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I don’t like the iPhone 4
The first time I saw the iPhone 4 I thought it was an incredible design. Very clean, symmetrical, and easy to understand. It immediately reminded me of a beautiful luxury appliance from the past.
And it looks as if it’s improved from the old phone. The square sides make it much easier to hold and type when laying down and also finally no more “soap bar” design which caused the previous one to slip from my hands everytime I held it.
In fact, it’s weird how apple sometimes decides to give form priority over function, like the slippery material on the back of the 3GS, or in the past with products like the round mouse or the touch sensitive button to power the cube which made it power on and off simply by breathing on it… (the same ones on the second generation iPod), and now partly the external antenna on the iPhone (in part because it wasn’t only a design reason). Actually everytime Apple made these decisions it bit back in one way or another.
Anyway, speaking of the iPhone 4, after having it for a while I seem to have some weird impressions:
1. It’s more slippery than the old one because of the glass on the back.
2. The glass on the back also makes it more fragile, and everytime I lay it on the table I must pay attention if there’s any dust that could scratch it. Nevermind that it’s a special resistant glass… It just doesn’t give me this feeling, and this is important in design. It reminds me of a topic called ergonomy which is the study of the relation between people and the objects they interact with. It’s relevant to anything, hardware or software, cars or furniture… Apple sometimes seems to forget to study this area properly and other times they are the best, like with iOs.
3. To feel comfortable with it I need to put a bumper or a case of some kind which will never make the phone prettier… It makes it bigger and uglier… which pretty much kills all the design work behind it. The phone in fact should be studied to function as is.
4. After using it for a while, the iPhone 4 reminded me of why the 3GS probably has rounded edges: because it just feels good in my hands and also in my pocket (especially the front one), where it stays half of the time. The 4 feels bad in it because of it’s square sides, or at least it feels worse than the old one.
5. It’s got the infamous antenna problem which you actually notice. Not so often as one could think after reading all the bad press but you do. Yes every phone has this problem if you hold it tight… but the iPhone 4 shows it just by touching the bad spot. The first time Steve Jobs talked about this feature in his keynote I was puzzled. How can they put an antenna outside a phone where people can touch it and not have any problems with it? I thought about this because when I was a kid I had fun playing with Motorola Micro tac phones, short circuiting it’s radio signals so I could listen to other people’s conversations…
In conclusion:
I have a phone which is a bit too delicate to use as it is having to put an ugly bumper on it just to feel comfortable (and I don’t want to); I’m afraid when holding it during a call because if I touch the bad spot it could eventually drop the call; I’m afraid to hold it whilst not calling because it’s very slippery; It’s not very comfortable in the pocket; And I must pay attention not to scratch it every time I put it on a table.
Design wise I think it’s not a very good phone. Beautiful yes, because it’s got the basics covered: It’s easy to understand, very clean and also like many other nice designs out there it’s symmetrical, which means that it’s the same on both sides (if you cut it in half from any side, both parts will be the same). This gives the sensation that the product is well balanced. But on the other side when you consider that the iPhone costs so much money and that you need to carry it everywhere and always hold it in your hands then you probably won’t think it’s a “good” design.
I wish I could have a 3GS with a 5mp camera and a retina display.
Or simply I’ll stop moaning and get used to it.
