iPhone 4 review

The iPhone 4 is here – but is it worth the hefty price it’s going to cost you?

iPhone 4

The best aspect of the iPhone 4 has to be the screen. Although Apple has dubbed the technology retina display', this means very little.

Sure, the display is the highest resolution currently available on a mobile phone at 640x960pixels apparently more than the naked eye can see. Although this retina display' name may not mean much, it is clear that the iPhone's screen is the smoothest we've seen on a phone, especially when reading text.

Whether you're using email or have zoomed as far into a Safari page as you can, the text will look crystal clear.

The one place we found text to be rendered badly was in Docs to Go as it's optimised for the lower resolution iPhone screen.

Images display wonderfully and HD video displays in HD, which is something not many handset manufacturers can claim. However, the screen is still just that little bit too small to watch a feature length film on without getting a serious case of eye strain.

Apple has bundled a 1Ghz processor in the iPhone 4, just to ensure it runs as speedily as possible. And it works.

The speed difference is certainly obvious when using power-hungry apps, and especially in games that demand top graphics cards such as Real Racing and Guitar Hero.

One of the main places you'll notice the speed of the iPhone 4 is in its app management.

iPhone OS 4.0 brings with it a load of improvements and the most useful of these is the multitasking element. Although it's still not full multitasking as you'll find on the more refined smartphone platforms, it still attempts to bring the illusion of multitasking to the table.

A quick double tap on the home screen button and up will pop a dock where all open apps are listed. You can tap on an icon to open it up, and tap and hold to close an open application.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.