iPhone 4 Early Reviews Are In: Overwhelmingly Positive

June 22nd, 2010 by Avram Piltch, LAPTOP Online Editorial Director

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Most consumers won’t get the iPhone 4 until later this week, but a few fortunate media outlets have begun posting their reviews. The consensus: iPhone 4 is a major upgrade over its competitors and, to many, the best smart phone on the market today. However, most reviewers conceded that many users will still prefer Android phones and that AT&T’s network continues to have a negative effect on the iPhone’s reception and throughput.

Let’s have a look at what the reviewers had to say about some of the iPhone 4′s major features.

Design and Chassis

Many praised the phone’s strong, slim chassis. Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin wrote of his failed attempts to damage the iPhone 4: ”Fighting instinct (my… precious!)I banged it on the side of metal tables, attempted to scuff it on the floor, and it did not sustain scratches as my iPhone 3GS and first-edition iPhone have.”

PC World’s Melissa J. Perenson writes of the iPhone 4′s aesthetics that “the overall design screams elegance–from the rounded, individual volume up and down buttons that replace the plastic volume rocker on the iPhone 3GS to the ring/silent switch and the power/sleep button up top.”

However, David Pogue noted that the mute and volume buttons are harder to press than on the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

Retina Display

The iPhone 4′s new 960 x 640, 326 pixel-per-inch “retina display” lived up to expectations with Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky writing “to our eyes, there has never been a more detailed, clear, or viewable screen on any mobile device.” Mossberg writes of the text quality that “text on the screen shows no jagged lines, even when expanded to giant size.”

Battery Life

Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky writes that his iPhone lasted a whopping 38 hours of regular everyday use: talking, getting mail, web surfing, and even playing games. Other reviewers were less precise. Mossberg said that his iPhone lasted never reached critical battery level in a day of testing and Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin concurs writing that “with very heavy video recording and playback, instant messaging, email and data tethering over 3G, I got a full day of battery life.”

Unlike the other reviewers, at LAPTOP has a scientific battery test that focuses on one particular task — web surfing — and shows exactly how long the phone can last while performing that task. We’ll have our test results available shortly after we get our hands on the iPhone 4 later this week.

Face Time Video Chat

The reviewers liked both the simplicity and quality of Apple’s video chat application, with David Pogue pointing out that other phones have offered front-facing cameras and video chat before the iPhone 4, but that Apple’s offering is “the first phone to make good video calls, reliably, with no sign-up or setup, with a single tap.” USA Today’s Edward C. Baig likes FaceTime also, but experienced some brief issues when he was talking to a friend in Europe or was calling from an area with weak Wi-Fi.

Camera

The reviewers were pleased with both the iPhone 4′s image quality and the speed at which it shoots. Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky calls the 5-megapixel back-facing camera’s pictures “stunning” and says that shooting is “almost instantaneous.” David Pogue writes of the video that it’s “the equivalent of a Flip camcorder in your phone” and says half-jokingly that he expects to see an iPhone film win a Cannes award next year.

Connection and Call Quality

While their praise for the iPhone 4′s hardware and software was nearly unbridled, AT&T received a ton of criticism. Mossberg writes unapologetically that “Apple needs a second network” and says that, despite the iPhone 4′s supposedly-improved antenna, he encountered at least six occasions where the iPhone 4 had more difficulty connecting to AT&T than a last-gen iPhone he held in his other hand. The new iPhone also failed to show bars on a number of occasions when, in fact, it had a good enough signal to make call.

On the other hand, David Pogue touted the iPhone 4′s improved sound quality, citing its noise-cancelling microphone and improved audio chamber. He also credits the iPhone 4′s ability to choose the best available cell tower and says that, while the new phone still drops calls, he experienced fewer hang-ups.

Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin also reports better reception on the iPhone 4, saying that “connectivity improvements engineered into this device seem to help you make the best of a very imperfect carrier.” He also tested the tethering function with Bluetooth and says it worked “flawlessly.”

Early Verdict

The early reviewers are obviously impressed, but we’ll withhold our verdict until we’ve had a chance to test the iPhone 4 ourselves. We’re particularly keen to run the iPhone 4 through our battery test.

In the meantime, here’s a list of all the early reviews we cited above: