Since it seems to be the popular thing to do lately…<\/p>\n
Photos look good, but text is where the difference really pops out at you. Fortunately it’s not an obnoxious kind of difference – you just notice the letterforms really look the way they’re supposed to<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Another thing that was obvious at launch: folders are a much nicer feature when you can actually discern the icons of the contents – you can actually read the word “TIME” in the in-folder icon for the app.<\/li>\n
All in all, I don’t feel like this is a must-have upgrade that everyone should be signing up for as soon as possible. As front-facing camera apps get to be more popular, that functionality will start to show value – same with Retina Display apps. It’s a similar situation to the iPad – the hardware is different in substantial ways, but it really is the third-party applications that make the iPhone the powerhouse platform it is. The iPad has been out for a few months now and still has a ways to go in terms of finding its set of killer apps; I expect the iPhone 4 side may move a bit faster given the size of the upgrade base and the lower level of expectations as far as change of functionality given it has the same form factor.<\/p>\n
The biggest question that remains unanswered for me in the Android-iPhone battle is a single feature: screen size. The larger 4.3″ screens on recent Android phones seem to be made solely to out-spec the iPhone on the display front and count themselves as HD. Yet now, they’re outclassed on resolution as well. I can’t imagine holding one of those comfortably in a single hand. Perhaps I’m mistaken and mobile hotspot functionality is a must-have for a bulk of consumers in the United States, but barring that, I echo Engadget’s sentiments: this reinforces Apple’s dominant posturing in the smartphone arena. There are things it lacks, but at the end of the day, they’re things you’d rather live without the few times you’d need them than put up with many tiny quirks on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
postscript: I tested the “left corner signal degradation” situation earlier; it seems that if you don’t give your phone the death grip, signal is affected minimally. It also seems to be intermittent – sometimes you can just put a sweaty palm to the corner and have no degradation, and sometimes putting a few fingers on it lightly is enough to take you from 5 bars to 1. I don’t know if it affects actual call or data quality; some have said that it does not.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since it seems to be the popular thing to do lately… The industrial design is brilliant, but doesn’t look as awesome in non-perfectly-lit real life – we all know how powerful the photoshop makeover can be but for some reason this time the gap seems to be disproportionately huge. It doesn’t feel as narrow as … Continue reading iPhone 4 First Impressions<\/span>