SimonR

Pretty bad timing given the HTC HD7S has just been announced in the US which has a much nicer screen and lower power consumption than the cheap LCD on this model.

I can't believe people marked you down for being happy. Says a lot about Android fanboys doesn't it? :)

This is such a stupid move by Google, driven entirely out of the need to compete with Apple.

For all their BS about being "open" Google are now closing off support for one of the most widely used and technically superior codecs out there. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for webM support, but why not support H.264 as well? Is it really so hard for both technologies to co-exist?

1! If they represent the average intelligence of users that would buy a Facebook phone, it's going to have to be a very simple device to use.

It's an absolute joke isn't it. Spend 5 minutes with any resistive screen and you'll want to smash it to bits out of frustration. They are unresponsive as hell and don't even support multi-touch!

Not to mention the rest of the specs read like a mobile phone from 2008.

And then there's Teltra's habit of plastering bloat-ware on every product they produce. Makes me want to puke just thinking about it.

This thing has fail written all over it.

It's a shame that the N8's only good at thing: Taking photos. Then you go to use the phone for anything else and you're trapped in the archaic, ugly and unusable world of Symbian^3. Even Nokia are abandoning this horrible OS and moving to the far superior "built for touch" MeeGo system, in a partnership with Intel. This is their last ditched effort to build a smartphone based on Symbian and it's a giant FAIL before it even ships.

Buy an iPhone 4 or any one of the awesome Android handsets now flooding the market. Or you've got the intuitive and fun new OS Microsoft have built with Windows Phone 7.

Until Meego is ready for mainstream, Nokia should just stick to doing what they do best; building and selling millions of cheap candy bar phones.

Great article, but I was a bit disappointed to not see any section dedicated to "quality".

At this early stage of IPTV delivery, most content is not even SD (720x576i) quality. Take ABC's iView service for example, which is roughly half the resolution of DVD.

Some content providers offer films or TV shows in HD, but the majority of HD content is only 720p with lossy Dolby Digital sound, so Blu-Ray is still way in front when it comes to picture and sound quality.

This will all change in the future of course. As mentioned in the article, when the NBN has been rolled out, we will have a huge amount of bandwidth to play with, and there's no reason everything couldn't be streamed in 1080p by then :)

No. You can't calibrate the darkest black level to be any blacker than it is!

There are also Google set top box's coming out hat talk to your other equipment via IR blasters.

Can you imagine the bandwidth required to distribute 200 individual high def 3D holographic video streams simultaneously to 400 pitches around the world?

Lets hope we have a full thriving NBN by then to cope with it.

If you can't notice the difference between the 480x320 TFT screen on the 3GS and the 960x640 IPS screen on the iPhone 4, you have serious eyesight problems. Games and any content rendered at this resolution (and pixel density) look incredible.

Then there's the vastly superior 5MP camera, flash (which can also act as a torch), the HD 720p video recording, the ultra fast A4 processor, gyroscope (awesome for accurate tracking in games) and the list goes on.

Picking it up in a shop won't reveal it's power and beauty. Buying one and jailbreaking it certainly does :)

As for the crappy glass back, I admit that it's a poor design choice. Luckily I have a fake leather stick covering the back of my phone, then a case over that. It's pretty stupid you have to go to such great lengths to protect the phone and improve reception, but given the polished superiority of iOS4 and the huge App Store ecosystem, I still think the iPhone 4 is the way to go.

I'll start to take a closer look at switching to Android when Gingerbread comes along..

What kind of sick person googles Stephen Conroy?

Resolution and pixel density have become very important these days. After using the iPhone 4's 960x640 IPS screen it's hard to go back to anything else.

The best Android phones have very nice 848x480 Super AMOLED screens, so what can we expect to see from screens on the first round of WP7 devices?

As this trend continues, is it any wonder people continue to illegally access high definition content online? Minimum standard for me to enjoy a film or TV show now is quickly becoming 720p (I'll tolerate the odd DVD) and I watch nearly all films on Blu-Ray at 1080p.

This is only going to get worse as the networks only have a crappy 18mbps bandwidth to work within for all their channels.

It's good that Telstra and iiNet, and some manufacturers like LG and Sony are moving towards IPTV, as they'll eventually become our only legal way of accessing high definition content.

It's funny how it seems to be the Android fans that get so riled about this issue. They have an unfounded hatred for Apple which is completely irrational.


I'm an HTC Desire and iPhone 4 owner (one for work - other for home - both on Telstra network). After owning the iPhone 4 a week I can compare the benefits and negative aspects to both operating systems and handsets. And overall I still think Apple have the edge with performance and features of the iPhone 4.

Having said that I agree that there is definitely a problem with the "death grip". I can easily replicate the dropped bars by holding the phone in that way. However it hasn't affected a single call in regards to reception and I haven't had any dropped calls.

I can however get data flow to slow significantly when held in the death grip, so the problem certainly exists.

However I want to protect the phone with a case anyway (there are far better options available than Apple's bumper). Once a case covers the metal band there is no death grip problem at all. It's simply a non issue.

Even without a case as most owners will tell you it performs very well as a phone, with better and clearer reception than previous models.

For a more scientific analysis of it's strengths and weaknesses with signal performance, I suggest reading this highly detailed AnadTech article. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review

AnandTech compared all measurements with more accurate -db level analysis, with and without cases on several different Apple and HTC models. His conclusion was that the iPhone 4 performs better than previous models, however the death grip is a problem without a case.

It is possible to be reasonable about this issue and see it from both sides of the fence. Personally I agree that the problem exists, but I also agree that it's not the big issue it's been made out to be. It's still an awesome phone.

I know this Microsoft system is much more advanced, but the technology they're using is similar to that already incorporated into the iPhone 4. While not used with the phone's default camera app (as far as I know) there are 3rd party apps that can make use of the iPhone's accelerometers and gyroscope to help eliminate camera shake.

It's cool technology and will hopefully continue to improve until we don't even have to think about a steadying a quick shot any more.

Why do Nokia insist on hanging onto that god awful dated font they have used since the beginning of time? It might seem like a small gripe, but you have to look at that same ugly text all day and personally it would give me the ****

My thoughts exactly. That's the number 1 reason I'm moving to Telstra. Well that and Telstra has far superior speed and coverage :)

Damn. Starcraft 2 and the iPhone 4 in one week. This is going to hurt my wallet.

If battery life, camera & video quality, quality app store, high resolution screen and build quality matter to you then the iPhone 4 craps all over the Desire and Galaxy S.

If an open OS with more options widgets, and tweaking matters to, you then get an Android based Desire or Galaxy S. Don't be holding your breath for an update to Android 2.2 (Froyo) though. They really take their time rolling out OS updates.

Personally I think the whole antenna issue has been blown way out of proportion and reputable sites have shown that with a case the iPhone 4 has the best reception/less dropped calls than the 3G/3GS.

I'm getting an iPhone 4 for sure.

I'm tempted to lend them the 1.5 billion myself, just so my RSS feeds stop getting clogged up with iPhone antenna news!

I tend to agree with you and will still be buying one. I have always used a case to protect my phone so it's a non issue for me. The many good points of the phone outweigh its bad points enough for me to still want one over any currently available Android phone.

However I understand people's anger at Apple to not properly acknowledge the problem and put it down to a software issue (or as Jobs himself advised "don't hold it that way").

At the very least Apple could give out a free bumper case with every phone, rather than charge an outrageous $30US for a piece of plastic.

The fact that Apple have also been deleting threads from their support forums about this issue is pretty outrageous and is certainly not helping their image.

IMAX is not 2k resolution. Conventional IMAX film projection is actually in the range of 12000x8700. Just slightly higher than 2000x1080!

What you are getting confused with is digital IMAX (which is just the method of projection. IMAX is till shot on film). However even then, they use two Christie Digital projectors to projection two separate 2k frames over the top of each other which theoretically results in resolution close to 4k.

How you thought watching an IMAX film was only the same picture resolution you get from a consumer HDTV is beyond me! Particularly given the giant screen! :)

From the IMAX wiki:

"estimated to be about 12000 × 8700 theoretical pixels or 6120 × 4500 actually discernible pixels.[26] The screens used by IMAX multiplex locations range in size from 47' x 24' to 74' x 46' and those in classic IMAX locations range from 51' x 37' to 117' x 96'. The digital installations have drawn some confusion based on poor consumer differentiation to the traditional 15/70 IMAX.[27]

IMAX digital currently uses two 2K-resolution Christie projectors with Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing technology alongside parts of IMAX's proprietary technologies. The two 2K images are projected over each other, producing an image that is potentially of a slightly higher resolution than common 2K digital cinema. Originally, IMAX had been considering using two Sony 4K projectors.[28] Some reviewers note that this approach may not produce image quality higher than using one 4K projector, which are available for some non-IMAX theaters,[27] including AMC's own.[29]"

Absolutely still getting one.

The screen problem issue has been rectified. The yellow blotches go away with time. As reported on Engadget, it's been isolated as a problem with the glue that bonds the layers not having dried when the phones shipped. As the phone is used the heat dries the glue and the blotches disappear.

As for the reception issues, no one could deny this is a major bummer. Particularly as I was looking forward to improved reception from both the external antenna design, and the fact that it's the first iPhone to support 900Mhz 3G, which is perfect for the semi-regional area I live in using the Optus Network.

As Eric mentioned I'll be demanding a free bumper case as well. It's Apple's responsibility to rectify this problem, and given it's a design flaw that cannot be addressed with a software update, then a free bumper is entirely reasonable given it completely solves the problem. In addition the bumper puts a barrier up to marginally protect the glass construction. Supposedly it's gorilla glass which is very strong, but I'll admit it's concerning seeing pictures of shattered iPhone 4's already. However it's not like the 3G/3GS weren't susceptible to this problem. There's plenty of photos of shattered 3Gs on the net.

Problems aside the iPhone 4 still has some fantastic features, particularly in regards to photo and video performance) and that gorgeous 960x640 display. I'm still looking forward to getting my hands on one (I'll just make sure my hands hold it a certain way ;) )

To make matters worse it sounds like Sony's 3D implementation is awful... http://hdguru.com/

This will become the perfect device for filming scenery while bushwalking in Tas. Taking a camcorder or even a flip is too bulky, but to have an HD video recorder and decent quality point and shoot camera built into your phone will be awesome.

I just hope the 720p video is compressed at a decent bit-rate. All 720p footage I've seen from the few phones that currently support it has either been way too compressed (which makes it look ultra blocky and destroys detail) or at a low frame rate so motion is very jittery. We know the iPhone 4 will film at 30fps so that is great, but what we don't know is what compression it will use. Quicktime is pretty efficient though so I'm expecting it to look very good.

"Even with twice the resolution, it would still be smaller than the iPad, and it wouldn't have to push as many pixels."

It's already heavily publicised and confirmed under microscopic analysis that the new iPhone will have four times the resolution (960x640).
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=9718

Remember that's twice the resolution both vertically and horizontally which = four times the resolution of the iPhone 3G's 480x320 screen.

This will mean pixel perfect upscaling of existing applications, and of course amazing image quality for new native resolution apps.

Impressive demonstration for sure. Have to wonder how much this would drain the already poor battery life though.

The quality of Bigpond's movie downloads (highly over-compressed less than DVD resolution crap) will be a good match to the poor picture quality of LG TVs.