iPhone 4

[TinCow]

Scienter and I both just bought iPhone 4s. We've resisted moving to smart phones for years (we currently still have old flip phones that do nothing else worthwhile) due to the cost. However, we decided several months ago that it was time to finally do it. We wanted the utility that having mobile web and mini-computing offers, having seen them used to great effect by many of our friends for years now. We debated iPhone vs Droid a great deal, and when it was announced that the new iPhone was coming out, we decided to wait and see what it was before making the decision. We went for the iPhone 4 for several reasons:

1) iPhone is cheaper. There wasn't any difference in price for the Droid. The top-of-the-line Droid models are the exact same price as the iPhones, and the Verizon plans that go with them are the exact same price as the AT&T plans... or they were until AT&T stopped the unlimited data plans. We're going with the $15 data plans, since most of our data useage will be via wifi, but even if we have to upgrade to the $25 plan, that's still cheaper than Verizon's data plan which is $30. Unlimited data is useless to us, since we will never use that much data over the phone network, since we're always in wifi areas.

2) We were already on AT&T, so we didn't have to switch carriers.

3) Resolution. iPhone 4 has the highest resolution screen. I likes the pretty.

4) Size. The reduced thickness of the iPhone 4 is a big seller to me. One of the reasons I've avoided smart phones is that I carry my phone in my pocket, and I'm not looking forward to carrying a huge chunk of metal around with me. Since the length and width of the current smartphones are pretty much identical, the only variation that can be taken advantage of is the thickness, which the iPhone 4 wins hands down.

5) Apps. iPhone has a much larger variety of apps available, period. I am sympathetic to the expanding droid market, but it's not there yet.

6) Multitasking. Not really a reason I chose iPhone 4, but a reason why it was an option. Given what I want to use the iPhone for, lack of multitasking was a huge thumbs down for me on the previous models. Had multitasking not been on the iPhone 4, I would not have bought it.

7) Design. I've always had a beef with Apple, but they do know how to make things look good. I prefer the all-touchscreen interface with the single button to the multi-button and/or keyboard combo versions in other smartphones. I find simple, clean design to be elegant and attractive.

Things I don't like about the iPhone 4, but which weren't enough to sway my decision:

1) It's made by Apple, with all that entails about their Nazi-esque control over what I can do with my own device.

2) No flash.

3) No expandable memory.

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I'll give my impressions on the phone once we actually receive them. Given the demand, it might be a while before they ship.