Apple's launch of the iPhone 4 has seen the greatest excitement for a new phone ever - and with HD video recording, a super high-res screen and ridiculously slim dimensions, it's not hard to see why.
But things are a little different now - not only was the iPhone 3GS something of a non-update to the iPhone range, but there are finally decent alternatives in the smartphone market, with the HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy S leading the Android fight right to Apple's door.
At least Apple has unleashed the big guns for this effort - before we get into the headline specs, the design itself is a massive talking point on its own.
Jobs' chats on stage to unveil a new iPhone might have got a little repetitive (best this, magical that etc) but this is the first time since the first iPhone way back in January 2007 that we've seen a variation on the standard iPhone design.
Gone is the traditional curved back and plastic exterior with slightly chunky dimensions; in is a chassis that's only 9.3mm thin at its thickest point and a new stainless steel and glass industrial design.
If you're an iPhone fan, there's a good chance you won't like the look of the iPhone the first time you pick it up - it's the same weight as the iPhone 3GS at 137g, but it's a lot smaller, with dimensions of 115.2mm x58.6 mm x 9.3mm, so it feels like a much weightier and compact model.
The edges are stainless steel, apparently forged by winged unicorns in an iceberg (or something) to be 10 times stronger than 'normal' steel.
The front and back of the phone are made of glass, which has also been treated to be a lot stronger than the normal variety we're used to seeing through and drinking out of.
This claim holds up - not only did we feel the need to drop the phone onto the floor a few times to test, someone nameless of the TechRadar team also knocked it out (an admittedly low level) window onto concrete - and not a scratch.
If you're the protective type, then you can buy an official 'Bumper' for the iPhone 4, which encases it in a small ring of rubber, if you haven't bought the handset only for its slim lines.
The chassis shape isn't the only different thing with the iPhone 4 - the whole ethos has been tweaked. For instance, no longer is there a slightly plasticky rocker switch to control volume on the left-hand side, as it's now two discrete metal buttons with '+' and '-' written on.
The volume silencer rocker switch is above too, but that has also undergone the uber-metallic treatment.
The top of the phone still holds the headphone jack, and the power/lock key. However, the 3.5mm port is now flush to the chassis, and the power button feels much nicer to hit than before.
There's also a separate microphone for noise cancelling next to this as well - we imagine a few people will be pushing paperclips in there before they realise that it's not for the SIM card slot.
The right-hand side of the chassis is still blank - no camera button sadly, which would have been nice given the extra effort Apple has clearly put into overhauling the photography system.
Still, sleek is clearly still 'in' at the Cupertino HQ, and we can't say we blame the designers when you look at the lines.
Actually, that's not true - the micro-SIM slot is hidden away here, rather than on the top. It's the same pokey key thing/slot system as before, but this time the SIM card is much smaller - Apple says to make more room for stuff inside, we say it's just to shake things up a little bit. Either way, we bet micro-SIMs become the norm before very long in all phones.
The bottom of the phone has the familiar Apple connector for charging and connecting and docking etc, and is flanked by another more microphone-y looking microphone slot and the speaker.
The front still has that one iconic button, which is much nicer to press in the new chassis, it has to be said.
Overall, the design might not impress some people the first time they pick up the phone - a number of people we showed the phone to grimaced a little bit the first time they handled it.
It's a sharp and weighty-feeling phone, make no mistake - and it doesn't sit as comfortably in the hand as well as other iPhones of the past have.
But it feels premium, and at up to £600, it had better - that's a lot to pay when you consider you could get a 42-inch 1080p LCD for £200 less these days.
In the box
At least Apple has remained consistent when it comes to the packaging - apart from a new graphic on the front to make the new iPhone 4 look more mysterious, there's not a lot different to the older iPhones.
So that means: a simple Apple USB cable, a three-pin plug adaptor and some headphones. The latter is the same old set from the year before: hands free and a function button on the cord, but slightly poor quality compared to a range of other buds on the market.
Oh, you also get that little tool for removing the micro-SIM card as well - but Apple should just save itself some money and stick a paperclip in there, as 99.99% of people will lose that little thing, panic, then improvise anyway. Well, we have. Twice.
RETINA DISPLAY
Another big feature of the Apple iPhone 4 is the new high resolution display - Steve Jobs has decided the best name for this is a 'Retina Display' by dearth of the fact it's meant to be so high-res that it's actually more than the eye can cope with. Read more about what we think of that.
But the main point is the screen is so packed with pixels - we're talking 326 pixels per inch, and a 960x640 display, making it ridiculously high resolution for a phone with a 3.5-inch display.
This beats the Nexus One, iPad and pretty much every other phone on the market at the moment - it's immense and we can't really do it justice by describing it; essentially you have to see it to believe it.
The idea is that the days of pixellated images are over - now it's all smooth and sleek lines for everything.
This claim is certainly shown when looking at a web page on maximum zoom; sure, the old iPhone 3GS' effort looked a little ragged, but we accepted it because of the high zoom level and the fact that, well, we didn't care.
But when you see things like that on the Retina Display, things just change completely. It's crisp and pure the whole way in, and while we're not saying that it's the most necessary thing out there, it's really cool and adds an element of wow-factor.
It's not just the smoothness that impresses either; it's the contrast ratios and overall image processing that comes to the fore when you see the iPhone 4's Retina Display for the first time.
Video looks simply sublime on the 3.5-inch screen, and while it's not an OLED (rather a TFT LCD with IPS backplane switching - here's a dull link to an explainer if you're into that kind of thing... and we sadly are) it still looks every bit as good as the display on the HTC Desire.
We might argue that the 800:1 contrast ratio, while stunning, isn't better than an OLED version, which has the advantage of no backlight so the blacks will always be that little bit purer.
We also think that perhaps the colour reproduction isn't as saturated - but given that some people claim that OLED screens are a little too colour heavy, this may not be a bad thing.
Overall - Retina Display is a great thing, although not necessarily better than WVGA OLED screens we see in a lot of high end phones these days; but we can only hope that it's a trend that's followed by more manufacturers in the future.
BATTERY LIFE AND PERFORMANCE
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.
VERDICT
Well, there's been so much to talk about on the new iPhone that we're actually impressed Apple had that much to update on this iteration of the smartphone.From HD video recording to a completely new shape, it's intriguing to see record-breaking numbers queuing up to pick up this device – but after playing with it for a few days, you can see why.
I liked
Well, we liked nearly everything on the iPhone 4. The main thing we enjoyed is the fact the interface is still so slick, as nothing beats the fact the phone reacts to your slightest touch.
The gyroscope is beyond awesome on a phone of this size, or on a phone at all come to think of it.
The battery life has been well extended to work long enough to not hate your phone any more, which is a welcome boost, and the camera and video recorder have been updated more than adequately to consider them actual replacements for the cameras and camcorders.
The Retina Display is really something else to look at, and we're even starting to like the sharp angles of the chassis – although we're still not huge fans.
The App Store is still brilliant, and will continue to get brilliant-er, and things like Google Maps offer a superb mapping experience.
I disliked
Why, why did the reception problem have to happen Apple? If it wasn't for that, this would have been head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to smartphone functionality. Nothing can come close on paper.
The price is also ridiculously high - £600 for a phone is amazing, and more so when you think thousands, yes, thousands of people queued up in the UK alone to pick up one of these the second it was released.
The HTC Desire costs less than £400, is free on £30 a month deals, where the iPhone costs £170 plus the contract too.
We appreciate the sheer amount of tech and design packed into the iPhone 4, but that's still a LOT to shell out for a phone.
Verdict
Trust us, we've gone back and forth over the star rating to give the iPhone 4 - it's been tricky.
Put it this way: if we didn't have to switch hands to browse the internet at any given moment, this phone would have been five stars, hands down. Apart from the fact your own skin makes you lose all 3G connectivity, there's pretty much nothing wrong with this phone.
And if you're still lusting after an iPhone, don't worry - this is by no means a reason not to buy it. Like we said, we had no dropped calls during our tests, and that's a big improvement on previous iterations - it was the internet browsing that got us.
Is it better than the 3GS? Yes - by a country mile. Is it better than the HTC Desire? In some ways yes, in some ways no... the iPhone 4 hits higher points but thanks to the reception issue hits lower points too.
Essentially it comes down to a straight choice: are you interested in the geek chicness of the rapidly-improving Android, or are you all over the slick iPhone eco-system?
You won't be disappointed by the iPhone 4 by any means - if you're happy to spend nearly £200 more on a phone and are willing to wiggle your hand a little bit then this phone will delight for the next couple of years.
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