A Look At The iPhone 4
For awhile, no smartphone manufacturers held a candle to Apple and its iPhone. As time went on, companies realized that their existence would depend on keeping up with smartphone technology and spent time and money improving their own models. As the gap has closed, Apple felt the pressure to remain ahead of the competition, and has answered their competitors’ handsets with the iPhone 4.
One of the changes found in the iPhone 4 is on the inside of the phone. The iPhone 4’s predecessor, the 3GS contained a Samsung-based Cortex CPU. This has been replaced by Apple’s own A4 chip, the same one used by the iPad. The iPhone 4 does not quite speed along at the same rate as the 1GHz available to the iPad, but it is still more than fast enough. It brings up graphics quickly and navigates seamlessly. Those who find it too slow are likely looking for something to complain about.
Those quickly-rendered graphics are displayed on a 3.5 inch screen with 960 x 640 pixel resolution. Combine that with a mind-numbing 326 ppi pixel density and you have a display that is absolutely second to none. The incredible resolution makes up for any shortcomings in size, and it has even earned the name of Retina Display. It is so named due to the claim that it presents graphics in more detail than the human eye is able to distinguish. It may seem like overkill to present clarity that the user can’t see anyway, but at least consumers need not worry about a less than stellar display. In fact, many testes of the iPhone 4 have stated that the Retina Display easily provides the sharpest images they’ve yet seen.
It almost wouldn’t be worth having the Retina Display if the iPhone 4 possessed the 3 megapixel camera of past models. There are no worries here, because it doesn’t. The iPhone 4 has upgraded to a 5 megapixel camera that includes a backside-illuminated sensor with improved sensitivity to light. Also featured is an LED flash, although it can blow out some photos, a symptom not uncommon in flashes of this kind. It really is not that big of a deal, because the camera takes great pictures in low light and without a flash.
Perhaps the biggest addition to the iPhone 4 is the ability to multitask. Some critics have voiced their displeasure that the handset doesn’t offer true backgrounding (the iPhone lets a few APIs that approximate backgrounding to operate at a time), but it is close enough that most users won’t have a problem at all. Apple’s claim was that they didn’t apply multitasking to their smartphones due to battery drain. Now that this is not an issue, the iPhone 4 has been noted for its battery life, approaching nearly 40 hours of normal use in some tests.
Apple has once again set the bar in smartphone technology with the iPhone 4. With its unmatched Retina Display and high performance, the iPhone has placed Apple first in many consumers’ minds. Customers will be more than pleased with what the iPhone 4 has to offer.
