iPhone 4: a summary

Yesterday Apple unveiled its forthcoming iPhone 4, available on June 24th. To sum up: it's faster, slimmer, better for photos and video and introduces wi-fi video calls.

All the details were developed yesterday in our long article "Apple iPhone 4: Thinner, Faster and 2 Cameras coming June 24 for $199." Now here's a summary of the info for those who want it more digestable.

Slimmer: -24 % reduction in thickness. The iPhone 4 is 3 mm thinner than the 3GS bringing it under 1 cm to 9.3mm.

Faster: +66 % on the clock. Its new A4 processor is clocked at 1 GHz up from 600 MHz before.

Longer battery life: +40% for 3G conversation. The iPhone 4G's battery life is up from 5 to 7 hours for 3G conversation.

More pixels: +67% for photos, +200 % videos, +300 % on the screen. The photo sensor is up from 3 to 5 megapixels with a back-lit sensor this time (which should considerably improve photos without flash). The video mode is now HD 720p (1280 x 720 pixels). Above all, the screen has much better definition. It has exactly 4 x the number of pixels for an equal area on the 3GS. The old screen displayed images at 480 x 320 pixels. The new: 960 x 640.

More features: the iPhone 4 benefits from its new "Retina" screen (in the sense that the pixels can't be made out with the naked eye) to become an electronic book using iBook. The main innovation should be FaceTime however, introduced by Apple as a revolution: these are free video calls between iPhone 4s exclusively via the Wi-Fi network.

Sure, this technology has existed for several years already and it may seem a bit rich for Apple to lay claim to this "innovation". It is also true however that existing solutions are so lacking in stability that hardly anyone uses them on current phones.

The last point: it isn't called the iPhone 4G and is only 3G compatible...

For more information: Apple iPhone 4: Thinner, Faster and 2 Cameras coming June 24 for $199.


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