If you're on the Internet much, there wasn't a lot about this morning's iPhone 4 announcement to surprise you thanks to a number of leaks of the upcoming version of the phone. Apple boss Steve Jobs played it cool, though, joking that the audience should "stop me if you've seen this one." But, he was quick to add, photos alone don't do the new phone justice. "You really have to try it to appreciate it," he said.
Big words, but after getting my hands on an iPhone 4 -- however briefly -- I have to agree.
As with so many of Apple's modern products, the tactile experience is a huge part of their appeal. The iPhone finally brings the precision-machined feel of the MacBook Pro to the mobile device, leaving behind the crummy plastic shell of the iPhone 3G and 3GS in favor of a denser, slimmer, more solid glass enclosure (yes, both front and back are glass) rimmed with steel that doubles both as the phone's skeleton and as its various antennae. It feels compact and artfully crafted; Jobs compared the iPhone 4 to an old Leica camera, and I can see the comparison: Both devices exude a tactile sense of quality and solidity generally lacking in their peers.
The aesthetic improvements don't end there, though, since the iPhone 4 doubles its pixel density, cramming a screen resolution 78% that of the iPad into a space much smaller than the iPad. I'm sure nerds will debate the company's of IPS screens over OLED endlessly, but from a visual standpoint it makes sense: IPS screens are brighter, more vivid, has better contrast, and offers superior viewing angles. Everything on the iPhone 4's screen looks amazing.
Still, what impresses me about the device is that all its changes aren't simply about looks; there's also a practical element to each of them. The steel frame looks and feels classy, for instance, but it also works to turn the entire phone into its own antenna -- which won't do anything to improve AT&T's service, but should at least help to extend the phone's range and make it slightly easier to make a connection in areas with weak cellular signals. Likewise, the wide viewing angle of the phone will come in handy both for FaceTime visual telephony and for games which make use of the internal gyroscope.
Speaking of FaceTime, Jobs mentioned that it's only available on wi-fi until U.S. carriers improve their bandwidth and reliability. But at the same time, he was clear that FaceTime is strictly a service available between two iPhone 4s -- Macs with an integral camera and iChat are out of luck. It turns out this isn't some arbitrary limitation, though, because FaceTime requires a telephone connection despite its reliance on wi-fi.
Here's how it works: An iPhone 4 user calls a fellow iPhone 4 owner over GMS. Once the connection is made, both callers press a FaceTime icon, which activates the camera and causes the connection to shift entirely to wi-fi. For the time being, iPhones are the only Apple devices capable of both phone calls and wireless connections, and the iPhone 4 is the only model with a front-facing camera, meaning that FaceTime is limited to iPhone 4 out of necessity. No doubt that will change over time, and chances are good that non-Apple devices will make use of the tech as well since Apple has declared it an open standard.
My hope is that the open nature of FaceTime means that App developers will be able to incorporate it into games and other software. I can't actually imagine how it would be integrated into a game, but the possibility is intriguing nevertheless. But even if FaceTime remains strictly a "welcome to the future" version of standard telephone, its inclusion (and the various improvements to the hardware design, to say nothing of the improved battery life) makes iPhone 4 a much more impressive update to the device than last year's 3GS.
(Originally published on 1UP.)
