Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. unveiled the new iPhone 4 at Apple WWDC 2010 Conference on 7th June 2010. As a smartphone lover, we are curious…what is so special about the fourth iteration of the the beloved iPhone.
First of all, the new iPhone 4 is all new designed. The design of this model is quite different from its previous models. Now it got all new stainless steel around it for more strength. Plus these stainless steel also function as a set of integrated antennas for GSM, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. This is what known as brilliant engineering. The new iPhone 4 is the thinnest smartphone ever, a thickness of just 9.3 mm that is 24% thinner from current thinner smartphones.
Second one, a new high resolution display that doubles the pixels in each direction (960 x 640) for a 4X overall pixel count increase. Apple calls it a “Retina Display.” Because it have four times as many pixels, it shows really, really sharp text. This display is rated as 326ppi, which Apple claims is beyond the human eye’s limit of distinction, which is 300ppi. It also have 800:1 contrast ratio which is also 4X better than the current one. And the display is similar to the iPad IPS display but with still the same old 3.5-inch size.
Third, the iPhone 4 is powered by the A4 chip which is Apple’s custom built chip. What they have done different is that they make the size of the chip small so they can make the size of the battery bigger. So now it got improved battery life with 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music… and 300 hours of standby.
Number four, Apple iPhone 4 have another new piece of hardware known as Gyroscope with a 3 axis gyro.
Apple have tied the gyro and accelerometer, compass for six axis, which is perfect for gaming. The camera has been bumped to 5 megapixels, with 5X digital zoom and a “backside illuminated sensor,” which now can also record HD video at 720p / 30fps. Plus many more features like tap to focus video, build-in video editing, one click sharing and LED flash.
On the software side Apple have made a huge improvement with the introduction of multi-tasking. Which is what we all apple lovers missed about it in the past. But now it’s there with the best of all multi-tasking features available for any smartphone in the market. Other software improvements are included like Apps Folder, New unified mail inbox and threading, the new iMovie, and the introduction of iBooks for iPhone.
Another important feature of this new iPhone is its introduction of advanced Video calling features known as “Face Time”. It’s a video calling from one iPhone 4 to another anywhere there is Wi-Fi with zero setup required, can be used in both portrait and landscape mode with both front and rear camera.
The phone will be available in white or black, retailing at $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for 32GB. They go on sale June 24th, and AT&T will be giving some extra grace upgrade timing — up to six months early. The 3GS will be dropped to $99 and the 3G will disappear completely. Pre-orders start in a week, with 5 countries at launch (US, France, Germany, UK, Japan), with 18 more following in July. Apple will also be selling a first party case for $29, and a dock for the same price.
So with this, I think there’s lots of special things about the new Apple’s iPhone 4.
