Apple iPhone 4 16GB

Why and Where:

I have been with o2 for years now and at the end of my contract always just upgrade the phone and start a new one. After having the iPhone 3G for 2 years I couldnt wait to try the more recent version, the iPhone 4. I took out a new contract at £35 a month, for unlimited texts, 500MB of internet and 600 minutes. I got the phone in black with 16GB of memory. The phone comes in a nice little box with a charger, white headphones, guide book and sim unlock tool.

Advantages:

I love apple products. I love the design, the ease of use and the vast range of features they hold and this is no exception. The iPhone 4 is nice and compact with a large screen, and fits easily in the palm of your hand. It isn't heavy but has a satisfying weight. I use it for everything, to keep track of my diary, to text, call, play games, listen to music and more. The memory is excellent, I have around 30 apps and 2500 songs on there, plus hundreds of photos and texts. Unless you own pleanty of music you'd never fill it up, but if you have quite a large music library I think it is worth upgrading to the 32GB phone. Through the apple headphones that come with the phone the sound quality it excellent and the range of volume is good. One of my favourite features of the phone is that it is so easy to use. Just swipe across the screen to browse and select. The touch screen is very receptive and fast. I like the new software update where, just by sweeping down the screen, you call see all alerts you currently have all in one place, such as texts, misscalls and upcome iCal entries. The range of apps and software is vast, you will definitely find one for everything you can think of and they can become a very handy and important part of your life. I know certain ones like iCal and facebook have proved very handy for me. You can get a vast array of cases for the iPhone so you can turn it into a fashion accessory. Battery life is largely dependant on how much you use it, playing games etc greatly decreases it, but if you just do the basics youre looking at roughly 2 days of battery life. Updates etc are very easy to install, just plug it into the computer and it pretty much does it all for you. Since apple introduced the cloud it is very easy to link up your apple devices and share content between them which can be really useful.

Disadvantages:

It can get very hot while charging which always worries me slightly! Another thing is that over time I have found that my home button has become slightly less receptive, and I have to push it really hard to get it to work. I sometimes experience frustratingly low signal in places where others have full signal, but I dont know whether this is a design fault with the phone or a fault with O2. They are very expensive to buy outright and for a contract you will be lucky to get one for less than £30 a month which some might say is rather pricey! They can be incredibly expensive to repair if they get damaged so insurance is a must.

Verdict:

Over all i think this is yet another brilliant attempt from apple! Yes there are a few disadvantages but these are often trivial and not all of them apply to me. I just find my phone incredibly useful and very fun! Definitely recommend to others.