Anandtech reviews iPhone 4

[abaez]

I do agree that the search tool for the market is abysmal. No sorting by rating, ABC or anything like that.

But it's not like the itunes store is perfect either. There are like what? 40K ebook apps? 100 Jane Eyre ebooks alone. 900 weather apps.. etc etc.

 

[zerocool84]

Fair enough. I used to love tinkering with computers when I was in HS, but now I just want things to work and not to have to worry about them, and that mentality carries over ten fold when it comes to phones. I really, really, really dont want to have to micromanage my phone to get acceptable battery life or to install some app.

Anand always puts it fairly simply, Androids are like PC's in which you can do more and customize it much more and puts more info at you on one screen but for people who just want something to work much simpler without wanting to customize anything the iPhone is for you. Every phone has bugs obviously. Yes we expect more out of Apple cus they have always set a higher bar of excellence for themselves and really need to do something about the issue and the reason why many people get Apple products is cus they say it just works with no problems so of course when a huge issue like the antennae came up, people were going to talk about it.

 

[theeedude]

Isn't the whole point of apps to customize your phone?

 

[TheWart]

Isn't the whole point of apps to customize your phone?

What? The point of Apps is to let you do things on your phone that were not possible or too cumbersome to do before.

My phone is not some sort of status symbol that I flaunt because it has a custom background or something lol. I get Apps if I want to do something - whether read the news or play games or something else.

 

[zerocool84]

What? The point of Apps is to let you do things on your phone that were not possible or too cumbersome to do before.

My phone is not some sort of status symbol that I flaunt because it has a custom background or something lol. I get Apps if I want to do something - whether read the news or play games or something else.

Well some people want something different on their phone. Different colors of cases? Different apps? Not everyone wants the exact same phone.

 

[CTrain]

Anand & Bryan did an awesome job. Being able to quantify the signal attenuation the way they did was genius.

And yeah, as an Apple investor & fan of tech made by anyone, I think Apple should do a recall.

I also think they screwed the pooch in field testing, likely by using those dummy covers so no one knew they were prototype phones, the covers acted as insulation and no one detected the problem.

Very astute obversation.
One had to wonder before why a company like Apple would gaff on such an important issue.
This make absolute sense.

 

[TheWart]

Well some people want something different on their phone. Different colors of cases? Different apps? Not everyone wants the exact same phone.

I guess, but I make purchasing decisions based on what works best for me, not whether or not other people own the same thing....but I guess if being part of the 'I'm cool cause I don't like popular things' hipster crowd drives what you buy, then kudos to you I suppose...

 

[BenSkywalker]

What is the state of Widgets on iPhone at this point? I've been looking and can't seem to find where they are at. With widgets, Swype and the bugs worked out of Google Voice it seems like the iPhone4 may be a decent low power/great battery life alternative to the Android phones.

I'm a little confused as to why Anand included a cost comparison if he was going to leave out the Nexus One? Two year total cost of ownership ends up being $2208.76, that's $990 less then i4 with tethering and $1,109 less then the Evo 4G. If it was a few bucks I could understand, but when you are talking about a ~$1K premium I'd say that counts as a fairly large issue. Obviously you have the issues of dealing with TMo's network at that point, but at least in my area that is no different then dealing with AT&T and Sprint(Verizon is the only service that seems to lack problems around here, except their pricing on plans...).

 

[akugami]

I don't really think there are real widgets on the iPhone. Apple is kinda anal about the user experience and any app that changes it is more likely than not going to be rejected. There are a lot of apps to assist in tasks but assuming you mean widgets as in applets that modify or enhance the user experience, there are none of those unless you jailbreak.


I will say that I have money invested in the iPhone apps which is why unless Android is unquestionably better than the iPhone, I will have to stay with the iPhone. Lotta fanboy crap on which is better but I've analyzed both the iPhone and the leading Android devices and concluded that both will suffice for my general use but there are a few niche apps on the iPhone that I do use that is not available on Android.

Android is nice but with the latest iOS 4 update any lead Android may have gained has been closed. The differences between the two, as far as Joe Consumer is concerned, is nil. For some like me, even though Android is better for tech oriented folks, I'll still have to go with the iPhone for niche apps and the fact that I've already got an investment made in iPhone apps that can't be ported over to Android.

 

[zerocool84]

I guess, but I make purchasing decisions based on what works best for me, not whether or not other people own the same thing....but I guess if being part of the 'I'm cool cause I don't like popular things' hipster crowd drives what you buy, then kudos to you I suppose...

That has nothing to do with it. People want to make the products they own their own. That's why people get different color cases or skin stickers on their phones. People like to accessorize their phones just as much as anything. People wanting custom backgrounds or themes for their phones. Some people WANT customization on their phone. I've said it three times. There are some people like you who don't care but there are people who do. That's why we have choices of things in life. Not everyone wants the same thing.

 

[BenSkywalker]

The differences between the two, as far as Joe Consumer is concerned, is nil.

Widgets are kind of sledge hammer to the bridge of your nose obvious. Anecdotal tidbit- one the guys I work with has an iPhone 3G right now. My phone was making noises one day and I'd take it out every once in a while to glance at it- he assumed I kept getting texts and asked why I wasn't replying. I told him I was checking the scores on the games- he asked how the hell I could do that in three seconds; I handed him my phone where I have a scrolling scoreboard widget, news widget, stock ticker widget and weather widget all running. They update themselves constantly and all I do to check them all is unlock my phone for a second, glance over them, and lock it(Sports widget is set to chime on updates). With his iPhone to do the same, it would take him several minutes to get the same information. We had this talk a couple weeks ago, he said he was going to check out if the iPhone 4 had widget support, if it didn't he was planning on getting a Droid X.

It does change the user experience in a profound way, it makes it significantly better for those of us who want a bunch of information available in an instant(I was just giving examples of the widgets I have on my home screen, there are a lot more). To me at this point widgets are absolutely essential in a smartphone. If I really want to take the time to fire up five different apps, or load a browser and check multiple sites, I have PCs around me most of the time. With widgets, it's all available with a simple unlock of my home screen.

There are a whole bunch of widgets like the funky clocks that are just their for visuals/personalization. There are also tons of widgets that are rather functional. The funny thing to me is that Apple popularized widgets on OSX-

http://media.arstechnica.com/images/tiger/dashboard-ripple.jpg

They popularize something with such brilliant potential, have the absolute perfect spot to utilize it(phones make far more sense the desktop machines) and they don't.

http://spritely.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dashboardwidgets.jpg

iPad has them too. Yes, you can quickly launch an app that has each bit of information that you are looking for, close it out, and then open the next app to get the next bit of information. Mac OSX, iPad and Android users all have an easier way to do it, just not iPhone