Core77

Core77's iPhone 4 first impressions

By Rain Noe - June 24, 2010

in Object Culture

Years ago I was employed as an urban dating columnist. (What can I say, it was the dot-com boom.) For one installment I took a NYC-based dating workshop called the RelationShop. Internet dating was just picking up at the time, and the workshop instructor/relationship guru gave us all this piece of advice for navigating dating websites: "Don't put up an overly flattering picture of yourself," he warned. "If you do, your blind date will have that image of you in their head; and when they arrive to the first date and find you don't look as advertised, their initial reaction is disappointment. And disappointment is the worst possible way to start a date, never mind a relationship."

I'm here to tell you the new iPhone 4 is the opposite of a so-so date with an amazing picture. Photographs simply do not do this thing justice. And I'm not talking about the leaked Gizmodo shots, I mean Apple's highest-quality PR hero shots. They make the thing look decent, but when you see it in person, in 3D, and hold it in your hands, you cannot help but be in absolute awe of the styling, build quality, and fine detailing.

The stainless steel band that runs around the phone, the ridiculously tight fit-and-finish of the Micro SIM card cover (the tolerance looks to be in microns), the fine grill covering the earpiece and speakers that looks like it's made with nanotechnology, the subtle, circular bezel around the front-facing camera--these are all details that say the designer or design team gives a damn. They give a serious damn. To a regular consumer this looks like an elegant device. To an industrial designer this looks like Saturdays at work, missed birthdays, and going home late at night but then turning your car around in the parking lot and heading back into the office because you had another idea. Someone or some team slaved over this thing and it shows.

One example of the detailing I was struck by is the edges. Seen in profile, the stainless band is not the same width as the phone; it's slightly narrower. And seen in front view, the glass is slightly narrower all around than the stainless band. So what you have running around both the front and back edges of the phone is a little step, if you can imagine the cross-section, the cavity between two corners. Whether by design or accident--I'm going to guess it's the former--this circumferential void provides a modicum of grip. Your finger hits, on a micro level, two edges rather than one and registers the phone in your hand. Both stainless steel and glass are inherently slippery materials, and if the corners met perfectly, picking the phone up would be difficult. The stepped edges ameliorate this.

If that's not enough grip for you, Apple also offers a "Bumper," a rubber/plastic edge that goes around the edges. One nice detail about the bumper is that it has integrated silver metal-look buttons that go over the phone's volume and on/off buttons. Overall the bumper provides greater grip and is easy to pop on, but I dislike it for several reasons: One, it covers up the stainless steel band, which I like to see; two, it recesses the "mute" button so far that you can only manipulate it by concentrating and using your fingernail; and three, perhaps most bewilderingly, the iPhone does not fit in the (new for iPhone 4) dock with the bumper on! The design detail lavished on the iPhone itself does not appear to have been evenly distributed to the Bumper.

Same goes for the new dock, which is smaller than the old but has the same ergonomic problem: Removing the iPhone from its dock is impossible to do one-handed. The dock sticks to the phone, so one hand must grab the phone while the other reaches behind it to press the back of the dock against the desk while you lift it. I don't think I've ever read another reviewer mention this, and I'm prepared to be criticized as being the only person this bothers; but I bring it up because I see Apple as a company that considers every element of the entire user experience, and I find it curious that the docking experience is not as considered as all of the other things they do.

Now, back to the phone itself. After reading some technical arguments online about the Retina Display, I was prepared for it to be underwhelming. My fears were unfounded. The Retina Display is an order of magnitude better than the older iPhone's display. I never thought the old iPhone screen was bad, it's just that the RD is so much freakin' crisper, in everything from little tiny thumbnails to full-screen photos, that the side-by-side difference is nothing short of astonishing. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but folks, you have to see it for yourself--I tried photographing old-vs.-new-side-by-side but I don't have a camera with a good enough lense to make out the fine detail. Colors have more pop, edges have more definition, and in comparison, perfectly in-focus photos I had on the old iPhone look blurry and out of focus compared to the way they look on the iPhone 4.

This also goes for reading webpages in Safari. When viewing fine text, at points it's difficult to believe, aside from the luminance, that what you're looking at is electronic and not printed on paper. The crispness you've read about has not been exaggerated.

In terms of speed, the iPhone 4 is noticeably much faster. Push a button and you get the response instantly. This was most noticeable when I was taking side-by-side photos with the old and new iPhones (it should be noted, though, that my older model is a 3G); hit the shutter on the old one and there's some lag. Hit the new one and it's lightning-quick.

Here are some old-vs.-new iPhone camera photos (older up top) of this morning's line at the Apple Store next to the Core77 offices:

Later I'll try shooting some video to show you.

Well folks, this was just a first-impressions post as I've only had the phone for a few hours. I haven't had a chance to try the Facetime feature yet, as I've got to find someone else who's got an iPhone 4. I guess I could use the front-facing camera to do something else, like...take a photo of myself for a dating website. Just gotta make sure I catch the least flattering angle.

o

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Ron

14 years ago

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I'm curios about the left handed model suggestion. I'm a bit ambidextrous, I can do most things with both hands without minding. I tried holding the phone with my right hand and with my left hand, I really can see any usability difference regarding the controls on the left of the phone. If you're holding it in your right hand you use your finger, in your left hand you use your thumb. Both seem equally comfortable. So why do a left handed model.

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Jim

14 years ago

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Consider me right there with you on the criticism of the iPhone dock, though (in defense of the dock) I have gotten used to holding it down with my pinky as I pry the phone loose with my index-finger and thumb.

What really drives me crazy is the iPad dock. Not only does it suffer from the same inability to release the device without pushing down on the dock, but the iPad is large enough that you can't pull it up and push down on the dock at the same time with only one hand. You *have* to use two hands. It's aggravating.
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octo

14 years ago

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Nice objective journalism - you're seriously pimping this thing way too hard.

For instance - the SIM card slot has a 0.05mm clearance - that's a little different than microns.
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Zach W.

14 years ago

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I'm left handed and hold it in my left hand. Maybe I'm weird.

I do agree with the "it's just a phone" comments, but it is nothing to get bent out of shape about. I got one the day before launch because I had pre-ordered. It's awesome, it is beautiful, it is functional and the camera is fantastic. People get so hung up on the megapixels a camera has versus looking at the actual quality of the pictures. a 5-megapixel camera will print a clean 11x17 picture... who is printing 11x17 out of your camera?? Aren't cell phone cameras used for taking pictures of car accidents and naked self portraits??
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Joel

14 years ago

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I just wanted to comment one last time about this product because I had the chance to use one a couple of days ago. There are two things that that really stand out about this product. The first is that the phone is very thin, and finally flat on the back. These are two things that bothered me about the earlier 3g design that they have now improved greatly on. Credit can go to the engineers for that. The second, and probably most important thing that stood out was obviously the high resolution screen. And yes it is the best I've seen. Compared to the 3GS it is night and day and makes browsing and reading much more enjoyable on a devise that size. However I can only give credit to Apple for making the choice to use a screen of that caliber. It seems that people think that Apple somehow invented that display. This is not the case, they purchase it from a manufacturer just like most any capacitive touchscreen. It won't be long before another phone brand uses a display with that high resolution. Now I'm sorry for that earlier comment of how I would change the design, I just got carried away. The point is that there are many things that they could have, or even should have done differently (the antennae that looks cool but as we know now seems to be a little "form before function"), but overall they did a great job with the devise. Just please don't put Apple products up on a pedestal just because of the name. I mean the click wheel for the Ipod was absolutely genius but lets just give credit where credit is due.
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maishado

14 years ago

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I find the comment above about left handed mobiles interesting.

The volume controls or on the left hand side, which means you hold it in your left hand, which is what most right handed people do - do left handed people do the reverse?

Is this a convention from the days of old corded phones/pay phones where one would hold the handset in their weak hand while dialing with their good hand?
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Eddie

14 years ago

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Good review! The beauty is in the details isn't it? I too was planning on keeping my 3G but... I so love quality!
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Kelsey

14 years ago

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I am going to agree on the salivating comment. I can understand your appreciation for the beauty of this phone, however when it gets to the point where there is little to no critique I feel there is a problem. There can always be improvement, and this phone is no exception. The signal problem should have been recognized early on in the testing phase and remedied immediately. And as for the camera, sure it is nice in comparison to the iPhone 3G, but Apple should be competing with their competitor's far more advanced cameras, not with themselves. Verizon understand this, which is why they will never take on the iPhone. They want to compete with Apple and AT&T, and healthy competition will keep this market strong and the technology improving.

That all being said, the display is absolutely gorgeous...
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Chris Cho

14 years ago

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Thanks for the rwview article. Forget the iPhone. I'm more captivated by your writing style. I really enjoy reading your articles. Good work! Thanks.
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Gerard

14 years ago

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It's.....

a.....

phone.

If this was something brilliant that was to the benefit of mankind, I'd be excited too. But it's a phone - a pretty one, BUT a phone. What's more it's a phone that, like every other phone thee days, is contributing to the degradation of language, proper social skills and etiquette.

Show me a nice piece of design that actually does something truly useful and I'll share your enthusiasm.
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Joel

14 years ago

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I disagree with the idea that having the metal band slightly thiner than the full thickness of the phone was for grip at all. I'm guessing that this actually had a little more to do with the manufacturing process. The grip would be just fine and give the phone a slightly more polished look with a little chamfer on both top and bottom edge of the stainless band. I do like the simplicity though.
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chris

14 years ago

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I have to say I'm a little baffled by all this salivating. yes it's sexy (it's an apple) but isn't the ID getting lost? I to need to wait for a left hand version also or buy a protective bumper to not only to protect it but to also make sure the thing can receive a signal. I'm all for a bit of sexiness - but looks without function isn't sex it's masturbation.
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Hyperion

14 years ago

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I think you're putting the ID of the iPhone on a pedestal. It looks to me like someone modeled some rectangles, then went to town with the fillet command. I can appreciate fit and finish, but it looks like every other brick of a phone IMO.
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Ken J

14 years ago

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I'll wait for the left handed version to come out.
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Lester

14 years ago

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Rob, read what Derek Powazek has to say about the camera:

"The iPhone 4 is the first decent cellphone camera I've ever owned. I'm just stunned by the image quality."

"Just look at the detail and clarity. I've owned digital cameras that took crappier photos."
http://powazek.com/posts/2503
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Andrew Jackson

14 years ago

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The shame is that so much is poured into an object that is essentially the pinnacle of disposable culture. A lot of users will ditch it when it is superseded.
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Lee Anne

14 years ago

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Rain, I recently slung coffee in the East Village for six months while waiting on a security clearance and kept running into your doppelganger. It was disconcerting and it made me miss our lj conversations of old. I'm in DC now, but it's great to see that the Internet is still graced with your sharp-ass commentary.

And hot fucking damn, this girl is ready for some iPhone.
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Tina

14 years ago

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I'd convinced myself I didn't need it...I wasn't going to get one...I was happy with my 3G. Great review. I can resist anything but temptation
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Rob Podell

14 years ago

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It's great that they made the screen nicer, and the processor faster, but I am extremely disappointed with the camera. The resolution might be slightly higher, but the lens is still extremely small, which provides craptastic images. Upon looking at your comparo photos, the only difference it seems is saturation, which is probably achieved via software. The crispness does not seem improved at all. I really wish there was a $800 iPhone with a decent camera, even if it was twice as big. The current camera just does not seem worth using.
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tedrouse

14 years ago

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Have you experienced any of the problems that are circulating the webs? Cellular signal loss that people are reporting when holding it by the stainless steel band/antenna, or slight yellow discolouration lines or spots on the screen?
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