Hardware What should a bit-tech iPhone 4 review look like?

very well said. it's a mater of divided opinion. no single product can be lived by everyone.

 

I say go for it. Everyone got hooked on the fact you said "iPhone4" review. But I wonder what the comments would have been like if you had said Droid 2/X instead. This highlights a keypoint: You'll need to have reviews out for all the OSs. (Palm, WinMo, BB, Android, iOS... any others?) And have them all written and reviewed comparably and objectively.

Some subjective elements are to be expected, and acceptable, as long as ALL REVIEWS ARE COMPARABLE. (What I mean is, take any game review of the same genre (say, FPS) and look at them, you should be able to use information from the multiple reviews to decide on a "best" FPS for you. The phone reviews, when read consecutively, should produce the same result for the reader.)

Apple products will always start flame wars. However, I get the feeling you know how to sort out the vocal minority from the majority of your followers so this doesn't worry me. At the moment, with the way Google is pushing out OS and handheld revisions, the way BB is falling behind, and the way Apple makes one revision a year-- most of your content (knowing nothing of Pre/WinMo) might be slightly skewed towards Android content. Though if the community seems to be okay with this, then we can start looking at modding. (BB is easy to skin, Android is easier to legit mod, the rest are fairly closed as far as I know.)

I say go for it. You have more writers now, more room for "experimental" content, and I think if your first review was a round up of the (subjectively/financially) "most popular" phones (iPhone4, Evo, Aria, Droid, Storm 2, Bold/Tour/wtfe, and whatever WinMo and Pre have...) and then branched out to other hand sets, that I think you could generate a unique following that differentiates itself from the MILLIONS of other phone reviews by its sheer objectivity.

I say go for it and see what kind of reception it gets. Just a warning, if your first review is the iPhone4 alone, there'll be a flamewar like you've never seen before in the comments. Just saying...

But yeah, give it a go. I'd love to see Bit's take.

 

Funnily enough, nobody thinks about that. Pity, because some of the Jailbroken GUI's are really different and innovative.

Generalisations, sure, but count the number of Apple hating posts in this thread alone.

 

I would like to see focus on this stuff about hands obscuring the signal. I hope it's not as bad as some people make out.

 

iPhone 4 review?

blast it with piss.

I don't even have a cell phone. Nor do I want one.

 

I'd certainly be interested to see what your thoughts are once you've decided how to bit-tech the smartphone market. Don't think I've seen a watercooled smartphone yet though...

 

How about testing how quick it is to ring someone up or send a text or email? It is after all a phone.

 

http://www.cultofmac.com/californian-woman-sues-apple-over-faulty-iphone-moisture-sensors/39132

This one's been water cooled! Oh, hang on...

 

Grab the 5 best smartphones, let someone use them all on daily basis for month, and write down his/her experience everyday, then draw your conclusion at the end of the month. Would be nice, and useful. Of course at the end of the month perform reception tests, durability tests and so on.

 

well, aside from the new changes in it, put it Vs. the HTC Desire for exapmle, do a battery life test, check about that signal loss issue that apple says the solution is "hold your iphone in the right way!!!"
just do a review pointing out the pros and cons because 99% out there are saying it's an amazing great device and i want to see a non-biased review of the device to help people who want to buy it.

 

Surprised it took this long for someone to say this.

 

A anvil and a hammer spring to mind

 

Reminds me a bit of 'The emperors new clothes' - if you can't see how good it is you are somehow deficient.

 

smartphone review that i'd like to read
- sometimes phones with the same capacity hold different amounts of music or videos
- test boot times
- test google maps performance
- how many clicks to email
battery testing using phone, apps, maps, browsers, downloads & streaming - like a typical days work

 

If you want an iPhone review, or any mobile review, try TrustedReviews.

Sam

 

As they're Apple fanbois, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.

 

With Onlive even this is possible..............if you have access..........and if they get it working over wifi...........and in theroy or demos =p

 

More like 'the emperor's jeans'.

You might wonder what the big deal is about trousers that are roughly cut out of course denim, rivetted together and --despite only coming in blue stitched in orange thread . You might even wonder why people like them more as they get more worn and faded over time.

The reason is: they may not look like a big deal, but are really quite good trousers. They fit comfortably, they are practical, rugged and long lasting in use and, like good leather, the material ages beautifully. But it is almost a cultural thing. You have to appreciate what makes good, functional clothing to appreciate jeans. Moreover although a cheap knock-off jeans may look almost identical to a quality Levi's, the difference soon becomes clear as you wear them. It is about subtle differences in cut, choice of material, density of stitching... stuff that only a good tailor has a keen eye for. The rest of us muggles just know what a quality jeans feels like.

Other objects we use are like that too. Now I don't compare the iPhone to a style icon like the jeans (although it's getting there), but all along its design there have been choices made on materials, shape, size, weight, function, software, GUI, battery life, and indeed cost; details that to most people just feel right but the full knowledge and understanding of which is the domain of good product designers only.

Thing is: we're all geeks. We think we are a bit like the professional tailors who design jeans, or the product designers who design the iPhone or iPad. The truth is, we're not even close. We don't make a living at that game. They do. Now we can sniff derisively at the iPhone and iPad and think of them as rather flawed and expensive products, or we can look at the nearly 2 million of units sold each, and start wondering why that is.

If there is any interesting angle Bit-Tech can do in its review, is look at the design history of a product. The choices made, the compromises and balances struck; why it was done this way when to the casual observer that way seems to be more obvious. Product design is an incredibly complicated business, and it would be cool to take a peek at the works under the lid.

 

The iPhone is the epitome of form over function.

The sheer fact that the iPhone sells as well as it does is more to do with people's mentality than the iPhone's functionality. Apple is seen as a stylish brand and, as such, so are its products. The iPhone, like the iPod before it, is sought after because people want to be seen by their peers as stylish, cool, hip, etc. They want to feel popular, to have people envious of what they own, and, by extension, envious of them. It's this sick mentality, which is so pervasive in our society, that enable companies like Apple to be so financially successful. Apple spend such an inordinate amount of money on marketing and advertising that it's any wonder more people don't realise this fact or how contrived their commercials and ad placements actually are, especially since they're seemingly everywhere you look; happy Apple users enjoying making calls, browsing websites and testimonials on how futuristic it is to make a video-call on a mobile phone, disregarding the fact that the aforementioned feature has been readily available for approximately five years across a seemingly endless number of mobile phones. It is these types of actions that leave a feeling of cold and calculating desperation when Apple and iPhone come to mind.

Furthermore, while there are those users who buy an iPhone for its "functionality", I dare say there are countless more who have bought it for the wrong reason. Is it wrong to feel an affinity for a device? No. Is it wrong to like a device, even though it might not technically be as good as another? No. Is it wrong to buy a device simply because you see other people buying it and/or you know that buying it will improve people's opinion of you? Yes.

This sheep mentality has to stop. People need to stop being shallow, narcissistic and conceited enough to think that buying a particular device will make them "better", when all it does is perpetuate a needless obsession of materialism. While the iPhone is certainly not the root cause of this sheep mentality, and nor is it the only device available that causes such a reaction from consumers, it is a shining example of just how wrong it is to want something just because other people want it. The online blogs, newspapers, magazines, etc all have a hand in it too, as they 'feed the need' by giving out more and more inconsequential information that is just not required; unless of course you need to see another video of someone unboxing/blending/dissecting/destroying an iPhone for the millionth time. These same purveyors also exacerbate the situation when they have a clear bias towards Apple and its products. While the call of “fanboi” is mentioned all too often in the world of technology, there has never been more of a reason to use it when discussing this topic.

In addition, the iPhone should be looked at pragmatically. It is a device that does some things well and a lot of things either badly, or not at all. It is on its 4th iteration and only now do the specifications actually match, and in a few instances exceed, the specifications of other mobile phones on the market. While everything can’t always be based on specifications, it should be expected that a device, especially one that carries such a price premium, at least match the average specifications of other devices that are currently available.