Ars Technica reviews Apple’s iPhone 4: Retina display will turn you into a dirty Apple lover

“Here are the downsides to the iPhone 4: the glass on the front or back may break if you drop it, though that’s not a particularly new development in iPhone land. FaceTime chats only work with other iPhone 4 users for now, and may not work well if you try it at work. The HD video is generally not as good as what you can get from an HD Flip camera. The OS and native app situation is still quite locked-down under Apple’s sometimes-questionable policies,” Jacqui Cheng reports for Ars Technica. “Finally, if you hold the phone funny, you may degrade your own call signal.”

MacDailyNews Take: Duh. Blame AT&T. We agree, but it’s quite good anyway and we’d rather carry one device, thanks. A vastly over-hyped issue that does not matter to 99% of users, despite what some fake iPhone-makers, analysts, pundits, and developers think. Let’s wait to see about that last one before we start etching it in stone.

Cheng continues, “Here are the upsides: the 326ppi display is one of those things that turns you into a dirty Apple lover and makes your friends begin to plot your death. The camera is top-notch. Battery life is improved over the most recent iPhone models. Even the data speeds are faster than previous iPhones with 3G thanks to the addition of HSUPA. The ability to take HD video at all is a nice benefit, and FaceTime calls are at least fun (if not an old concept and possibly useless). The hardware is fast—even when compared to the already-speedy iPhone 3GS.”

“During our time testing the device, numerous peers of ours who had no intention of getting an iPhone 4 began reconsidering it after seeing the screen—this was definitely the main reason why people started changing their minds,” Cheng reports. “At the same time, the signal/antenna issue appears to be a serious concern; we hesitate to straight-up recommend the iPhone for this reason, though in the real world, it may not affect you as much. If you’re considering upgrading from an original iPhone or iPhone 3G, the speed and camera benefits (on top of the display) certainly make it an incredibly attractive upgrade, though 3GS users may find themselves skipping a generation if they can wait that long.”

Full review, comprehensive as ever, here.

MacDailyNews Take: iPhone 3GS users who don’t want to update should never use an iPhone 4. Avoid it like the plague. Once you see the iPhone 4’s screen and feel the finish, you will not love your 3GS the same way ever again. So, obviously, we do not agree with Cheng’s overly negative conclusion. The best smartphone on the market today is Apple’s iPhone 4. Period. Trust us dirty Apple lovers. Anybody who tells you different is overly consumed with “walled gardens” (believe it or not, normal people can find plenty of apps for their iPhones among the quarter million apps in the App Store) and other vastly over-emphasized “concerns.” Besides being stuck on AT&T-only in the U.S., the worst thing about iPhone 4 is that it makes us wish our iPads had Retina Displays.