Anyone jump from the Original iPhone to an iPhone 4?

Question

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Answer 1

I upgraded from original iPhone on July 3rd. I loved the phone, but was worried over all the "antenna" issues so returned it within 30 days. I wanted to wait until end of September to be sure they did not come out with any minor change to the antenna which could affect future resale. I have been an Apple user since the original Mac back in the 1980's. First time I had to return a product -- but it is only temporary.
It was painful moving back to the original iPhone -- here are the main things I liked about the iPhone4 vs original:
3G speed: I ran Speedtest on my original before upgrading and then with the new iPhone 4 from the exact same spot in my house. Original averaged 50 - 100kbs download. iPhone 4 averaged 1200-1500kbs. Web pages loaded much faster.
Maps/Compass: The true GPS is great to know exactly where you are. The original iPhone "fake GPS" maps was not very accurate. There are many free apps that use the GPS. There was a Geo-caching app to track down things people had placed -- fun to do. There are apps you can use to track your route and how far you have gone (great for hiking, bike riding).
Rear Camera: Rear camera is a huge improvement over original. Having a flash really helps. With the new HDR feature in iOS 4.1 coming out, the photos will look even better.
Video -- the video from the rear camera was also good. Not going to replace my dedicated video camera, but produces good quality video when I need it.
Front Camera: didn't get a chance to use FaceTime. This will be better once there are more users. Hopefully Apple will integrate it with all the MacBooks so I can FaceTime to home / family computers.
Retina Display: was clearer, but there seemed to be more hype on this than the actual difference (at least for my eyes).
Multi-Tasking: I definitely miss this already. Very easy to move between apps. Much quicker to navigate.
Folders: I also miss this. Again, much easier to organize apps and get to them quicker.
Tethering: I was lucky enough to get the HandyLight app for the few hours it was up on iTunes. It worked well for tethering my MacBook Pro to the iPhone. I will stay with the unlimited data plan and use this app for the infrequent tethering I may need to do.
Overall speed of launching apps, moving between screens was faster, and typing was faster on iPhone 4. I never noticed the delay on my original iPhone as much until I switched back to it. Especially the lag when typing -- I sometimes type 2-3 letters and then have to wait a second or 2 for it to show up.
iPhone 4 Cons:
I did find a few times where data would stop working on the 3G network -- never had that problem when on Edge network in same location. Was most likely an issue with AT&T network being overwhelmed vs a phone issue.
Antenna: I always use a case -- afraid to drop it and crack the screen. If I took off the case and held my finger/hand over the antenna gap then I would get a significant drop in signal. At my home, I ran the speedtest covering the antenna -- the download speeds would drop to almost 0kbs. Put the case back on and my data downloads were fine. I also tried leaving the case off and covering the gap with carefully cut Scotch tape -- this also worked fine in solving the problem.
I decided to try this with my original iPhone -- took off the case and covered the lower plastic section. Results were similar -- data dropped to almost nothing.
Final note - Data usage. I was averaging 200 - 250mb per month on my original iPhone. In the first week I had used about 1GB on the iPhone 4. I was using it a lot more, using GPS/Maps more, running Speedtest frequently, etc. Since webpages load faster, I was doing more internet browsing. I would recommend staying with the unlimited data plan when you upgrade.
Hope this helps. iPhone 4 is great and I can't wait to re-purchase it in a month. Either they will have made a minor adjustment (insulated antenna, clear coat finish over antenna) or I will re-purchase it as is. I felt it was worth a couple month wait to protect my phone investment.