iPhone 4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S II: Which should you get?

here its Review :

Another week, another baddest ass Android phone on the market, and right now that’s the Samsung Galaxy S II — and Android Central has their full Sprint Galaxy II Epic 4G Touch review up for your reading pleasure. Now Sprint doesn’t have an iPhone (yet?) so if you’re on Medium Yellow and you need a phone this week then the Galaxy S II is hard to beat. If you’re on AT&T, however, you have a tougher decision to make — namely iPhone 4 today, or perhaps iPhone 5 next month vs. the AT&T Galaxy S II.

Since we don’t live in the future, however, if really you really need that phone today, which should you get?

Hardware

iPhone 4 is compact, with a 3.5 Retina Display (960×640 IPS LCD) screen, stainless steel antenna band, and glass on both sides. It’s as much object d’art as mobile device, and some 15 months later it’s still one of the best designed, best manufactured, best finished devices on the planet. The AT&T Galaxy S II isn’t the almost obscene behemoth that Sprint has released, but at 4.3 inches and 800×480 pixels of Super AMOLED Plus, it’s by no means small — though it’s considerably less than dense than iPhone or even some other Android devices. Even the plastic feels slightly better on the new generation of Galaxy. It’s still Hasbro, but it’s the higher-end Hasbro.

While iPhone 4 has a great 5 megapixel rear camera with nice, big, photon-friendly sensor that also shoots 720p video, the Galaxy S II will do 8mp with 1080p.

3G vs. 4G

iPhone 4 uses AT&T’s 3G network with support for 7.2mbps HSPA downloads. The Galaxy II S uses AT&T’s so-called 4G network with support for — what, 14.4mbps? — HSPA+ downloads. In real life, will you see a difference? Hey, insert AT&T network joke here.

Galaxy S II wins in a pinch, but it’s only by a pinch.

iOS vs. Android

While iOS 5 is just around the corner, we haven’t rounded that corner yet so we can only base this on the current version available, iOS 4.3. It’s well polished, highly functional, and addresses previously lacking features multitasking, folder organization, FaceTime video calls, personal hotspot, and other features. Check out our complete iOS 4 walkthrough for more.

The Galaxy S II is running Android Gingerbread 2.3.4. You also get TouchWiz on top of that, which might look litigiously iPhone like, and could be a plus or a minus depending on your tastes. Still, Gingerbread is powerful, flexible and begins to address issues of consistency and UI polish. See Android Central for more on Gingerbread

Both iOS and Android handle Google services very well, though Android has more of them, including Google Navigation. However, only iOS gets Apple software and services.

Apps vs. Apps

Apple still technically has more apps in the iPhone app store than Google does in the Android Market, but the truth is most of the types of apps you’re likely to want are available for both platforms.

iPhone apps tend to look better and provide a better user experience but Android apps tend to be able to do more and offer more options.

Accessories

iPhone 4 has been on the market approaching 15 months so there’s a ton of accessories available for it (just check out the TiPb Store for a taste of what’s available). Plus it ties into the massive iTunes and Apple ecosystems. Chances are you can find everything from the perfect case to peripherals that will check your blood or fly your toy helicopter.

Because Galaxy S II is so new and there are so many different Android phones, you can still find the basics but it will take a while for more accessories to show up and they’ll fade faster when the next big Android phones splashes down in a few weeks (keep and eye on the Android Central store to see what I mean. Then again, it works with Motorola’s laptop-style keyboard and screen terminal, which is very cool.

Conclusion

Here’s what TiPb had to say about iPhone 4 when it launched:

An impressive new design, amazing new display, key features like multitasking, and an attempt to mainstream video calls, along with hundreds of other little improvements combine together to make this a substantial upgrade and clearly the best iPhone ever. (Given the success of previous iPhones, that’s no faint praise).

Here’s what Android Central had to say about the Galaxy S II:

Here’s the bottom line: The Galaxy S II is easily the fastest, thinnest and lightest Android smartphone you can get.

By now you’ve read our Epic 4G Touch review. (If not, go ahead. We’ll wait. … OK. Ready?) Much of what you read there stands for AT&T’s version. They both have the same 1.2GHz processor and 1GB (more or less) of RAM, and so they pretty much feel the same in our initial use.

So if you’re in the US and on AT&T, and you need a phone now, today, and are trying to decide between iPhone 4 and Galaxy S II, which should you get?

If you want the elegance of iOS and don’t want to fuss around, if you want it to just work, if you want the biggest choice possible of apps and accessories — as long as Apple approves them, if you want to stay in the iTunes ecosystem, and you want it wrapped up in what’s arguably still the most solid, most iconic hardware on the market, get an iPhone 4 and enjoy.

If you want the sheer power of Android and like to tinker, if you want the latest, greatest specs on the market — for the moment — if you want to be able to customize without having to hack your phone, and if you want a big phone with big functionality, get the Galaxy S II.

However, if you can wait, if October isn’t too far away for you, then hold off a few weeks. Apple just change the equation again with iPhone 5, and rumors of another Nexus are already in the wind.

If you need more help deciding, read complete iPhone 4 review, compare it toAndroid Central‘s full Sprint Galaxy S II Epic 4G review and their AT&T Galaxy II S comparison, and if you have any questions, just enter your comment there..then i will help :)

iPhone 4 review: Battery life and connectivity

Battery life and Connectivity


Another big plus for the iPhone 4 is, despite being the thinnest smartphone ever created, the battery life hasn't suffered. Far from it, as Steve Jobs actually reckons it can last 40% longer despite the smaller chassis size.
And you know what - he may actually be (sort of) telling the truth here. Seasoned iPhone professional users will know that to use a couple of applications, watching a 30 mins of video, downloading new apps, run music through Bluetooth and also keep opening and closing it to perform other tasks is a real battery sucker, and usually means your iPhone won't see out the day.

Well, doing just that sat at our desk, we actually found that in a seven hour period, the battery only dropped 50%. It might sound a little drastic, but over the course of the day, when you're using the phone a lot less, this works out to be a much nicer figure to work with.
We actually found we didn't need to carry around a charger all the time when we were using an iPhone 4 - and even if you forget to plug it in at night, it won't be until sometime the following day it completely shuts down, which you have to applaud when you see how thin the chassis is here.
Of course, this isn't the all-encompassing fix we've all been waiting for in smartphones, as a simple hour's commute with push email, music and the camera all in use will drop things by about 10%, but that's not standard use.

This is helped by an all-new processor, the Apple A4 effort that's really good at not sucking down too much power even when performing those pesky multi-tasking tasks. We're impressed with Apple, as its iPhone range has gone from one of the worst on battery life to at least one of the better ones.
Connectivity
The iPhone is, as you'd expect, jam-packed with functionality. You've got an upgraded Wi-Fi chipset in there to now cater for the faster 802.11n hubs, and of course we're treated to GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and A2DP as well as the normal HSDPA and 3.5mm headphone slot.
The Bluetooth is impressive as ever too - simply search for and pair with a Bluetooth headset, and whenever the iPhone 4 finds that unit broadcasting a signal in the future it will connect automatically - which makes it much easier to use.

The GPS, as we mentioned earlier is lightning fast, but it's a real shame about the reception issues with the data - we really thing the signal dropping is going to annoy a lot of people when they've shelled out so much money for a new phone.

Tekkeon myPower for iPhone 4 Review

The Tekkeon myPower for iPhone 4 case/battery system is a complete solution for extended iPhone 4 use and protection. With a hot swappable battery component, you can extend your iPhone’s battery life into days, at the expense of a little more thickness and the need to remember to flip a switch now and then.

What’s in the Box

Included in the box is a pair of fairly standard glass protectors, a micro-USB cable, and the battery/case system itself. Tekkeon warns that you should install the rear glass protector to prevent the possibility of scratches on the back glass plate – for this review I did not install either protector and did not note any scratching, but it’s nice they included the protectors for those wishing to protect their glass.

Split Personality

The case is split into two parts:

The bottom consists the Dock connector, a couple of clever channels to redirect the mic and speaker to front-facing holes, and the microUSB, LED, and On/Off switch on the bottom.

The top half is the battery itself. The included battery was the Ultra Slim 1200mAh battery. You can buy additional batteries in either the 1200 or a thicker 2200mAh size – although the larger size doesn’t seem to be available on their web site. Additional Ultra Slim battery modules are listed on their site for $25-$30 each.

Encasement

You slide the battery module down from the top, and it snaps together with the bottom half:

The final look (fire engine red aside – it also comes in a more business friendly black) is very clean. Port access is excellent, weight is a barely noticeable 1.84 ounces. The case adds at most a millimeter to the top and sides. The bottom of the case extends about 10mm (a little less than half an inch) and it adds 6mm (about a quarter inch) to the thickness.

Overall, I found using the iPhone 4 while encased to be completely natural – no worse than any other case. You get used to the tiny bit of extra weight and size quickly. The case material is somewhat slick, which means the phone will easily slide into/out of pockets. It also means it might be a little slicker in the hand – something I don’t like in a case.
I also wonder about the ability of the case to withstand drops, and more importantly to protect the iPhone 4 when dropped. Coupled with the screen/glass protectors it should provide some shock protection, and most importantly the edges of the glass panels are covered, but there is no padding/shock absorption material integrated into the case.

In Use – as a Case

As I said above, button/port/control access is excellent, given the thinness of the case and the generous size of the cutouts. Photo/flash performance was unaffected by the case – no shine or flare was noticeable in flash photos. The speaker/mic redirects to the front of the device didn’t seem to make a noticeable difference in audio playback, and my voice sounded the same to callers with the case on or off. In other words, it’s a fine case that doesn’t cause any problems.

Battery Boost/Docking

Tekkeon got the case part right, but how about the actual battery performance? Overall, I was very impressed with the battery, with a couple of minor nitpicks. Even the Ultra Slim battery nearly doubles the battery life of the iPhone 4, since it provides about 80% of the power of the built-in battery. That alone should get you impressive run times, and in actual use I saw exactly that.

Rundown Tests

I tried to run the device down playing video (which should go 10 hours according to Apple) by playing a movie over and over. I got pretty close to 10 hours on the unassisted iPhone4. With the myPower turned on, it alone lasted nearly 10 hours, so at the end of the same amount of time the myPower was dead, but the iPhone 4 had a full battery. Essentially doubling the usable life of the phone.
In actual use, I seldom drive my phone below 30-50% battery in a day. I used the myPower on an extended day out of talking/texting/shooting video & photos to see how it would perform, and after a grueling 16 hours at the Happiest Place On Earth, I had a depleted myPower and just under 90% battery on the iPhone4 itself.

Managing Battery

So, that’s the good news. The bad news is you’re in charge of managing the myPower battery. The switch on the bottom turns On/Off the battery. Flip it on and the juice is flowing. Flip it off and it’s just a case/port adapter. The myPower documentation suggests turning it off if you’re not going to use the phone for an extended period, as the iPhone4 will draw a varying amount of power even when in standby. I tried the “set it and forget it” method – I flipped it on in the morning and left it alone – and at the end of a normal day of use the iPhone 4 was still nearly full battery, but the myPower was drained.

You can see the battery state by the small LED in the center of the bottom. When the myPower is on, the LED is on – either Blue for more than 20% battery left, Red for less than 20, or dark for out of gas. If you want to get the maximum battery life you’ll need to flip that switch on or off as needed. If you just want extended battery life in a single day, you’ll probably be fine just flipping it on in the morning and off at night while recharging.

Charging & Syncing

When the switch is on and there is battery left, or when you plug in the microUSB cable to a port or adapter that’s providing power, the iPhone4 will think it’s plugged in and charging:

Keep that in mind – your “on power” timeout setting will be used when the switch is on. Tekkeon implies in the manual that the device doesn’t charge the iPhone4, but in my actual use it seemed to, and the iPhone4 seems to think it’s charging based on the standby screen above.
Plugging in the microUSB cable to the myPower case and my machine with iTunes gives the expected result: Syncing in progress:

In all ways, the myPower USB connection looks and acts like a regular sync cable connection – the iPhone will sync with iTunes, it will show up as a digital camera so you can copy off photos and videos, and both the myPower and the iPhone 4 will charge. You can plug it into USB/AC adapters or powered USB ports.
Obviously you cannot plug your iPhone into any dock accessory – for me that meant removing the case completely to dock my phone in my car. If you have a lot of docks in your normal daily use, you’ll likely reserve this case for when you’re planning to be mobile only.

Parting Thoughts

The Tekkeon myPower for iPhone 4 is a nice combination of case and extended battery, that works well. You give up a little more size and a few ounces of weight, along with your dock connector, in exchange for nearly double the battery life per battery module. With swappable battery modules you can extend battery runtime even longer. The power-switch puts you in control of when the extended battery is used, which gives you control, but it means you’ve got to remember to flip the switch on or off. Finally, and this is perhaps just me, but that LED is bright! If you charge your iPhone on a bed-side table at night your bedroom will be bathed in blue (or red, if its really run down) light all night. I guess it doubles as a night-light too!

Product Information

Price:	$79.95
Manufacturer:	Tekkeon
Requirements:	iPhone 4, USB 2.0 port
Pros:	Swappable battery, Case & Battery in one, Uses micro-USB connection, thin, light.
Cons:	Bright LED during charging/on (night-time annoyance), somewhat slippery case, cannot use dock connector while case is installed.

iPhone 4 review: HD Video and iMovie

HD Video and iMovie

Another trick the iPhone 4 is packing is the ability to record and edit HD video directly from the handset, with the plan clearly to make it into the ultimate media marvel.
Recording 720p video isn't anything new, as the Samsung i8910HD, Vodafone 360 H1, Sony Ericsson Vivaz and Vivaz Pro and the Samsung Wave all have managed to show off that trick in recent times, with the Nokia N8 coming up to do the same.
But Apple isn't about doing things the same way, and once again the interface becomes a differentiator for the video.
While the sparse settings are on offer once again, there's not a lot here you'd need. The video light can be set to 'on', 'auto' or 'off' (that's the level of detail we provide here at TechRadar and even in low light, the frame rate seems to stay pretty constant.

However, under those lighting conditions, you couldn't really say the HD quality comes screaming out at you – looking at the same footage on the computer screen shows that the graininess is out in full force.
In outdoor conditions, things improve somewhat, although there is some distortion in the image quality that you simply wouldn't get with a standalone HD video camera.
But the frame rate is good; the interface simple to use and the constant auto-focus makes things very simple to see when looking through the iPhone's eye.
Click here to see the full resolution version of the footage


Adding to the HD video footage recording is the video trimmer we saw with the iPhone 3GS last year, and you start to see how Apple could get a real foothold in the phone/camcorder market.

Sure, it's just dragging and dropping the beginning and the end of the footage, but a home movie looks so much better when you don't have that bit where you've finished and are shaking the camera to find the off button.
iMovie
While the video trimmer won't really make you into a movie producer overnight, well, neither will iMovie actually, but it will get you just that little bit closer.
Porting the popular Mac application to the iPhone 4, users get the ability to add music, photos and videos together in a 'project', with transitions when you want to move between each.

There are themes on offer as well, making it easy to create videos with text and borders and all sorts – we hope there will be more on offer soon, as the current crop is a little limited, as are the transitions.
It's a little basic, but for £2.99 it's not a bad little application if you love taking footage with your phone. If you don't, then you're probably better spending your £3 on something better. Like really fancy jar of jam – that'll last you ages.

iPhone 4 Review : Camera

Camera : Upgraded Sensors


The world grumbled about the cameras on the iPhone and iPhone 3G: 2MP with no flash simply wasn't going to cut it.
Last year the iPhone 3GS brought a 3.2MP camera when the world was readying itself for the first 12MP cameraphones – again, Apple seemed to be lagging behind.
So thankfully the iPhone 4 brings not only a 5MP camera, but also an LED flash and significantly upgraded sensors to improve picture quality.


And what a leap – this is so, so much better in terms of cameraphone quality. Any budding mo-phos out there (mobile photographers, in case you're wondering) will be very impressed with the quality of the camera on the iPhone 4.
For starters, Apple's overhaul of the sensor has done wonders for extending the light range of the snapper – now it can take excellent pictures in both low and strong light, even without the LED flash.
The options to mess around with are minimal – for instance there's no option to play with white balance or colour saturation, like that offered on the HTC Legend.
It's a shame because these little tweaks can really improve picture quality with little input.
But there is one ace up the iPhone 4's sleeve, in touch to focus.
Tapping an area of the screen not only brings it into focus, but also adjusts white balance and brightness very well, making the subject clear in any picture.
The LED flash is good, if not awe inspiring... it has a mid range throw that's perfectly fine for night pictures of your pals.
The digital zoom is silky smooth too, and it's dumbfounding how clear the pictures are at 5x zoom – take a look below to see how well they came out:


CONTRAST: The first image is taken with the focus on the leaves, and the second on the sun


DARKER CONTRAST: The same as above, but this time from a darker scene, which leads to a slightly less pure picture


DIGITAL ZOOM: The iPhone 4's digital zoom is top notch - at 5x closer the detail is preserved incredibly well

AUTO MACRO: There's no macro mode on offer here, but the iPhone manages to intelligently find the right level

TOO BRIGHT: However, if there's too much surrounding light it struggles to focus on the foreground

iPhone 4 review: Internet

Using Your Browser like Laptop

Another thing Apple has always excelled at is the internet experience on its phone – it used to be the leader in this area without a shadow of a doubt.
Then Android got its WebKit-browser together and with it came a real rival to the throne of best mobile phone browser – and we're not sure that Apple comes up trumps this time.
The Apple A4 processor under the hood certainly has sped things up though – the internet browsing experience is markedly improved from the iPhone 3GS, with web sites loading a shade quicker and scrolling through them a much more pleasant experience.

We're still 'limited' to eight open pages at once though – any more than that and you're not allowed to start up another window.

We can't see that being a problem though, seeing as nobody can need that much information on their mobile phone at once – plus the impressive thing is there's no slowdown in the operation either.
However, the same gripe is still there: no Flash video. Yes, we know the myriad reasons Jobs has for not putting Adobe Flash on the iPhone or iPad, but it leaves iPhone 4 users in something of a limbo state.
Jobs has stated that he believed HTML5 and other standards will take over from Flash video and be a better experience – which is a fine stance to take.
But in the meantime we're left heading to the official BBC site and being constantly exposed to the 'Flash not detected' messages strewn everywhere, which makes us feel like we've got an ancient device, not something that's supposed to change everything. Again.

On the plus side, embedded YouTube works on most sites, jumping straight into the dedicated iPhone client and playing back with minimal loss in quality.
Other little internet tweaks we like are the ability to turn a bookmarked web page into a home screen icon, offering easy access from the start, and the ability to easily email a link to your friends.
However, when you look at the browser on the HTC Desire, you can see it's probably ahead in the overall functionality stakes.
Firstly, when you zoom into text on the iPhone 4, there's only one size that fits all the text on the screen. It's perfectly visible, but if you want to head in further (using the excellent pinch and zoom) some of the text moves off the screen.

The HTC range will constantly resize text no matter how close you get, which gives you far more options, especially for the short sighted.
The Android browser also allows shipping links to Twitter, Facebook and SMS, as well as deploying the latest version of mobile Flash in version 10.1 – and doing it fairly well.

In fairness, the iPhone probably does copy and paste that little bit better, as the little green pins are very easy to grab and drag with the magnifying glass around to help out.
We never thought we'd say it, but the iPhone is no longer top dog when it comes to web browsing on your phone.

iPhone 4 Review : Messaging

Flexible Usability

The Apple iPhone 4 follows its predecessors in offering a large amount of messaging options, and that number has been swelled since the introduction of iOS4.
The keyboard – both landscape and portrait – is eerily accurate, and if you've never tried it before you'll be dumbfounded at how quickly you get used to smashing out messages as fast as possible.
The main method of interaction is through email, and Apple now lets you have multiple Exchange accounts on the iPhone as well as Gmail, YMail... in fact all kinds of webmail is supported.
And getting involved with these is as simple as pie – for our Yahoo account, it was simply a matter of username and password and we were away – slightly disconcerting privacy-wise but a dream to set up.
Google Mail can be done in the same way, or you can channel it through the Exchange route if you want to sync the contacts or calendar - Google has a good explainer on how to do it.
Corporate Exchange is a little trickier, as it requires you to know the settings and domain name and mail address – you might be better throwing the phone and a couple of beer tokens at your company's friendly IT guy if you're struggling.

However, the push email works a treat and the iPhone 4's new iOS 4 offers unified inboxes – so you can get all your email in one place without having to jump in and out of separate accounts.
The email interface on the iPhone 4 is a dream too – simply swipe from the right hand side of the message you want to erase and a little delete button appears as if by magic.
You can also easily select multiple messages to erase at once by pressing edit – you can also move the emails to a separate folder using this method too.
Another new feature is emails are now grouped together – you know the situation: you're having a five person conversation and before you know it there are 33 emails in your inbox all entitled 'Is spin class for only women?'.
Now they're all under one roof – simply click in to the subject email and you can see the debate in all its glory.
MMS was nicely set up in the way we've come to expect from Apple, with the option to send a picture or video directly from the item, or by hitting the small camera icon in the MMS message to choose a photo or video.

Strangely, if creating a message using the MMS editor, we could only attach a video or picture, yet MMS supports contact cards as well as sound recordings too.
While both of these functions allow you to create an MMS from the actual item, if you want to combine audio and a contact card you won't be able to in the current MMS editor.

Text messaging is laid out in Apple's favourite 'conversation' balloons, with easy interactivity with your chats and message lists.

The other option to contact your friends with is that old staple: instant messaging. The advent of the newer versions of the Apple OS mean push notifications and background running make much more sense on this new iteration, and the likes of Windows Live Messenger now finally appearing on the scene mean IM is a very easy way of chatting to your friends.

If we had one gripe, it's that Apple hasn't taken a leaf out of RIM's book and allowed the inbox API to be opened up. Imagine being able to see not only emails, but text messages, Facebook messages, Twitter mentions... all in one easy to reach place.
Come on Apple; let's see that in the next update, shall we?

iPhone 4 Review : Calling, FaceTime and Contact

Apple iPhone More Features

The Apple iPhone 4 is still meant to be a phone first and foremost, no matter how many applications you put on there or how much the internet experience is optimised.
Previous iPhone incarnations have struggled somewhat to offer the best telephony experience, so has Apple failed to deliver a decent calling experience again?
The answer is no and sort of... no in the fact that the call quality and stability has been jolly improved, but only sort of because the iPhone 4 has some very worrying coverage issues we'll come onto.

We mentioned the noise cancelling microphones earlier, and these really do work nicely. We wandered all through London and we were able to hear our friends in all kinds of places easily, so the earpiece is nice and clear.
The friends we were chatting too also reported a very clear and non-call-dropping experience as well - we purposely didn't tell them we were using the iPhone 4, and those that had prior iPhone use were genuinely surprised.
The speaker is also nice and clear too - the distortion we've heard on other phones wasn't present even at the loudest points - in short, perfectly usable as a conferencing device.
However, there's a major issue brewing here: the iPhone 4 loses signal if you hold it in your left hand.
Yes, we know, it sounds odd, but bear with us, there's a reason for this. Apple has been fairly ingenious in the design of the iPhone 4, and in getting it so thin, it placed the antenna, Bluetooth, GPS and other radio receivers on the stainless steel band running around the edge.
But it appears contact with the palm on the bottom left corner, the most natural place to hold the phone for many, results in bars falling quickly - see the video we shot as proof.
We were initially unconcerned, as we've seen the issue before on the iPhone 3GS, and calls didn't drop out no matter where we held the phone or how few bars we had.
But when running a speed diagnostics test using SpeedTest.net, things were very different: the average speed at 3G is around 500Kbps. With the iPhone 4 in the left hand this dropped to just under 10Kbps on the EDGE network.
If you use the Bumper, the shorting doesn't happen and there's no signal loss - on the contrary, things are very good on the signal and data front.
Apple has responded by simply telling users not to hold the phone this way – so it seems there's no fix on the horizon.
However, we'll be honest: while you shouldn't have to put up with such a major flaw in a mobile phone, it's not as much of a big deal as you'd think, and we couldn't make it drop calls even when the palm was heavily pressed on
It is very wrong that you can only either browse the internet using your right hand or holding the phone a little differently.
It's not a deal breaker if you're thinking of getting the iPhone 4 – but it is very annoying and does border on the ridiculous for a company that prides itself on such intense quality control.
FaceTime
Onto brighter things now, and Apple's odd choice to bring back video call with the new iPhone 4.
Basically, it's the same principle us Brits have been messing around with for nearly a decade - see your friends in real time while you walk around, and they can see you in turn.

There are many reasons why video calling has never taken off here, and one of them is the complexity of setting it up - at least Apple has removed that hurdle here.
You can choose to video call someone from their profile in your phone, or even switch the call to FaceTime halfway through to start up a video call instead.
A simple button press flicks between the front-facing VGA camera and the rear 5MP effort, and you also get the option to move the little pane showing your own face around the screen - although you can't put it right in the centre for comedy effect.

While it's true that the audio and video quality is much improved using the iPhone 4's FaceTime application, we still can't see why this will herald the second coming of video calling.
Sure, the likes of Skype have made video chat more popular, but sitting at your PC or in your living room and looking at a larger screen just seems more natural than talking to your phone.
Plus you can currently only use FaceTime over Wi-Fi, which surely needs to change very soon, as there's no way of telling if someone is going to be available or not when you want to chat, unless you're already on a call with them.
In our tests, we were overall nonplussed by the experience. The video quality didn't seem that different from front to rear camera, and the pictures were a little grainy, which we didn't expect over Wi-Fi.
One plus point – if you have two iPhone 4s, then you can FaceTime call yourself. If you've ever wondered what the back of your hair looked like properly, this is the way to find out.
Contacts
The contacts system on the iPhone is a pretty standard affair - you've got all your friends listed in the way you'd imagine they would be, and a little column of letters on left allows you to quickly find a certain alphabetical group of buddies.
You can also easily search for your friends using the Spotlight application too, if you're a little lazy, and the whole experience works nicely.
Contact information is pretty sparse, but all the fields you need are there - IM handle is the most advanced offering you get when adding in new info.

We much prefer the simple awesomeness of the HTC Sense UI on the likes of the Desire and the Legend - the ability to sync Twitter and Facebook, see your call and messaging history and even browse their photos is an immense feature.
Still at least the iPhone 4 does things simply - apart from the fact it gets a bit too formal at times in the listing process.
If you have a friend on your SIM card or Google contact called Mr Sweatband, for instance, he would have previously been listed under 'M', but the iPhone 4 sees his last name instead and puts him under 'S'. Little thing, but annoying there's nothing you can do about it.

Thankfully you can synchronise contacts from Google or Exchange as well as searching the latter's online server if you can't find the person you're looking for straight away.
This makes the porting process from another smartphone so much easier if you're not a previous iPhone user.