Is anyone else disappointed by the "low end" hardware of the iPhone?

[Arminator]

When the 3GS came out, there was no other smartphone with faster processor/GPU. It actually had such a good hardware that competitors needed at least half a year to come up with something similar.
Now things have changed, and for me it seems the iPhone is nothing groundbreaking, it just closes the gap to some android devices.
The A4 isnt faster than snapdragon, which is on the market for quite a while, and its successors will come up soon.
Gingerbread, name for android 3.0, is made for resolutions 1280*720. On a 4 inch screen this easily trumps the dpi of iphone4.
I believe that until next year, when the new iPhone comes out, we have so much superior android devices that it will be hard for apple to close the gap.

So what do you think about iPhone4? Does it fullfill your needs?
For me as an 3GS owner, i dont really look forward to an iPhone4. The changes are fine, but nor really earthshattering. Much better will come up soon

 

[RafaelT]

With Apple you are getting the total experience. From software to hardware in a nice polished package. Hardware specs don't matter as much if all the software is working. I am perfectly happy with this phone for another year. The nice polished UI runs great on the hardware it was made for. I don't want another phone that has better specs that is running the unpolished android.

Apple has shown many times thar they don't need the best hardware to do the best job.

 

[tuatha]

With Apple you are getting the total experience. From software to hardware in a nice polished package. Hardware specs don't matter as much if all the software is working. I am perfectly happy with this phone for another year. The nice polished UI runs great on the hardware it was made for. I don't want another phone that has better specs that is running the unpolished android.

I don't think it's anywhere near as 'unpolished' as some of you guys like to suggest, especially with HTC Sense, but nonetheless the next release is focusing primarily on UI. they've even snapped up Palm's WebOS designer to help design the new interface.

Slated for an October release.

 

[lorenwade]

For me as an 3GS owner, i dont really look forward to an iPhone4. The changes are fine, but nor really earthshattering. Much better will come up soon

Self-defeating, isn't it? You don't look forward to the iPhone 4, which is more advanced than your 3GS, and you're sticking to your 3GS because much better will come up soon when there will always be a much better "coming up soon". When you bought your 3GS, there were other phones out there with certain better specifications.

There's always something better on the way.

 

[chdwil]

Apple must be doing something wrong. I mean every other company is selling millions of thier phones in 1 week as well right? Applie will never learn.

 

[Holty123]

For me i think the ip4 should be able to do a bit more than the previous models eg take advantage of the A4 chip and do some fancy animation type of thing something to set it apart form the 3G/3GS but it just does things faster kind, of a Tiger to Leopard sort of upgrade
macintime

 

[br0adband]

Apple must be doing something wrong. I mean every other company is selling millions of thier phones in 1 week as well right? Applie will never learn.

Until a massive change took place, and the absolute truth was revealed to most everyone alive that mattered, people believed the world was flat. Not only that, but that the Earth was the center of the universe... much as so many Apple fanatics think of Steve Jobs, come to think of it. Coincidence?

Someday, such an occurrence will happen with respect to Apple, and people - once they know the absolute truth - are going to have a field day with 'em.

 

[Slevin]

When the 3GS came out, there was no other smartphone with faster processor/GPU. It actually had such a good hardware that competitors needed at least half a year to come up with something similar.
Now things have changed, and for me it seems the iPhone is nothing groundbreaking, it just closes the gap to some android devices.
The A4 isnt faster than snapdragon, which is on the market for quite a while, and its successors will come up soon.
Gingerbread, name for android 3.0, is made for resolutions 1280*720. On a 4 inch screen this easily trumps the dpi of iphone4.
I believe that until next year, when the new iPhone comes out, we have so much superior android devices that it will be hard for apple to close the gap.

So what do you think about iPhone4? Does it fullfill your needs?
For me as an 3GS owner, i dont really look forward to an iPhone4. The changes are fine, but nor really earthshattering. Much better will come up soon

Comparing the Snapdragon to the A4 isn't really all that good of a comparison. The A4 is custom meaning it's optimized for the iOS while the snapdragon isn't optimized for any OS. Sort of like when people would compare Intel chips to the G5, different articuture, the Mhz war was over a long time ago

Gingerbread may be able to support 1280*720 but will the hardware be able to pack that many pixels in? If the device has a 5" screen compared to a 3.5" screen is that valid comparison just because the resolution is higher? Sure Apple can increase the screen size to increase the resolution but will the image be as crisp as the current retina display (Which is AMAZING)

What you are doing is looking at the hardware features not the entire package. So what if I buy a Windows machine that has a pixel density of 4:1 when compared with a MacBook and has a processor that runs at 10K Mhz with 20 cores and can support 512GB of ram and an internal FD that has a capacity of 4TB because it still runs windows. It's not always about the hardware specs, it's also about the integration and ease of use. I don't care if it has a 30MP camera and shoots video in 1020HD if it takes me 3 days to figure out how to set up facetime or drains the battery in 6 hours on standby.

Don't get into the habit of trying to compare numbers on a spec sheet vs actual real world experience

 

[raremage]

I don't think it's anywhere near as 'unpolished' as some of you guys like to suggest, especially with HTC sense

With all due respect, i have to assume this means you have not lived with an Android phone for an extended period. I can't speak to the HTC Sense experience, but in general Android has a disjointed feel to it. It's not horrible, but it certainly is not polished or engaging. I've lived with a Droid and an N1 as my primary phone for extended periods and i assure you, iOS is a huge step up in UI experience.

 

[kucyk]

I believe that until next year, when the new iPhone comes out, we have so much superior android devices that it will be hard for apple to close the gap.

And what they gonna have? Full HD resolution on 4 inches screen? There is no need for faster CPU on iPhone4 and believe me I know what I'm saying. Loading times - this term "doesn't exist" already on iPhone 4.

HTC releases new phone every one-two months, so it's obvious there will be a gap, but only in "numbers" not end user experience.

 

[smiddlehurst]

When the 3GS came out, there was no other smartphone with faster processor/GPU. It actually had such a good hardware that competitors needed at least half a year to come up with something similar.
Now things have changed, and for me it seems the iPhone is nothing groundbreaking, it just closes the gap to some android devices.
The A4 isnt faster than snapdragon, which is on the market for quite a while, and its successors will come up soon.
Gingerbread, name for android 3.0, is made for resolutions 1280*720. On a 4 inch screen this easily trumps the dpi of iphone4.
I believe that until next year, when the new iPhone comes out, we have so much superior android devices that it will be hard for apple to close the gap.

So what do you think about iPhone4? Does it fullfill your needs?
For me as an 3GS owner, i dont really look forward to an iPhone4. The changes are fine, but nor really earthshattering. Much better will come up soon

Oh boy, where to start...

Processor speeds in mobile phones are utterly irrelevant. What matters is how fast the phone software runs and in that respect iPhone is ahead of every single current Android device (I'd even go so far as to say maybe every smartphone period) on the market today. The benefits of having such tight integration between hardware and software. Yes, Android will probably be running dual core by the time iPhone 5 comes out but... uh... so what? No, seriously, there's no point in having a lot of raw power if you're either wasting it (Android's getting better at this but has a way to go yet) or if there's no real practical purpose for it (which there isn't for the vast majority of users). Doubly so if there's a sound not unlike om nom nom from the direction of the battery pack.

No, Gingerbread SUPPORTS resolutions that high on panels 4 inches or above. It's not made for that resolution, important difference. Personally I hope we do see panels coming out at that resolution that match the quality of the iPhone (or the latest Samsung panels), it's a step that needs to happen. But frankly the market for screens above 4 inches in phones is questionable at the moment outside of the geek crowd. This is more likely to be a function for Android tablets than phones I'd suspect but we'll see what happens.

Basically the iPhone 4 is still going to feel top-end when it's replaced next year. Under the skin there may well be better spec'd smartphones but it's hard to see how any of that hardware will lead to a vastly better experience. Hopefully Android will get it right with 3.0 and WP7 hits the mark, I want to see a healthy competitive market frankly, but it'll be software not hardware that makes the difference. More to the point with regards your original question, the iPhone 4 is pretty much top end hardware considering what's available right now and Apple's decision to focus on battery life and the slightly smaller screen size. Nothing 'low end' about it at all.

 

[Arran]

... Don't get into the habit of trying to compare numbers on a spec sheet vs actual real world experience

As a bit of a geek myself, the technical comparisons are interesting - but it's a bit like looking at a Picasso and saying it's just paint 'n' canvas.

 

[tuatha]

With all due respect, i have to assume this means you have not lived with an Android phone for an extended period. I can't speak to the HTC Sense experience, but in general Android has a disjointed feel to it. It's not horrible, but it certainly is not polished or engaging. I've lived with a Droid and an N1 as my primary phone for extended periods and i assure you, iOS is a huge step up in UI experience.

Nope, I've owned a HTC Desire for a few months now and it's fantastic. Much prefer it to Apple's OS.

I can't even stand the look of iOS now... those boring rows of apps. Reminds me of *spit* Windows

 

[Arminator]

Don't get into the habit of trying to compare numbers on a spec sheet vs actual real world experience

Kind of true. But only as long as the other doesnt offer decent software. I wouldnt say android is as good as iOS, but for sure it isnt far away.

I dont say apple should rely on hightech Hardware, but they should stay en par with current tech. And since apple didnt do a step ahead of current android devices, technically, the androids have now a year to walk away in terms of specs.

I mean, next year in june we may see processors with double the power of the A4, we may see resolutions beyond 1280*720. And android is good enough to make use of it.
The point is, apple now isnt a step ahead, so they will be far behind next year this time. User experience is now better on the iPhone, probably it wont be next year this time. What im saying is, that the iPhone 4 isnt good enough to beat android devices for a year.

 

[spinedoc77]

So what do you think about iPhone4? Does it fullfill your needs?
For me as an 3GS owner, i dont really look forward to an iPhone4. The changes are fine, but nor really earthshattering. Much better will come up soon

Not really, it doesn't offer me anything over my 3gs except maybe the better camera. Otherwise it looks like it goes backwards in a lot of ways, worse reception, scratches more, and the god awful ugly 90's candy bar exposed screws styling.

 

[tuatha]

I mean, next year in june we may see processors with double the power of the A4,

Try Christmas 2010.

Motorola have gone on record as saying that they want a 2GHz Android phone on the market before the end of the year.

And HTC already have a 1.5GHz dual-core phone in the works. Likely to hit around October.

 

[thedon1]

The A4 is a decent chip. We don't actually know what it's clocked at in the iphone 4 so it's hard to compare it to the snapdragon. Other things need to be taken into account such as heat and battery consumption.

512mb of RAM is nice but other phones do have similar. By no means low end.

Camera is excellent. Not 8 megapixels like some other smart phones but there have been tests saying the actual hardware of the iphones camera is better and takes better photos than all the other smartphones. Def not low end, pretty high end if you ask me.

Wireless N: High end, no question.

New improved GPS chip: High end.

Screen: Reviewers have said best screen on a smart phone. Just because android 3.0 can potentially do 720p on a 4inch screen it doesn't really matter untill we get a screen that's capable.

Battery: Performance has been good, again more towards the high end than the low.

 

[Arminator]

Processor speeds in mobile phones are utterly irrelevant. What matters is how fast the phone software runs and in that respect iPhone is ahead of every single current Android device

iOS isnt superior to android 2.2 in terms of speed

Thats exactly my point. The software isnt anymore as groundbreaking, since android closes pretty much the gap. Probobably it isnt fully as good as UI, but in terms of performance, it isnt worse. With much better hardware, Android may even offer the better overall user experience

 

[gloss]

iOS isnt superior to android 2.2 in terms of speed

Thats exactly my point. The software isnt anymore as groundbreaking, since android closes pretty much the gap. Probobably it isnt fully as good as UI, but in terms of performance, it isnt worse. With much better hardware, Android may even offer the better overall user experience

That rather depends on if your definition of 'user experience' is based around snappiness or if it's based around things like continuity of user interface, quality of third party apps, or general polish. In those respects, Android has a ways to go.

Make no mistake, I think Android is very cool, but it really is playing Linux to Apple's Mac OS right now. A fast, powerful, extensible tool with a bit less polish but a lot of capability for the power user.

 

[grmatt]

Don't get into the habit of trying to compare numbers on a spec sheet vs actual real world experience

This x 100.

I'll take the A4 and iOS any day over Snapdragon and Android. I think tests will show soon enough that in the real world, the A4 and iOS combo is much faster. Also, iPhone 4's 5mp camera is superior to ALL 8mp cameras on Android devices. Apple isn't and never has been about specs. It's about real world, end user experience. Which, they are still the kings of... just look at product satisfaction numbers. Google's own AdMob proved this with a survey again just a few days back.

 

[grmatt]

I don't see this mentioned very often, but it's also nice that with an iPhone, you know you'll get full OS updates until at least two years, and it works the same on every phone. It takes forever for some Android handsets to get official software update releases if they ever get them at all.

 

[Arminator]

That rather depends on if your definition of 'user experience' is based around snappiness or if it's based around things like continuity of user interface, quality of third party apps, or general polish. In those respects, Android has a ways to go.

Make no mistake, I think Android is very cool, but it really is playing Linux to Apple's Mac OS right now. A fast, powerful, extensible tool with a bit less polish but a lot of capability for the power user.

As soon as the technique is on par, its only a matter of the time when there will be a userfriendly interface. Google already anounced that they will unify the interface for android with 3.0.

Since android came out the gap is melting, and i dont see why google shouldnt achive it to close the gap. Probably they will this year

 

[gloss]

As soon as the technique is on par, its only a matter of the time when there will be a userfriendly interface. Google already anounced that they will unify the interface for android with 3.0.

Since android came out the gap is melting, and i dont see why google shouldnt achive it to close the gap. Probably they will this year

Entirely possible. But, similarly, you never quite know what Apple's got up their sleeve. I do think parity is becoming tantalizingly close, but it's a way off yet. Guess we'll see.

 

[thedon1]

This x 100.

I'll take the A4 and iOS any day over Snapdragon and Android. I think tests will show soon enough that in the real world, the A4 and iOS combo is much faster. Also, iPhone 4's 5mp camera is superior to ALL 8mp cameras on Android devices. Apple isn't and never has been about specs. It's about real world, end user experience. Which, they are still the kings of... just look at product satisfaction numbers. Google's own AdMob proved this with a survey again just a few days back.

Yep. I think it was the engadget review that said the way ios4 uses the a4 chip with the camera produces fast high quality pics.

I read the review for the android which has a snapdragon and 8 megapixel camera and they said it was less responsive and the pics wern't great.

I think because apple have to only worry about ios being on their devices they can concentrate on the synergy prodcued by using all their seperate componenets with the os.

 

[br0adband]

Wireless N: High end, no question.

I'd add one caveat to that, and a mistake on Apple's part in my opinion:

The 11n support in the iPhone 4 is for 2.4 GHz service only - it doesn't allow for usage in the much less crowded and therefore far less prone to interference 5 GHz range that the 11n standard allows. I think, as I stated, that I believe this is a no-no and isn't going to help much of anything.

Yes, 11n is better in high interference signal areas when compared against 11b/g performance (11a works at 5 GHz and is so rare it's a non-issue for comparison anymore), but if you're still in the same basic frequency band, you're somewhat gimped from the start of the race you could say.

11n at 5 GHz would also require less power to operate at the same level of efficiency but, perhaps Apple's entirely new antenna design - which I believe is also flawed out of the gate (no pun intended, that's a deep one but it's in there) - requires them to keep things in the 2.4 GHz band.

I re-watch that WWDC keynote video, the intro of the iPhone 4, and I just laugh every time Steve Jobs was getting pissed when the iPhone 4 in his hand wasn't working worth a damn and the iPhone 3GS in the other hand was lickety-split-get-it-done-it's-done without skipping a beat.

Honestly, if that keynote demo isn't indicative of "Cupertino, we have a problem" with respect to wireless anything with the iPhone 4, I don't know what is. In the exact same room, facing 570 access points/hotspots in the same 2.4 GHz band, the iPhone 3GS did not skip a beat and loaded the web pages in Safari exactly as we have come to expect.

But the iPhone 4? Fuhgeddaboutit.

Have people forgotten that demo that fast? Oh, no, it's not that, it's the fact that Apple cut out all that footage from the WWDC video so it doesn't make them - or the iPhone 4 - look bad. Most people have never even SEEN that footage, at all.

Wanna see what really happened? One real-time recording of everything that went wrong coming up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxQOPFg2mo

Watch that, if you've never seen it before, watch the iPhone 3GS just rip right through the data without problems, and watch the iPhone 4 fail miserably in the hands of its very own 'Creator' and realize he tried to lay the blame on the audience.

But, Steve, the iPhone 3GS, last year's model, now considered obsolete and old technology, worked perfectly. How can you shrug off the fact that the iPhone 4 in your hand connected to the same access point (I'm quite sure of that) couldn't do a damned thing?

"There is no reception issue," sayeth the Creator...

Right.

The most important aspect of watching that video, seriously, is that you note that the iPhone 4 - on the right hand side of the screen - is attempting to use the AT&T 3G network as signified by "AT&T" and "3G" plainly visible on the display/status bar. The iPhone 3GS on the left was using AT&T service (not 3G) but it was connected to the Wi-Fi for pulling data.

The iPhone 4 originally was 3G only and after multiple attempts to get it working, the Wi-Fi kicked in (probably someone controlling it backstage meaning the iPhone 4 itself, VNC style, I don't know for certain - there is EVIDENCE to support this possibility because he clearly states "going back to primary" and "switching to backups" during his attempted demo which could be explained as a signal to the people backstage to do whatever they did or potentially were doing. After that switchover it got a blip of data and the crowd goes "Ooohhh..." but it still doesn't work. And the iPhone 3GS just sat there waiting for something to do...

At the 1 minute mark, or close to it, both iPhones are only using Wi-Fi for their wireless and still the iPhone 4 is utter fail.

(and then laugh when some guy in the audience yells out "VERIZON!!!" at about 1:22 or so)

But watch the whole video (in 720p if you can to see everything more clearly) and then see how Jobs basically goes tyrannical and blames the audience and their wireless connections and devices on the problem that only the iPhone 4 experiences during the demo - not the iPhone 3GS.

Oh yeah, the obsolete tech sucks... NOT.