Yes, I was one of the lucky few who managed to place my order through AT&T’s website on pre-order day.  The iPhone arrived earlier this afternoon and here are just a few of my first impressions. The iPhone came with its usual accessories minus the SIM tool, which is a pain, but I had one left over from another iPhone so it wasn’t a big deal.  I don’t understand why Apple didn’t include one this time since I did have to remove the SIM card for activation.

Design.

Anyway, the first thing I noticed when I picked it up was how thin and great it feels in my hand.  The flat glass back definitely makes the iPhone a pleasure to hold. There’s a noticeable difference from the rounded plastic back of the 3G and 3GS.  It does feel a bit heavier, but you don’t really notice it after a while.  Because of the flat back, the iPhone 4 feels more comfortable to hold especially when playing games. The stainless steel edges look great and I don’t miss the 3GS trim which was constantly getting scratched.  I’m also a fan of the new volume buttons which goes well with the design of the new phone.  The vibrate/silent switch feels sturdier when you turn it on or off. In the past, I always felt like I was going to break the switch on my 3GS.

Screen.

Wow.  Steve was right, I am totally blown away by the screen.  Everything looks so crisp.  I can only compare it to putting on eyeglasses for the first time: text is sharp and clear, photos are rich and enhanced.  The Retina screen is absolutely the best screen I’ve seen to date on a mobile phone.  It’s literally night and day compared to the 3GS. I’ve only had a chance to play with a few games so far, and they all look really great.  Flight Control was just recently updated to take advantage of the Retina display and it looks sharp.  The 326 pixels per inch really bring out the clarity and sharpness of the graphics.  I hope this encourages more developers to update their apps to take full advantage of the new display.  My mouth dropped when I loaded Google Maps.  As you zoom in on the map everything just keeps becoming more clear.  The Retina display is truly impressive and it definitely puts the iPhone 4 ahead of the class.

Speed.

I took a few minutes to compare the iPhone 4 and the 3GS in a few speed tests over WiFi.  I first went to Safari and launched JAiB (full version) on both iPhones.  The iPhone 4 beat out the 3GS not by a huge margin, but definitely completed loading the website faster.  I found that multi-tasking and switching between apps is a smoother transition compared to the 3GS running iOS4 (probably from the whopping 512 mb of RAM).

Cameras.

The camera in the iPhone 4 has been greatly improved in comparison to the 3GS. There is a HUGE difference in my opinion.  Just taking pictures in well lit areas look sharper and more vibrant in contrast to the 3GS.  I closed all the blinds in the living room then tried to snap a few pictures.  I couldn’t even make out the object with the 3GS, but with the added LED flash and upgraded optics, the iPhone 4 has no problem taking photographs in low lit areas.  You can set the LCD Flash to auto or simply toggle it on or off.  I was actually shocked at how well the pictures looked, especially since the flash lit up the whole room when I snapped the shot.  I thought the picture would be washed out or blurry, but it was just the opposite — the picture came out great!

I didn’t have a chance to really play around with the front camera considering nobody I know has the phone yet.  I did try it on my self a few times and the pictures seem to come out well.  The added auto-focus and LED flash for video is a another great feature.  I shot a brief video recording and I was also impressed by the quality of the video (especially in my dark living room).

Phone Calls, FaceTime & Signal Strength.

I’ve had the chance to make a few phone calls so far and the quality is pretty good.  I can definitely hear the other person better than I did before, thanks to the dual mics.  I did find myself hitting the phone buttons a few times with my face because the phone is so flat now.  I did experience some weird things happening with my signal strength.  I found the signal was going from one to four bars within seconds when my wife’s 3GS had 3 bars.  The call was never dropped when it went to having one bar but I ‘m wondering if this is a minor bug issue.  I read Walt Mossberg’s review and he seemed to experience the same problem.

Yet, in some places where the signal was relatively weak, the iPhone 4 showed no bars, or fewer bars than its predecessor. Apple says that this is a bug it plans to fix, and that it has to do with the way the bars are presented, not the actual ability to make a call. And, in fact, in nearly all of these cases, the iPhone 4 was able to place calls despite the lack of bars.  However, on at least six occasions during my tests, the new iPhone was either reporting ‘no service ‘ or searching for a network while the old one, held in my other hand, was showing at least a couple of bars. Neither Apple nor AT&T could explain this. The iPhone 4 quickly recovered in these situations, showing service after a few seconds, but it was still troubling.

Overall I didn’t experience a dropped call and the voice quality was improved (Note: I was on EDGE during the calls because I currently don’t have 3G service in my area).  I wanted to test out FaceTime, but I ‘m the only person I know who got the iPhone 4 today, so there goes that….

Overall.

As you can probably tell, I am truly impressed with the iPhone 4, and I’m not just saying it because  I’ve owned iPhones in the past, but this phone is seriously in a class of its own.  Granted I’ve only played with it for a few hours but I’m looking forward to testing out the battery life over time.  It should also be interesting seeing how the back of the iPhone 4 holds up to scratches.  I did order an Invisible Shield from Zagg because I am too worried about leaving it totally unprotected.  I also tested it with a few accessories and it does work with certain items.  I have a alarm clock which has an iPod dock and it still charges when plugged in.  Other than the signal strength weirdness that I experienced a few times, I  didn’t have any other problems. The iPhone 4 is the whole enchilada and then some!

I apologize for the quality of some of the pictures… I wanted to take more but the camera I own stinks and I’m sure JAiB will have more pictures to come.

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