Thursday
Jun242010
Let's talk iPhone 4
Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 8:49AM | Glyn Evans 
So the iPhone 4 was launched today here in the UK, the USA, and many other countries.
Did you get yours? if so what do you think of it?
What are your likes and dislikes?
Does the camera live up to what you were expecting? or is it better or worse than expected?
Do you have any issues with any photo apps?
Please let us know what you think of the new iPhone 4, sharing your thoughts and questions.
tagged iPhone 4 in Discussion
iPhone 4 in Discussion
Reader Comments (10)
I think the phone is beautifully designed and it's a huge improvement on my old 3G. I am a little disappointed in the camera though. After all the hype and incredible reviews I was expecting a lot from the new optics - but for me it doesn't quite match up.
The images produced just aren't quite as crisp as I was expecting, even in bright sunlight. It may be I just need a little more practice but so far I would say it's not a replacement for a decent compact camera.
Rob
The screen is nice. You can read text that is absolutely tiny, but that's not really practical in every day use. I thought the screen on the 3GS was pretty nice, until now. Now when I look at the old phone all is see is pixels.
The camera is definitely a great upgrade. The images are sharp and colorful. The color balance on shots taken in my office are a bit off (yellow) compared to the 3GS. The flash tends to be a little blue. Speaking of the flash I really didn't think it would be very useful, but I was surprised how well it worked last night taking pictures and video of friends at the bar. That was the feature I was least excited about, and now its what I'm most excited to see what i can do with it. The flash has on screen controls for on/off/auto.
Another on screen button is a switch to the forward facing. That's kind of fun and an easy way to take a self portrait. Considering the resolution is better on the back camera, I would probably just rely on the shiny reflection in the glass back to frame up a self portrait.
One thing I didn't see documented anywhere was in video mode double tapping the screen gives you black bars on the top and bottom giving you a long movie screen aspect ratio.
The other thing I don't remember reading about is in the camera roll. In OS4 (so even the old phone) there is now a map feature that shows you where all the pictures are taken. The more you zoom in the more detail you get. It will take the place of some other apps that do that but not quite as well. It's really a very nice feature.
From a slightly philosophical iPhoneography point of view: do er really want/need higher resolution? Do we want the iPhone to become "just another camera"? I've got professional cameras for professional use, but using the iPhone is more fun (not always, but often).
Why?
Because the iPhone is not about resolution, image sharpness or technique (ok, maybe a little of that too, but you all know what I'm talking about). Image quality isn't perfect - and that's exactly what makes it so much fun. And the same reason we process our iPhone photos in apps that do wonderful crazy things to our pictures. The very reason that people love using low quality toy cameras (or toy camera apps). It's not about sharpness or resolution. I'm not convinced I want a "better", higher resolution iPhone camera. Would it be as much fun shooting a technically perfect 12 megapixel iPhone 5? When is it enough?
What do you think?
I totally agree with Jarle but from what i've been told, the upgrade of pixels on the new camera will allow for better prints.
I am waiting to get one when the dust settles.
re more pixels....Maybe not better prints but certainly larger prints. My book I just did had to be a small size purely due to the resolution of the images from the phone. If the lens is same focal length then I am expecting to be taking same styles of images except printing them out larger....
waiting on this till the antenna issue is addressed. My 3Gs is bad enough, thought this would be an improvment.. seems not
I installed iOS4 on my 3Gs and now all my photos are pixelated and noisy. I've also noticed that some of my camera Apps won't import photos. has anyone had, or heard of problems with images?
As for the less sharp look of the older iphones being desired, well, I guess so, in some cases--but as often as not my 3g camera was just not adequate to the task at all--impossible to even get a decent capture in low light, motion, etc.
We can always achieve the toy camera, low res looks from higher res images, and lots of apps will do that for us, and some camera apps will give us those looks at image capture, without post processing to get it.
As for holding off until the "antenna issue" is fixed, I can only say that my iphone 4 is outperforming my 3g hands down. Both cellular and my wifi network signals are much stronger and reliable. On my 3g I often had to hold it a different way, orient it to get a strong wifi signal in different parts of the house, with the new phone not at all.
It has always been true of any phone that you could hold it or position it in a less than ideal position. In this case, it is possible for me to see (in very particular circumstances) a one bar drop in signal if I really try--maybe less 1% of the times/places I have tried this today.
IF IF IF it is a problem in a specific location or with a specific phone/skin conductivity situation, the rubber bumper will prevent it, as will most cases. If one really had a problem, really didn't want to use a case at all, a thin, small piece of clear tape over just that one gap would also solve the problems.
I suspect this is a non-issue--the fact that some people can see the signal bars change leads them to believe there is an issue. Dropped calls are widely reported to be much much fewer with the new phone, but any dropped call is an annoyance, and some will assume this is the issue (rather than the sloppy coverage provided by ATT, which was the problem already for either phone).
I have not seen a single report of WORSE dropped call performance on the new phone. So holding off on the iphone4 for this specific reason is probably not warranted.
And there are SO MANY things that are SO MUCH BETTER, that even if the dropped call problem was exactly the same as the 3g or 3gs, this phone will still be a vast improvement. I have not had any difficulty with the phone at all--the only difficulties, and they were huge, were in ordering the thing via the hosed and embarrassingly bad process on the apple and att sites.
The firmaware is excellent. The screen has brilliant colours compared to my 3GS. The ergonomics is not as good as the 3G and 3GS bodies. The iPhone 4 feels sharp around the edges and doesnt sit as comfortably in my hands as the previous models. The rumors about the signal bars going up and down often are true. However, i noticed that this issue has never affected any of my outgoing calls. The camera flash is horrible. it makes the images look white/pale whether you are shooting in a dark room or a well lit room. i dont see any use for the flash, except for in an extremely dark room, and the image quality is very low. I did experience my phone not being able to make any outgoing calls or receive any incoming calls or any texts for that matter. i discovered this when i tried to call my brother next to me and i never heard a ringtone in my earpiece. I had my brother call me and it took him straight to my voicemail and he left a message.. My iphone4 had full bars of signal. To resolve the issue, i turned my iphone4 on and off again. As soon as it turned on, i got notifications of my brothers vmail and 3 new text messages from a few hours ago! That happened June 25, 2010 the 2nd day i had this phone. It hasnt happened again. My favorite feature is the iChat. It works great! my brother is in california and i am in Maryland. There is no hesitation with the video and the ability to switch front camera or back camera makes it easy to converse and show things. Unfortunately, both persons must be using WiFi as AT&T cannot support this feature on 4G just yet.
Apple went all out on this phone and has open the door for all other phone makers to play catch up. there will be so many things we will be able to do with this phone in the future because of the tech gear apple designed with it. etc the HD video is off the chain.I'm doing more videos and photos with the phone than I did with the 3GS. go Apple