Apple iPhone 4 review

This year probably no other device has created as much hype as the Apple iPhone 4. The Apple's new iPhone offering is eagerly awaited in India which is going to be launched on Vodafone and Airtel networks very soon.

All previous iPhones are pretty behind in technology compared to other smartphones – most notably Android – as Apple has concentrated on making one device with a few tweaks for each new upgrade, while Android manufacturers have fully evolved every step of the way. Now the iPhone 4 rectifies almost everything that was missing from the original iPhone, iPhone 3G and 3GS.

The screen itself is the best we've seen on a phone to date. It's high resolution, but it's the 'retina display' technology that is stunning. Compared to the iPhone 3GS's display, the iPhone 4 looks as though Apple has scrapped the previous technology and started again. Not that those previous displays were bad, just that this new one is so good.

Text is much crisper, images look like the difference between SD and HD and everything is so much brighter and more vibrant in comparison. We thought that Super AMOLED screen of Samsung Galaxy S or Samsung Wave would be the best to hit the market, but now our opinion has been changed after getting our hands on the iPhone 4.

Super AMOLED provides a massive amount of definition but the iPhone just laughs at Samsung's attempt here, cramming in more pixels than the eye can see to make everything smooth and individual pixels impossible to detect. Like most screens, it's nigh-on impossible to see the screen in direct sunlight. It's a shame no one has addressed this issue yet because it's the biggest pain about touchscreen phones in general.

There's no denying that once again, the iPhone 4 is a winner in the looks department. It may have scrapped the smooth rear curves in replace of a more angular, masculine design, but it's still an object of sheer beauty. The screen takes up most of the front and melts away into the sides of the iPhone, which doubles as the home of that pesky antenna.

The rear is shiny glass that we assume to be pretty prone to smashing if the iPhone slips out of your hand. Hence why a plasticky Bumper will be required when you purchase your iPhone.

It's a rubber skirting that goes round the edges of the iPhone and pretty much takes away most of the iPhone's raw beauty. Shame that. But it does have a purpose. As you've probably spotted, some of the reception issues with the iPhone 4's casing are down to contact with the antenna situated around the outside of the iPhone and that really did cause quite a few problems while testing our device without the bumper on.

Around 30% of our calls dropped, in certain areas, many of them where we could obtain decent reception on other devices. In fact, this became so annoying that we were forced to replace the ugly bumper in an attempt to use the iPhone as a phone. Reception niggles aside, call quality was pretty decent compared to other high end phones. The speaker is also of high quality, but what else would you expect from an Apple multimedia device?

Finally Apple has addressed the poor camera issue by installing a 5 megapixel camera on the back of the iPhone 4, with touch-to-focus and a flash that works very effectively. Photos are crisper than Apple has ever managed to produce, and touch to focus works pretty well, ensuring what you want to be in focus is perfectly clear.

However, we did experience a little noise in darker photos, where the flash wasn't used. This may not be a problem when taking close up shots using the flash to highlight he foreground, but it does become a problem when taking shots such as landscapes where the background is in shadow.

The front-mounted camera also produces pretty good results for a VGA resolution snapper, although it’s only really good for FaceTime video calling and maybe taking your new Facebook profile picture. We'd recommend using the rear-mounted camera in most situations though.

FaceTime itself is a new addition to the iPhone, mostly because there's the hardware equipment there to make video calls. However, the feature feels a bit gimmicky. Although it works fine – pretty much like any other video calling function on older phones. Plus, only a very small percentage of people actually use video calling – everybody knows this. And on the iPhone, it's even more esoteric as you can only use it to call over iPhone users, which is a bit silly.

HD video recorded on the rear-mounted camera was top quality and at 30fp, there was little pixellation or jerkiness. It's good enough to post on your social networking sites, but doesn't quite rival a standalone camcorder. Tap to focus is again bundled in here, so you can switch focal points while recording video for some interesting effects.

In addition to recording in HD quality, you can also watch HD video on the iPhone's screen. Again, this is where the retina technology shines – it's so crisp and bright, albeit a tad hard to see on the smallish 3.5-inch display. If HTC were to employ this technology on the 4.3-inch HTC HD2, full films would be much more watchable.

The iPhone 4 includes, as you'd expect, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the bundled earphones are the usual Apple monstrosities, which are tinny with no soundproofing. Another issue is that earphones don't nestle as nicely into the 3.5mm jack input as they should and make operating the iPhone 4 a little awkward.

This may not seem to be a massive issue until you attempt to type using the iPhone on landscape mode. The earphone jack protrudes from the phone making it extremely uncomfortable to type and nigh on impossible to type fast. If you write long emails or messages, the same autocorrect is present, meaning your every word will be corrected even if your text entry is perfectly acceptable.

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