The Question: To Buy or Not To Buy, the iPhone 4 - Part 1: Hardware
Here's the article about my internal debate with trying to buy into the Apple's new iPhone 4. Elijah has been pestering me for a while to start writing for his site; I guess persistence is the key, because here I am writing my first article. Readers: please be gentle with me, it's my first time.
I have a few hesitations with just going to the store and demanding the new iPhone 4, ignoring the fact that I wouldn't be able to do that with the inventory shortages. So here we go with Part 1: Hardware.
#1: Hardware
I've read enough articles on Gizmodo, Engadget and various other Tech Blogs to know that that the guts of the new iPhone are better than the 3Gs, but I'm still not impressed by it.
-Camera -
Lets start with the 5.0 mega-pixel camera. I know that I should be excited about this, but it feels like we're adding something to the iPhone that probably should of be replaced by some better devices features. When I think of the all the additional mega-pixels that I can add to my sub-par photography skills, it seems like a waste because these pictures will be posted to Facebook in all its glorious 530x660 maximum resolution. See, with Facebook albums, you are only looking at that small picture. At that resolution, I can't tell the difference if the picture was taken with a 5.0 Mega-pixel iPhone 4 or a 3.0 Mega-pixel 3Gs. Moving away from Facebook, what would I do with those high resolution pictures? Nothing. When I get an urge to look back at pictures of all the fun times I've had, I look at the pictures online to never print them out on a photo printer or edit it in Photoshop. Again, what would I need all those mega-pixels for?
I'm a normal every day user. It seems to me that an internal projector or an actual zoom lenses should of been added to it. Think of the implications of having a projector available to you. Imagine that you are in a meeting and you have a PowerPoint that you want to show the return on investments for your project. Awesome, you just made your company a ton of money using your iPhone. Getting back to the camera, if you have a physical zoom lenses then those pictures would make more sense to me. I hate trying to pinch-zoom for a software zoom on your picture. It seems like cheating and not a good idea in the long run.
-Antenna-
There are a lot of articles and videos documenting the iPhone 4 FAILtenna. Documenting my frustrations with this would be like shooting fish in a barrel, therefore, I'm not going to get into details about it. I like the idea of integrating the antenna into the chassis of the device thus adding more space to implement more tech particularly the larger battery. I just don't get how it made it through QA without someone noticing the "Death Grip feature." Maybe that's exactly what it is, an undocumented feature. This could be a new game that was installed with the phone so you don't have to purchase anything though the iTunes Apps Store. Just knowing that this is still a known issue that's probably software related, creates doubt in my mind about buying a new iPhone. In the videos that I've seen, that's exactly how I normally grip my phone if I'm looking up something on the go. So this brings me to my next subject, chassis because the workaround for the FAILtenna is put a rubber band around your iPhone so you don't complete the circuit between the WiFi and Cell antennas.
-Chassis-
I like the look of the new iPhone 4, but I'm pretty rough on my phones so an all glass enclosure scares me. I normally carry my phone in my back pocket because I've grown out of wanting to clip my phone to my belt like it was a Peace Maker and I'm about to get into a gunfight at the O.K. Coral. I know that I could buy a case to protect it, but isn't that deterring from all the time the designers and engineers spent on developing such a nice looking chassis? That would be like saying the Venus de Milo is a great piece of art, but since it's no longer structurally sound, we're going to spray it with a layer of rubber around it so that it doesn't further deteriorate. It's just cheating. I'll admit, I have a case for my 3GS so, I'm not stranger to cases but that's to cover a metal backing that get scratched up, not a "unbreakable" glass backing.
Bottom line, I still have hesitations about the Apple's new iPhone 4. I probably will buy one, eventually, but these are some of the things that I think about. Sorry about the random string of thoughts but it's my first blog. More to come so stay tuned and keep reading adellelijah!