NogBlog, 5th August 2010
I have been using the latest version of the iPhone this week, here are my thoughts:
First impressions
The design is less palm-friendly, with the edges of the device being right angles rather than the softer feel of the previous 3GS model. It does not look as different from other touch screen devices as the previous model, and other manufacturers – particularly HTC – are coming up with devices which look very similar.
I opened the very nice packaging for the device on Monday night, giving it a full charge overnight before leaving in the morning at 6am. I did not have a chance to load any music on to it so only used it for making calls and data functions (more later on this). I made about one hour of calls in the morning and found the battery was showing one bar by 12.30.
However, the fast recharge gave me a full indicator again in about an hour. Call quality seemed good to me, though worryingly the signal strength indicator rarely showed more than three bars and I had a couple of calls drop out. I did, however, make a long call on the train heading towards London, which was successful.
How I found the features
I browsed the web in central London and was impressed by the way it worked. The improved display didn’t really make much difference to me but I tested the camera which seems much better. The email set up had been straightforward and reliable until it stopped completely at 4pm for a couple of hours. I did not reset this and am not sure what happened here, but I had also been using an iPad to collect mail via WiFi which could have caused the issue.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that this is not really a device for a person who needs to make a lot of phone calls. The phone interface is not great – other devices give one-touch dialling, for example, but I can see the appeal if you are going to use the multimedia functionality. My other issue is with cost. At over £500 this is a seriously expensive device. As an MP3/4 player it is probably the best, but the premium is quite high. I also like to be able to take the battery off if I need to, and know that it will be expensive to fix if I drop it, with a replacement display being about £130.
Final thoughts?
The thing that really makes this device look good is the range of applications that are available, which are superb. However, Android, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry apps are becoming better and better too, so it is becoming a very interesting marketplace. So my recommendation is that you think carefully, before getting your wallet out, about what you really need from your smartphone.
In my view and experience people don’t buy smartphones just to use them as phones. They buy them to have an always-on pocketable and useable computer, with the ability to make phone calls a nice added bonus.
I’ve had an iPhone 3G for a couple of years and always found it excellent. However I yearned for a single device that contained a decent camera; built-in flash; a decent video camera; more speed; multi-tasking and much better battery life. The iPhone 4 delivers on all those fronts.
I used mine for a good 14 hours yesterday, mainly using apps. Apps and games are the biggest battery drains, but after 14 hours it still had nearly 20% of its battery available. In one meeting we used it for a variety of tasks and the Blackberry user I was meeting commented that what we had just done would have completely drained his Blackberry battery. As I write this it still has 90% of its charge after 10 hours of light use.
I am delighted with its speed. It really is fast now. And its excellent (and I mean really excellent) camera and HD video cameras have now completely eliminated the need for me to carry standalone devices. It is also a brilliant iPod and video viewer which means that I no longer have to carry those devices either.
Like you, Nick, the screen didn’t make an immediate difference to me. But after using it for a bit I really began to appreciate its quality. Load up the front page of the New York Times in Safari, for example, and you can still just about read every word on the page without zooming in. That’s impressive. Every letter is crisply rendered at any size. It’s actually quite amazing.
I love the multi tasking. I can flick between emails and other apps and everything is just as I left it. It saves so much time and I can get so much more done. And of course the app ecosystem is amazing.
Finally, the widely reported antennagate appears to be a complete non-issue. I get great reception wherever there is a decent network connection. No exceptions. And I’ve seen reports that suggest the issue hasn’t been reported at all outside of the US, where the problem seems to be more to do with AT&T in weak signal areas than with the phone itself.
Overall I am delighted with it. But then I am not alone as customer satisfaction ratings I’ve seen are all in the high 90′s, well beyond any other smartphone out there.
If the iPhone wasn’t around, I’d definitely have an Android, as they seem to be the next best offering in the marketplace. And I’m sure I’d be pretty happy with a Blackberry too. But the iPhone IS around. And it’s damn good. So like most other iPhone users I really won’t be looking elsewhere for the foreseeable future. The widely published customer satisfaction ratings tell you everything you need to know.