Apple's iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on June 30, 2010 4:06 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- iPhone 4
- Gadgets
- Mobile
Sidebar: Luxa2 H1-Touch, a Great FaceTime Stand
Not too long ago I visited Thermaltake while I was in California. Thermaltake recently spun off a brand called Luxa2. This brand would focus on more lifestyle products, leaving Thermaltake to the typical PC stuff like cases and powersupplies.
One of Luxa2’s first products was the H1 Touch, an iPhone/iPod Touch cradle. The idea was to be able to hold your iPhone while you’re in the kitchen so you could read recipes or emails without potentially dumping a bunch of flour or oil on your phone. When the 4 was announced, Thermaltake was quite pleased - the H1 Touch would be perfect for FaceTime.
Indeed it is.
The iPhone 4 sits comfortably against a cushioned black pad that holds the back of the phone very well. There are six rubber feet that hold the outside of the phone, they move as one and allow you to maintain a snug fit. The 4 isn’t falling out of there. The only problem here is that one of the feet obstructs the volume up button, so you’ll have to take the phone out of the H1 to increase volume.
The cradle can tilt and rotate, making it far more flexible than the Apple dock for FaceTime. If you are planning on putting in some hours with FaceTime, I’d say the H1 (or perhaps the new H2?) is a must have. It sells for $29.99, the same price as Apple’s dock. It isn’t technically a dock but the connector is still exposed and the cable still works, it’s just not as neat as Apple’s solution. Way more functional for FT though.
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strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
How does international work? Are other parts of Europe covered by that as well or are they all additional?B3an - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
Theres way WAY less options for network and internet providers in the U.S, especially compared to here in the U.K..So less competition means higher prices. And of course the size of the U.S/Canada is a problem.
strikeback03 - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
Some friends who have been living in England say that cell usage over there is way more expensive. They claim the only affordable way to do it is with pay as you go SIMs and just not use them much.But yes more competition would be nice. For me Verizon is the only carrier that offers the kind of coverage I need. So between the fact that I can't go anywhere and that they don't offer an off-contract rate I have no reason not to take the subsidized phones and contract extensions.
Chissel - Sunday, July 4, 2010 - link
I'm an American living in the UK. iPhone 4 rates here are much lower. The best I have seen is from Tesco (o2 network). Low cost no frills service. 750 minutes + unlimited texts + 1gb of data per month. Also, incoming calls do not charge minutes. 1 yr. contract 32gb iPhone 4 = £299/$450 + £35/$50 per month (all tax included). After 1 yr. they have to unlock your phone. After you unlock the phone you can drop down to £20/$30 per month.This means the 2 year cost of the phone + service in the UK is £959/$1,438. In the US the 2 year cost is $299 + tax and $105/mo + tax. Total cost over 2 years is $2,819 without tax.
As you can see the UK has much lower price over the 2 years. Plus, after 1 year you 'own' your phone and can resell and buy iPhone 5.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
I think the unlock on AT&T can be requested after 3 months, definitely after a year as I had a friend do that.StormyParis - Saturday, July 3, 2010 - link
I've abandonned data plans, and switched back to plain voice, on my HD2. I get Wifi most everywhere (at home and at work for sure, and most places in between). I was simply not using data that much, it's not worth the monthly 30 euros they want for it.99.5% of the time, there's no difference at all. 0.5% of the time... i can survive...
vol7ron - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
I agree, but..."The fact that Apple didn't have the foresight to coat the stainless steel antenna band with even a fraction of an ounce worth of non-conductive material either tells us that Apple doesn't care or that it simply doesn't test thoroughly enough. The latter is a message we've seen a few times before with OS X issues..."
Apple would just see this as another selling point for the bumper.
Anand/Brian-
I'm curious if you've had a chance to test with the microfilm covers like Bodyguardz or Zagg.
I use these because of how thin they are and how great they are at protecting the device (scratch free even when dropping on concrete). They cover all points of the phone rather effectively. I'm curious if they would be beneficial to your testing.
vol7ron
Brian Klug - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
vol7ron,You're totally right, I need to test with a thin film or some heavy duty tape/invisible shield. I originally thought of doing that, but somehow it got lost in all that frenzied testing. I'll whip something up and see if anything changes. I mean that's a good point too, it might not do very much.
I mean, ultimately there's a thickness you do need to achieve, and to be fair a lot of the benefit the case adds is that extra couple mm or two from the antenna. If the film is too thin, it might not do much. What makes me uneasy about saying anything definitively is that this is so near field - literally on top of the radiative surface. I'll admit I have only a basic level of understanding about what kind of interference happens in the very near field. I mean even at 1.8 GHz, one wavelength is 16 cm - the case and your hands on the phone is way inside near field.
-Brian
rainydays - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Agree. Outstanding review. The detailed analysis and level headed tone is excellent. Keep up the great work.Antenna section was illuminating. Good point about using SNR. I wonder if that number by itself is sufficient though. I guess signal power in dbm along with SNR would give the most complete picture of reception.
At any rate, as is abundantly clear in the article, you never really know where you are till you see the numbers.
John Sawyer - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
Yes, the numbers, details, etc. are more important than a lot of people realize. It often annoys me when I see people commenting about issues that involve actual measurement, technical facts, etc., without referring to any of those, and thus winding up with all kinds of conspiracy theories, bogus suggestions, etc. As applied to hardware problems from any manufacturer, generally many such commenters, in their understandable desire to just see a fix for a problem, wind up suggesting the only important thing is for the manufacturer to set up a return exchange program, which would be nice if it were always that easy, but it doesn't address the details of the problem that are often quite interesting, and can be very useful for people trying to learn from the situation.