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
Network Improvements
The iPhone continues to be an AT&T exclusive in the US. With the iOS 4 upgrades the iPhone 4 supports tethering over Bluetooth or USB. The feature is an extra $20 per month on top of your existing iPhone data plan and it also deducts bandwidth from the 2GB you get with the data plan. It's not a coincidence that AT&T timed the release of its iPhone tethering option with the move away from unlimited data plans. You don't have to give up your existing unlimited data plan if you don't want to, however if you want to enable tethering you have to sign up for the new $25/2GB plan.
I'm not a huge fan of iPhone tethering right now because despite paying for the service and having full signal strength on AT&T, I'm getting horrible transfer rates while trying to upload this article. I had to sign up for airport WiFi to get it live, thanks AT&T. When it does work however, it works well. As you'll see later you can easily get multiple Mbps out of AT&T's network in areas with good coverage. That easily equals the lower end of what you'd see from WiMAX today. As I've mentioned before however, it's really hit or miss with AT&T. The network is either great or totally unusable, while its competitors are generally more consistent but never quite as fast. I'd say that there's a good chance Apple will bring the iPhone to Verizon, it's just a matter of when.
| Cost of Ownership Comparison | |||||
| AT&T iPhone 4 | Sprint EVO 4G | Verizon HTC Droid Incredible | |||
| Cost of Device | $199 w/ 2 year contract | $199 w/ 2 year contract after $100 MIR | $199 w/ 2 year contract | ||
| Plan with 900 Minutes, Unlimited SMS/Data | $104.99/mo, unlimited SMS, 2GB data | $99.99/mo, unlimited SMS, unlimited data, 4G | $109.98/mo, unlimited SMS, unlimited data | ||
| Tethering | + $20/mo | + $29.99/mo | + $25/mo* | ||
| Total Monthly + Tethering | $124.99/mo | $129.98/mo | $134.98/mo | ||
| Total Cost of Ownership over 2 Years | $2718.76 | $2598.76 after $100 MIR | $2838.52 | ||
| Total Cost of Ownership over 2 Years w/ Tethering | $3198.76 | $3318.52 after $100 MIR | $3438.52 | ||
AT&T's plans are actually reasonably priced if you don't go over the data limits. A $15/mo data plan will get you 200MB of transfers per month and $25 will give you 2GB. For users like my parents the 200MB option is great. Even for me personally, 2GB is fine. I tend to peak at 700MB per month, but that's because at the office I'm almost always on my desktop or connected via WiFi. It's unclear how tethering is going to change this for me. Our own Brian Klug on the other hand easily pushes more than 2GB of transfers per month. So AT&T's rate switch is either going to save you a few bucks per month or make you really unhappy.
The iPhone 4 brings HSUPA class 6 for upload speeds of up to 5.76 megabits/s to the platform. This is a 15 fold improvement over the 384 kilobits/s maximum of the iPhone 3G and 3GS, which I routinely see. Not all AT&T markets are updated to HSUPA, and in practice I saw uploads of around 1.5 megabits/s, in line with class 2 or class 3 HSUPA.
Downstream HSDPA speeds remain unchanged from the 3GS, supporting up to 7.2 megabit/s HSDPA. I'm lucky since my market is HSDPA 7.2, as I routinely see speedtests of 5 megabits/s or above very late at night when there isn't very much plant load. I haven't seen any measurable increase in speeds over the 3GS, except in locations with very low signal as noted before.
My fastest iPhone 4 speedtest so far
Even Anand in one of the slowest 3G cities in the US saw significant improvements with the iPhone 4. AT&T's network in general seems to be improving. While the best he'd been able to achieve was around 1Mbps a year ago, these days he can break 2.5Mbps down during the evenings.
iPhone 4 speedtest in Raleigh, NC
WiFi speeds have also improved, as Apple has added 802.11n in the 2.4 GHz band. 5 GHz support remains absent, something which would have likely complicated antenna design even further. Interestingly enough, the BCM4329 WiFi and Bluetooth SoC does contain 802.11a 5 GHz support, the reason it's disabled is again likely due to antenna design constraints. The Broadcom SoC also includes an FM tuner and transmitter, though support for either remains and sadly (given Apple's historical lack of FM radio support) will remain such. Bluetooth 2.1 EDR is there as well.
The iPhone 4 seems to connect at 802.11n rates of 72 megabits/s in best case, far from the maximum without channel bonding of 150 megabits/s. This is still a welcome improvement from the 802.11b/g in the iPhone 3GS, which seemed to never connect above b rates in practice. As an aside, mobile devices using 802.11b rates (modulated using DSSS) are a huge contributing factor to WiFi congestion at conferences - I've even seen DSSS modulated rates (and thus 802.11b devices) explicitly disallowed from connecting to APs at conferences. It's a welcome improvement to see iPhone bringing N support.
A typical WiFi test result
However, even on my 25/4 DOCSIS 3 cable connection, I could only squeeze out a maximum of 8.5 megabits/s down and 8.0 megabits/s up while connected at 72 megabits/s best case. This was using the speedtest.net app to a local test location. I tried with an Airport Extreme (new generation), a WRT600N running DD-WRT, and a WRT54GL-TM running Tomato. All three showed similar results capping out around 8 megabits/s down when I could run tests in excess of 30 megabits down on my desktop. This is probably more of a CPU bottleneck appearing than anything else.
Update:
I thought there was something wrong with my WiFi performance, turns out the iPhone 4 is indeed faster than a palty 8 megabits/s. ;)
There were a number of comments by folks who were able to run speedtest.net and get throughput above 10 or 11 megabits/s. Testing earlier today on a much faster connection, I managed to get something in line with their numbers:
Early today, the folks at DigitalSociety also managed to get much faster WiFi speeds in the neighborhood of 20 megabits/s, way higher than my meager 8 megabits/s. To do so, they loaded an MP3 in safari stored on a local webserver and watched network utilization. I wish I had thought of this, because it's perfect. In the past, the speedtest.net app always used to saturate my connection over WiFi. My only explanation is that the application performs slower over WiFi in iOS 4 than it did in iOS 3, something Anand noted as well. Thanks for all the heads up messages, everyone!
I set up a similar test to DigitalSociety's. I opened an 85 MB PDF stored on my local web server in the browser of each device and watched network utilization using bwm-ng. I tested with an Airport Extreme connected over gigabit to my webserver with no other network utilization. I took the average of 5 runs on the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and my AT&T Nexus One running Froyo 2.2 (which is 802.11n). The results are much, much more in line with earlier expectations.
The iPhone 4 comes close to but can't quite best the iPad, though the difference is minimal. I did notice that the iPad associates at the same 72 megabits/s connection speed as the iPhone 4. Thankfully, the iPhone 4 easily bests the iPhone 3GS. Finally, although the AT&T Nexus One associates at an 802.11n rate of 65 megabits/s, it's slower than the iPhone 3GS. I have a feeling the device is writing the PDF into flash, whereas the iOS devices are loading it into memory.
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Stuka87 - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Yet another top notch, in depth review Anand. I love the amount of depth you add to any review.One question, on the first page you refer to the SoC used in many Android devices as "Scorpion" rather than "Snapdragon." Is there an actual difference, or just different names for the same device? Or perhap Scorpion is more specific to the revision?
I am still thinking that for now I will keep my 3GS. next year when its time to upgrade, a new better iPhone will be out anyway.
Spoelie - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Scorpion is the CPU, Snapdragon is the entire SoC (with gpu etc etc)brandonicus - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Still reading the review, but from the first page pictures I have to ask...Did you already scratch your iPhone to hell? When seeing the front side comparison with the Nexus One I thought the iPhone looked terrible. Bad pictures? Or does it just scratch really easy?...I'm sure later in the review I'll read that you threw it on the ground a few dozen times :)ipredroid - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Many of your in-depth reviews have helped me decide on how to customize/purchase/learn about a product. Nevermind people saying you (Shimpi) are bias towards a product. People are just annoyed at anything Apple related because the media won't shut up about Apple. I realize you are smart enough not to respond to random haters and treat those here with respect and even respond to comments or questions. Thank you to the AnandTech team!The0ne - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Don't be a fool, many of us here are here at Anandtech because first many of us do like Anadtech ever since he started his site, secondly the reviews are good in general and lastly because most of us are either engineers or in the computer related field.What most of us criticized are valid to some extent. What I've criticized is immensely valid. Do the test and write the review without any type of unjustified opinions included. And if it's not too much trouble be CONSISTENT. I don't go around testing similar products every which way. I'm not saying Anandtech does this all the time but I get really annoy when things are not consistent from one review to the next; meaning testing was not consistent and thus results could be dark matter for all I know.
ipredroid - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
You Proved my point, you randomly hated on a general comment I made, (which I made to no one in particular). No one here is a fool. Base your opinions off of facts not general assersens of which you are speculating. Misplaced criticism based on speculation is for tabloids. Which is unfortunately how you come across when you call people fools and bash with out facts. I'm sure you realize how Hypocritical you are being. You are entitled to your opinion of course but your ignorance shows when you don't base off of facts. (Referring to antenna issue) Apple and Google are both guilty of faulty antennas saying either company's engineers didn't test properly is just silly.The0ne - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
Your comprehension is misplaced. When I called you a "fool" it was in referenced to you saying."Nevermind people saying you (Shimpi) are bias towards a product. People are just annoyed at anything Apple related because the media won't shut up about Apple. I realize you are smart enough not to respond to random haters and treat those here with respect and even respond to comments or questions. Thank you to the AnandTech team!"
In short you are saying that some of us that have differing opinions on the subject matter are idiots and that Anand is smart to avoid us and our lame comments. That is pretty much your entire take on it. All I'm saying is that there are many professionals as members here on Anandtech, many of which are very intelligent. Assuming we're that dumb is foolish, and hence the use of the word "fool."
I'm sorry, this Antenna issue is a laughing stock to any respectable engineer. If could have only gone into the finish product by decisions made against the respectable Engineer(s). Whether you choose to believe otherwise is irrelevant because the FACT remains the problem is a basic one. Whether it's Apple, Google or our company is irrelevant as well. The discussion here is Apple iphone, thus the blame is directed at Apple. That does not imply it is ONLY Apple that does this.
And lastly where do you get off telling me I'm ignorant because of my "hate." Where is this hate you are talking about? You're making things up to justify your own means to have something to say to me, less the lack of comprehension in the first place. As for what I've said, that is very general. Why is asking "Do the test and write the review without any type of unjustified opinions included" full of hate?
Sorry you got the wrong idea of my original response.
ipredroid - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
I never said you were ignorant because of your hate... read it again... lol. Ignorant for calling me a fool and baseless facts (thank you for the apology). I even stated you ( everyone is) entitled to their opinion. Just stating some people comes across as "haters". People complain about everything, it is easier to see the bad rather than the good, human nature maybe.Anyways, I could careless, meant it as a thank you of sorts to the AnandTech team. Not to belittle other bloggers posts. To the overly negative with out sensible reasoning, yes. You, no. I enjoy reading others posts and rarely comment. I did this time because work put into the review by the AnandTech team seemed to be under appreciated in this review and I commented.
Of course anyone that runs a business isn't going to respond to distasteful posts rudely that wouldn't be smart. Not that those who are "haters" are idiots, even though they certainly can be.
IKeelU - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
I liked the review. It seemed objective to me and I appreciate that the phone and OS were covered separately.Something that wasn't addressed: will the straight edges of the iPhone4 cause damage to one's pants (or one's purse)? My old Sony Ericsson candybar phone actually caused damage to the lining of my left pocket after several months of use. It seems like the iPhone4's edges are the sharpest-ever in a phone...
Though I must disagree about the iPhone 4 making the N1 look dated. In those photos, at least, the N1 looks way sexier to me.*
* I own an N1 ;)
tdream - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
First of all calling the iphone 4 styling uptodate just because its new doesn't make any sense. Jobs says its like an OLD Lecia camera... The 3GS doesn't look dated in the objective sense. If you were to place these two devices in a test, a control group and another which was bombarded with marketing spiel (like the world has) you would get a vastly different viewpoint. Sharp edges are out, just because Apple have run out of ideas decided to be different doesn't mean it's better. Eg glossy vs matte, Apple have made matte cool again... even though all of my monitors are matte. Apple will do anything to be different and stand out, doesn't make it better though.Once again you ignore your own data and say the IPhone 4 is better than the 3GS even though in every case you tested it CLEARLY isn't. It a problem, you know it, Apple knows it, and now everyone in the world knows it. You "feel its better", well then if you feel it then I must feel it too right. Glad we live in a world which values science and facts too. Sorry but you're falling into Apple's main ploy right here, it's magical...
However the rest of your article remains fairly objective and up to your old high standards.