iPhone 4 first impressions
I got an iPhone 4 about 2 months ago, in late June 2010 a couple of weeks after they came out. I got the recommended bumper case when I bought it, and have never used it without it.
There have been lots of comments and controversy about the “antenna issue”, etc. regarding losing service.
I have not had one dropped call. I can stay on a phone call in an elevator up to the 22nd floor of a building. I can make a call from 3 floors below ground in the parking garage of that same building. My battery lasts twice as long as the iPhone 3GS, and my wireless speed is great. The phone itself is great, and the resolution on both the camera and the screen are fantastic.
I do have one gripe – the proximity sensor which tells the phone to turn off the touch screen when its near your head doesn’t work too well sometimes, especially when its hot out and you get sweaty. What this means is periodically my phone will get muted by my cheek, and I find myself periodically having to check and see if this is the case because all of sudden the other person is saying “Hello? Are you there?”
That has been my only gripe, and supposedly they are working on a fix for it. If its a hardware thing, in a few months I’ll bring it back to the store and get a new one. No big deal.
The bumper case I have two gripes with – one of them is that the opening on the bottom has rendered my surround sound dock and my car connector for the iPod functionality useless because the opening is a millimeter or two too small. I could fix this with a dremel tool, and will probably do so when I have the free time. The other gripe I have with it is that when trying to scroll all the way to the left of the screen when highlighting text, I have to kind of dig my thumbnail under the edge of the case.
All in all, not a big deal. If you don’t like using cell phone cases, don’t buy a $400 iPhone. If you buy the iPhone and don’t like it, you have 30 days to return it. Please note I’m primarily a Windows/PC person, and work heavily with Blackberries, so I am not at all biased towards Mac products. I have owned both, and while I do miss a physical keypad sometimes, the benefit to the touchscreen is that it discourages me from attempting to text or email while driving.