As usual the announcement of a new Apple product was hugely slick and filled with sexy shots of the new iPhone and its various new features. A recurring theme throughout Steve Jobs presentation on the iPhone 4 was that it was biggest leap in design since the first iPhone.

Well Simbasics will put the key features he has outlined under the microscope to see whether the iPhone 4 is revolutionising the smartphone or merely playing catchup with what is already out there.

• New Design – Catchup

“Extraordinary build quality. I don’t think there’s another consumer product like this.” I beg to disagree Steve. For sheer extraordinary build quality, not even Apple’s redesign of their iPhone can match up to the beautiful aluminium body of the HTC Legend. There is no doubting that the iPhone 4 does look very nice, but then all smartphones these days do and whether or not it is an advantage over competitors comes purely down to individual’s personal taste. As for the claim that the iPhone 4 is encased in glass that is 30 times harder than plastic, the only reason this is specifically mentioned is that previous iPhones have had a nasty habit or smashing rather easily. There is nothing to really complain about the design, but it’ll just be another pretty smartphone in a market full of pretty smartphones.

• Retina Display – Revolutionary

I have to give it to Apple on this one, the resolution and general display on the iPhone 4 is nothing short of breathtaking. “All of sudden things start to look like continues curves. Like text in a fine printed book” This is the big selling point of the new iPhone resolution, and seeing the videos it definitely appears that the screen of the iPhone 4 is beautiful. So even though I’ll admit that the display quality is truly revolutionary, I’m still not convinced. I believe the law of diminishing returns can fully be applied here, as you can have all the clarity you want on a smartphone, but it will still be a smartphone, with all the screen size limitations that go along with it. While I can understand that the iPad could revolutionise how people read e-books and watch videos, that is because it has an appropriate screen size. Reading a book will never be a reality on smartphones, and your eyes will still hurt if you try to watch a video for too long a screen this small. So overall, the display is revolutionary, but somewhat pointless.

• A4 Chip & Battery – Staying Still

I think that whatever boasts Steve Jobs makes about new battery designs, or improved chip designs, the issue of smartphone battery life is a moot point. I am sure that there will be some kind of improvement over previous iPhones, and maybe it will even be slightly better than the likes of the Desire or Xperia X10, but overall battery life will still be poor. The reality is that all the brains of smartphones are just too hungry for little phone batteries. People have got used to the fact that with smartphones you can expect to have to charge around once a day, and while it is a little inconvenient, it’s not a huge problem.

• Gyroscope – Revolutionary

The gyroscope demonstration was one of the high points of the whole presentation for me, not for any particular reason than it just looked pretty damn cool. This improvement will no doubt provide another boost for iPhone gamers and see an even more impressive range of games become available that will make the most of this new technology. The only thing about this is that I can’t really see its use beyond games. Yes its a neat bit of kit to have, but again I find that nagging voice in the back of my head asking “what’s the point?”. Revolutionary – yes. Cool – yes. Worthwhile – debatable.

• Camera – Catchup

Yes Steve, you can try to convince people that Megapixels aren’t everything, but we just get the feeling that you’re on the defensive because you’re new iPhone 4 only has 5 of them. The addition of HD video recording is great, but despite including it among his key features, you get the feeling no one is going to buy the iPhone 4 for its camera. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, Samsung Galaxy S and Nokia N8 all have much more impressive cameras, and now HD video recording seems to be as standard on most smartphones. Even though it may not be revolutionary though, it is a huge positive for Apple that the new iPhone does have an industry leader-matching camera. The fact that there is nothing really to complain about the camera makes it a big positive compared to previous iPhones.

• Multitasking – Catchup

Not a lot really needs to be said here. The addition of multitasking was one of the first things to be leaked about the new iPhone 4 and I think Apple fans around the world will have breathed a sigh of relief when Steve Jobs confirmed it would be a new feature. The lack of multitasking has been a big point of complaint for many people and an easy area for Apple haters to criticise the smartphones on. It looks as if it will be easy to use, something and it may prove it was worth waiting for, as although the Desire offers multitasking, it is somewhat unintuitive, so Apple may have just been taking the time to make it as user-friendly as possible.

• iBooks – Pointless

I know I’ve broken a bit from the Revolutionary/catchup theme, but I think that iBooks will be completely pointless. Yes we know that they have caught on big time on the iPad, but that is because the iPad is book-sized! However brilliant a phone’s display is, reading books is never going to work. Well done Apple for creating what looks like a nice bookshelf interface, but you’re wasting your time.

• Facetime – Revolutionary (but again pointless)

You’re probably sensing a theme here, and yes I am leaning to the cynical side of criticism, but I think that the Facetime video calling feature is once again an impressive feat of design that on paper sounds great, but in practice won’t really work. For all their smaltz-laden promotional videos, in the real world people just don’t like video calling. We’re generally a fairly antisocial breed and I just can’t see video calling catching on. The only reason I can see people being drawn to it is that it gives people essentially free talktime to other iPhones, but that’s what Skype is for!

Conclusions

Despite what you may think from reading this article, I am very impressed with the new iPhone. The only thing I take issue with is Jobs’ claim that he is somehow revolutionising the smartphone. The iPhone seems like a tremendous addition to the smartphone market and I don’t doubt that it will perform brilliantly. It looks very attractive, has excellent build quality, a huge choice of apps and a top quality camera. While Steve Jobs may be claiming his own revolution, the real revolution has gone on in the wider world of smartphones, and we may yet still see the iPhone dethroned.