Without further ado… it’s iPhone 4 Day

Should you join the queues to grab a piece of tech perfection or spurn an overpriced toy? The Independent has been testing the iPhone for a week now before the public release, so read on for our considered verdict.

Last year’s iPhone, the 3GS, had improvements over the previous incarnation, such as a speedy processor, better camera and the facility to shoot video, but users felt they wanted a bigger leap forward. This time, they’ve got it.

First, the design is strikingly different, and this year’s model is catwalk-slim (9.3mm thick, since you ask). The curved plastic back is replaced by tactile tough glass back and front, surrounded by a neat stainless steel band which acts as the antenna for the phone as well as making for a strong, solid handset.

Apple says it’s ecstatic about the signal quality this new antenna offers and certainly in our tests things were better. The 20-second wait while calls connected – an occasional but passionate complaint from iPhone users – was happily absent. Call quality has been improved, for the person you’re calling at least, by the addition of an extra microphone on the top of the phone to measure ambient noise and cancel it out.

You’ll have heard about the high-resolution screen (four times the pixels in the same size display), but seeing it is another thing entirely. Text stays crisp and sharp no matter how much you zoom in, which is handy now the electronic books program, iBooks is now available for the iPhone, too. Additionally, games shine in glorious detail and your photos look like works of art. It’s hard to go back to a regular phone screen after this.

The screen also makes video look good when you play it back on the phone. If you’ve shot it on the iPhone 4 that’s partly because it can shoot video at 720p high-definition resolution. Even better, thanks to the new iMovie app, only for iPhone 4, you can even edit the footage in sophisticated ways on the phone.

Of course, that inviting screen means you’ll want to look at it more and screen backlight is a massive drain of power. This is one of the reasons Apple didn’t switch to OLED technology for the screen, apparently. OLED (Organic LED) is used on many rival smartphones, and very smart it looks, too. However, Apple says OLED draws less power with dark images, extra power when showing lighter images and because so many web pages have white backgrounds, this could drain the battery more.

Battery life was always the iPhone’s Achilles’ heel, but this edition has a substantially bigger rechargeable battery inside which makes a noticeable difference. It won’t mean you can leave it for days between charges like a text-and-voice basic phone, but you won’t panic about it running out of mojo by midday.

The iPhone 4 has the same Apple A4 processor which makes its larger-screened sibling the iPad whizz merrily along, making it a pleasingly fast experience. Wi-fi speeds are faster, too. The iPhone 4 is one of a tiny handful of phones with the fastest ‘n-series’ wireless built in, a fact scarcely noticed in some reviews but which is a great addition, as we’ll see when we get to FaceTime. Face-what, you ask? Hold that thought, I’m getting there.

It’s worth noticing in passing that the latest version of iPhone software, called iOS4, has a lot of new features, too. Many will apply to current iPhone 3GS users, though only a few to the previous iPhone 3G and none to the original iPhone.

These features include some basics other phones have already, like choosing a background picture for the screen that persists when the apps appear. And multi-tasking so you can play music from a compliant music app while checking your emails, say. A double-press on the button on the front of the phone shows current or recent apps alongside extras like iPod controls.

And if you use a lot of apps, it’s now easier to find them. There are 11 screens on the iPhone, each showing 16 apps, plus the four which sit at the base of all home screens and the Spotlight in-phone search program which has a special screen all to itself. That makes 181, but if you have more than that, they sit coyly out of sight, waiting to be found via Spotlight. Now, if you wish, you can combine apps in folders by simply dragging one app shortcut over another and letting the iPhone do the rest. Simple and effective.

Anyway, FaceTime. So, do you regularly make video calls on your mobile?Occasional, even? Me neither. Apple is hoping that you and I are going to change. FaceTime is what it’s calling its new video calling feature, and is one of the signature features of the iPhone 4.

There are reasons why video calling hasn’t taken off. It first arrived in the UK as a supposed killer app on 3G phones but the problem was that if you were the first person with a video-calling phone, you had nobody to talk to. Better to be the second, at least. Then there was the call quality: iffy video and poor lip-synching on a titchy phone screen, like some horrible throwback karaoke video. And worst of all, the calls were pricey over the 3G network – they still tend to be double the cost of voice calls today.

FaceTime addresses these worries head-on. Video quality is tremendous – the

whole of the high-resolution 3.5-inch display shows the person you’re talking to, save for a small window which displays what they’re seeing. And if that window isn’t where you want it, you can drag your finger across the touchscreen to suit.

The number of iPhone 4’s in the country was practically nil yesterday, but more than a million have already been sold worldwide, so you should have someone to talk to soon. Apple has limited FaceTime calls to wi-fi networks rather than 3G, so that fast n-series wi-fi capability will be handy.

The cost argument has evaporated. FaceTime won’t use your bundled minutes or

cost a bean, unless there’s a charge for the wi-fi connection. This handily means that, like Skype video calls on a PC, there’s no cost even if you’re talking internationally. FaceTime, obviously, is rather more portable than a PC.
Even so, do you want to use this new feature? Well, FaceTime is idiot-proof: it works without complicated set-up. Dial a number and if the other person can accept a FaceTime call you’ll get an option for one. If you want to show a friend round your new flat, or get their take on the shoes you’re looking at in a wi-fi enabled boutique or – best – make them envious at the Mediterranean sunset you’re enjoying from your hotel balcony, one screen tap switches the view to the phone’s rear camera. Hint: hold the phone in landscape orientation so they can really see the beaches they’re not on.

The iPhone was made into something more than a phone because of the genius of off-the-wall developers creating unexpected apps. So here, it’s the ingenuity of the user that will make FaceTime calls desirable – Apple has provided a capable and appealing blank canvas.

The new hardware also includes an intriguing extra unseen on other phones: a gyroscope. If you think you won’t use this, wait and see. Last year’s 3GS added a digital compass which developers have used for Augmented Reality apps. That’s where data from the web is overlaid on a view of the physical world seen through a phone’s camera, say. These are hot property now, guiding people to the nearest Tube station by making a sign seem to float in the air in the appropriate direction, for instance.

Apple hopes developers will come up with imaginative ways to use the extra degrees of freedom a gyroscope offers for games and other apps that tease and delight.

It’s a metaphor for what the iPhone does best – it provides hardware that does something groundbreaking and makes it quickly essential. The new handset, certainly the most powerful iPhone yet, is a cluster of new features expertly implemented, all housed in an irresistible, gorgeous case.

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