After 4 trips to the Apple Store and about 35 minutes in line, I came away with this:
iPhone 4, still in box
While I'm nowhere near ready to write a full review, I have posted some pictures, and here are some initial impressions:
The screen is just amazing. Adjectives fail me. It took a little bit to get used to at first, because the text looks so much like printed paper.
The speed is fantastic — a huge upgrade from my original iPhone. Every web page I've thrown at it has been great, and apps that used to struggle on my old iPhone just fly on the iPhone 4.
I'm pleased with the extra storage space — this is going to be the first time I've had an iPod with more than 4GB of music on it. I built a 10+ GB playlist yesterday in preparation. I can't wait to take my new toy to work tomorrow and take a tour through my music library.
So far, no yellow spots on my screen, but the entire phone & accessories reeked of chemical smell when I first did the unboxing. It seems like there wasn't time to dry everything out before shipping.
I've noticed the signal dropping issue, but it hasn't affected a call yet.
FaceTime is actually pretty great. I've done two different FaceTime calls, and it is nice to see the other person. You can pick up on hand gestures, or get flipped to the back camera and get shown what is going on. The biggest problem so far is that it occasionally drops out — the video will freeze, and the audio will disappear. I also have had two "call failed" errors with FaceTime (where an established call simply dropped). I'm hoping that Apple can optimize things, so that if bandwidth dips the audio stream is at least kept in tact.
The internal speaker is definitely much louder than the one on the original iPhone. I guess this means I'll be sure to be woken up by the server alerts for work (that come in via SMS). :|
I was watching some YouTube videos, and was just blown away by the picture quality. I really couldn't believe that it was YouTube! This clip, in particular, looked fantastic.
That's all that I have for now, but so far, I am pleased. I'll have to see how the phone performs on AT&T's network in San Francisco tomorrow. I'm sure that will bring me back down to earth.
-Andy.