Bluetooth
* headphones provided are not up to the standard of the phone
* lack of customisation
* FaceTime only works over wifi (some apps work around this)
* nice if phone had dedicated buttons for the camera/camcorder

Standout selling points for me; apps store, battery life, iTunes store, iTunes sync, screen quality, ebook reader and music player

Drawbacks for me; fm radio, widgets and headphones

Only two serious issues the antenna problem and no flash support. Firstly the antenna issue, it's easily avoided (granted it should of been avoided by apple in the first place) keeping the phone in a case sorts this out, I've always kept my phones in cases so shouldn't be a problem for those who do the same. No flash support, for me this is not a problem but for some I can understand why it would be, a lot of the popular websites videos work (most flash content is advertisements anyway, who'd want to see that). Its well known flash is not supported so its not something someone can complain about after purchasing the phone (by buying the phone you acknowledge this loss). Apple are loosening the rules on the app store so flash is available in one way or the other if it's vital for you (skyfire).

Phone is expensive but if you keep the phone in good condition you'll get most of your money back if you sell it, so over 18 months believe or not the phone will cost considerably less then it's rivals. All iPhones hold onto there value really well, so the overall cost of owning the phone isn't as high as first expected. This is only for pay as you go, personally on contract the phone is way too expensive, I'm not sure how it works when brought on contract but I can't see the value for money this way. When purchasing the phone you don't just get a great phone, you get great services only available on the iOS operating system, providing a unique experience for iPhone owners.

Taking all things into account iPhone 4 (for me) is the best phone on the Market hands down. It's deservedly a five star phone for me but the issue with the antenna (easily avoided) doesn't justify a five star rating hence the four stars.

Update*
Had the phone for about 1/2 a year now and still going strong. The selling points I've listed above are the reason why I would recommend this phone above anything else available at the moment. The app store is going strong, apps are becoming so advance, some of them are huge, FIFA 11 is nearly 1gig in size. Tons of games that are proper games, games you would of expected only available for dedicated portable gaming devices but at the fraction of the cost. Comparing this with the android Market, google limits the size of an app to I think 50 megabits, which is a fraction (5%) of the size of those available on the app store (at the moment), because of this limit manufactures have to create there own app store to really take advantage of there hardware. A couple of criticisms of the app store is if you loss all your apps you cannot re-download them all in one go, you would have to re-download them one by one (for free) which can be very annoying if you have a lot. Another is not having a list of all of the apps you've downloaded, with an android phone there's an area in the android Market and in the settings where you can see all the apps that have been downloaded, in this list it shows how big each app is and other relative information, it's all in one place, very convenient.

Battery life is amazing when comparing with previous smartphone I've owned. Battery life is, for me one of the key areas for a smartphone. I've owned the iPhone 3g, htc desire and the desire hd, when going from owning those phones to this one, the jump in battery performance is huge. I'm a heavy user so battery life is very important for me, here some stats I've just checked;

From Fully charged
* usage - 6hr 15min
* standby - 1 day 12hr
* 23% battery remaining
(wifi and 3G on the entire time and screen brightness 30-40%)

There always room for improvement but I'm more than happy with this. You could further improve on the battery life by disabling wifi and 3G connection when not needed but for me I keep them on for convenience.

In the iTunes store theres plenty to keep most people happy, I love the iTunes U, everything is free here, the amount of educational information available is staggering, something I would recommend others to check out, really is impressive. Again don't see anything that provides this level of service, it's amazing all this is available within a few clicks.

iTunes sync not only keeps all your music organised but also all of the other stuff; ebook, podcast, films and so on. Yes you are completely dependent to iTunes for transferring media but the benefits of this completely out way the negatives. This is my only criticism of the using iTunes to sync media, once you sync with one iTunes that's it, you can only use that iTunes otherwise you would have to erase all the media on the phone to sync with another itunes. The whole transferring media aspect can be a pain if you plan on using multiple computers but if like me you just want to transfer media from your computer to your iPhone and back then it's perfect. There are third party software that allows you to transfer media off your iphone onto another computer without losing your media on your phone. Even when I didn't own an apple product I still used iTunes for my media stuff because it is I believe the best (free) media player/organiser out there, once you know how to use it.

Screen is beautiful, great to see other manufacture going to release phones with screens that are just as good or even better, no matter what we the consumer should benefit. But at the moment the iphone screen is the best, before owning this phone i never thought I would care too much about the screen quality but once you use it, Its like comparing an bluray image to a DVD one, the content is exactly the same but the jump in quality just adds to the experience. The difference is so clear and now very hard to use another phone with a lower quality screen.

All smartphone I think have the ability to be used as an ebook reader, so cannot recommend this phone over others for this but it's another feature that adds to the overall attractiveness of this device. One piece of advise use amazon kindle app as I believe it's better then apple's iBook; books are cheaper, amazon kindle app is also available on other os's so in the future if you decide to change to another platform all you books you've purchased on the kindle app will be still available to you unlike iBook. The kindle app also has some better features like changing the colour of the text, hopefully apple will incorporate something like this for iBook.

I've said it already and i'll say it again the music player on this phone is perfect, amazing. Everything else in the iPhone can be improved one way or another; app store can be improved, battery life can be improved but I can't see how apple can improve the music player, it is perfect and one of the main reasons why I would struggle to leave the iPhone brand, others being the app store and iTunes sync.

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