The iPhone4 not as good as you think

Just like every year at the same time, a new version of the hugely popular iPhone was recently released on the market. The iPhone4 boasts a whole new range of sexy features like video calling or multitasking and, like its previous versions, is meant to take the mobile world to a new age. But despite all the hype a closer look at the device shows that the iPhone4 is far from perfect. Some important aspects of the phones technical specs have clearly been overlooked by the general public and even though it remains a state-of-the-art device, the iPhone4, I have to say is not as good as you may think.

First of all, iPhone4 does not mean iPhone 4G! Apple has branded their phone in a way that suggests it has got 4th generation mobile broadband capabilities whereas it doesn’t. As far as I’m concerned, the upcoming HTC Evo is the only handset so far equipped with such a feature. But it doesn’t really matter anyway as here in the UK there are at the moment no 4G infrastructures.

Then comes the feature that should transform the way we communicate: video calling. Video calling effectively combines audio and video, and is indeed a step ahead of traditional phone usage. But this is no breakthrough. Six years ago, I was already using a phone (manufactured by Sharp at the time) that allowed me to talk and watch my interlocutor at the same time. But the video calling concept never really took off and fell into oblivion until now. However the main issue that resides in the iPhone4’s new feature is that it only works through the WiFi. In other words users need to be connected to a WiFi network to place video calls. And this goes without saying that the receiver must also possess a phone capable of interpreting and displaying the video signal.

This brings me to my third point: the iPhone4 WiFi capabilities. Apple’s handheld devices are not particularly renowned for embedding powerful WiFi aerials, be it the iPhones series or the iPad. The iPhone4 surely doesn’t escape the rule. Proof is Steve Jobs’ Keynote speech last April: his demo of the iPhone4 was plagued by slow WiFi connection issues.

And last but not least, many iPhone4 customers reported signal reception issues, depending on how they were holding the device. This is certainly bad press for the device, especially as there are no quick fixes for the problem. In response, Apple told its customers “not to hold the device the wrong way”. This was a bit uncalled-for and shows that Apple should definitely start thinking about doing some sort of user research.

In sum, the iPhone4 is definitely far from being the perfect next generation mobile device. But don’t get me wrong; the new iPhone is a nice piece of electronics and my intention was not to discard it. Yet it is still not as good as you think.

This post was originally posted by Xavier Klingenfus