When I initially ordered the iPhone 4, I wondered if I had made a mistake. I had already upgraded the iPhone 3GS to iOS4, and many of the improvements to iPhone were enabled in the underlying operating system, such as folders and multitasking.
Upon turning on the iPhone 4 and placing it side by side to my soon-to-be deactivated iPhone 3GS, the difference was clear. The iPhone 4:
- is thinner and taller than the 3GS.
- doesn't feel as slick as the 3GS, and might be less prone to dropping.
- has a widescreen high-resolution display.
- includes a front-facing camera, as well as a LED light/flash.
- is faster than the 3GS. Loading up the same apps side by side, the iPhone 4 consistently started before the 3GS.
Of these, the screen is the major one -- it's ridiculously beautiful, and it is at such an absurdly high dpi (326dpi) that text on the iPhone 4 actually looks like text on a piece of paper. It is twice the dpi of an Kindle (167 dpi) and Kindle DX (150dpi), and a vast improvement over the previous iPhones (160 dpi). One can see why Steve Jobs touted the Retina Display so highly. The pixels are practically invisible, and on curved surfaces, I could not see any pixelation.
Sadly, even with the improvements in the antenna, my apartment still has terrible reception.
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