Bring it on iPhone 4

Science | August 12, 2010 | Share

The iPhone 4, as is the case with every other product from Apple, is yet another gadget brought out to quash the competition that has been brewing from Google and Microsoft. With new features that include an ultra-fast A4 Central Processing Unit (CPU), a new industrial design, a front-facing camera along with the five mega pixel camera on the back, and the all new Retina Display make it certain that the iPhone 4 lives up to the hype that surrounds it. Here is an inner look into what makes it click, and also those aspects that fall flat.

Parts of the body â€“ the hardware

The iPhone 4 has gone through an overhaul in terms of design. The people behind it have not just worked on the looks, but also on the way the materials feel in our hands. The result is that it comes across as the best smartphone that is out in the market right now. It looks far more expensive than it actually is.

If you thought they were done with the changes on the cover, then listen to this. The iPhone 4 is almost all new inside. With its own custom A4 CPU, internal storage capacities of 16GB and 32GB, and 802.11n WiFi radio, it is internally re-designed to house a much larger lithium-ion battery. This has increased the longevity of the battery, which has been a worrisome woe for Apple always. As much as 38 hours from a single charge has been squeezed out during testing, which is a lot even though its just the beginning.

What the Apple labels as â€œRetina Display is in layman terms a higher resolution and pixel density, making the display on the iPhone 4 more detailed and clearer than one can possibly imagine. As for the cameras, the one at the rear is the high resolution artist”s tool, while the one at the front is simply a VGA camera. With regard to the speaker and earpiece, Apple has tuned them to improve the call quality and the speakerphone quality, making them louder than they were.

Brain the software

An Apple product is not fully explained without its software. The iPhone 4 marks the advent of its new operating system iOS 4, which brings along with it multitasking, FaceTime, folders, enhanced mail and lots of other added features. Multitasking allows even third-party applications to run on the background, FaceTime allows you to make video calls over WiFi, folders that allow storing of more than 12 apps in a place, unified inbox, threaded mails, iBooks, iMovie, the list just seems endless. The iOS 4 has certainly taken the iPhone to a different level, and it comes in as a free upgrade online to owners of previous versions of iPhone and the iPod Touch as well.

Complaints
Notifications and widgets (the lack of it) are the only unsatisfactory parts of the latest iPhone. While the notification alerts continue to be highly irritating, widgets can certainly be added to increase the amount of information that is available at a glance.

Verdict

iPhone 4 would definitely win the competition for the best smartphone in the market, hands down. With the changes that they have incorporated in their hardware and software, Apple has moved to the first place in the race without any doubt. But for how long? Only time can answer.

A.S.Ganesh