After just two days with Apple’s new iPhone 4 it already feels like time for a review. In this post we will take you through our experiences of the scandal surround Apple’s latest iPhone.

My iPhone 4 tale begins on June 15^th when I woke up to realise that it was iPhone 4 pre-ordering day. I rushed to my computer to place my iPhone 4 pre-order on the Apple website. An hour later I had pre-ordered my 16GB Black iPhone 4. Yes, you read that right, an HOUR. On day one of iPhone pre-orders Apple received so many that their servers crashed, meaning that I had to spend my time refreshing to get the page to come through, I succeeded, and an hour later the pre-order delivery date slipped to July. I was lucky.

A couple of weeks later, and here I am, sitting with my brand new iPhone 4 and writing a preliminary review. Initially I had some issues with O2 not being able to transfer my existing number etc.. onto a MicroSim, but that’s all sorted now, and I can finally have some time to experience the beautiful iPhone 4; and it really is beautiful.

I had initially thought I preferred the iPhone 3G/3GS shapes but having held it’s sleek and slender industrial combination of curves and straight lines, the preference I had had for my 3G and subsequent 3GS melted away. It was love at first touch.

On the day of receiving my iPhone 4, before it had arrived, I read some articles on Gizmodo [www.gizmodo.com] and Engadget [www.engadget.com] about the troubles with reception on the new iPhone. Reports from early deliveries of pre-orders stated that holding the device left handed caused signal to fade away and die. When I received my iPhone, and had my MicroSim finally activated, I just had to test it out, to see if my new purchase would be unusable to me. I held the phone as I had my 3GS, and 3G before it, nothing, no affect to signal, nor drop in calls or data connection. I decided to TRY to make the signal drop, so I clenched the phone in my left hand holding the bottom left corner tightly into the palm of my left hand. Soon the bars of signal began to wane and die. Since that episode of holding the phone unnaturally, the issue has not come about, I have even held the phone left handed, just not forcing it tightly into my hand. Perhaps I am lucky, but I haven’t had my user experience tainted by this ‘issue’.

The new retina display of the new iPhone 4 is insane? Amazing? Astounding? Astonishing? Brilliant? Fabulous? Flawless? All of the above? – In fact, it is none of these, because words simply cannot describe my love for this display. It is gorgeous, pixels are literally undistinguishable by the naked eye. A side by side comparison of the 3GS and the iPhone 4 really does show up the (what I though was already fairly impressive) 3GS display. Text is crisp, icons are sharp, the display puts even the display of my iPad to shame. It is simply fantastic.

One of the features I had been most excited about with the iPhone 4 was its camera. I wasn’t disappointed. Not only does it take gorgeous stills, but it is also capable of recording fabulous HD (720p) video. So far I have been able to take some pretty good photos, and some good video footage (edited with Apples iMovie app on the device). It looks great, see for yourself here or at the end of the article. I do, however, have one minor niggle, the HD video camera does tend to produce the ‘jellyvision’ effect if moved quickly, but this is the same on every portable HD video camera.

iPhone 4’s front facing VGA camera is pretty cool too, being able to call someone using the iPhone 4’s FaceTime feature and just flip from front to back to show the caller what you’re seeing is just fantastic – a long awaited feature executed well.

The iPhone 4 introduces separated volume buttons set into the gorgeous aluminium band around the edge of the iPhone, something I had actually found (surprisingly) to be superior to the combined 3GS/3G volume buttons so far. There have been reports of customers receiving iPhone 4s with these swapped around the wrong way – collector’s items perhaps? (If this has happened to you, Apple seems to be swapping these for new iPhones in store in many cases).

The speaker on the new iPhone also appears superior to that of the previous generations, speaker phone conversations are louder and clearer than they were on the 3GS, which is a big plus, as I found this to be an issue on my previous iPhone.

Something I noticed when I unboxed my iPhone 4 was that the capacity is no longer shown on the rear of the device as it was on the previous generations. Neither a positive or a negative to be honest, although it does allow the beautiful aluminosilicate glass rear of the iPhone to be more uninterrupted.

Ultimately, yes there have been some issues with the iPhone 4, though overall either they haven’t affect me at all, or my iPhone doesn’t suffer from them (such as yellow displays and antenna issues, but to be honest, I would describe the iPhone 4 as a success. The new retina display has really shown us the future of mobile, and perhaps even desktop/entertainment displays. The camera produces amazing stills, and HD video, it is impossible to tell they were shot on a phone. The new industrial design looks gorgeous. Well done Apple – You’ve done it again.

View on Vimeo.

(watch in HD on vimeo here)