How the mighty have fallen. Apple has sold over 1 billion iPhones to date and the iPhone 4 contributed a lot to those huge sales figures. After all, the iPhone 4 was manufactured by Apple almost 4 years, the longest of any iPhone ever produced.
But with about 11 iPhone models released since the 4, a lot has changed in the smartphone game. So naturally you should wonder: is the iPhone 4 still good? More than just a where-are-they-now look at the device, here is everything you need to know about actually using this device today. There are plenty of people out there who are still using an iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 can offer you the basics: email, web browsing, texting, calling, and FaceTime.
This might not seem much better than what you can do with a flip phone. However, the experience with this model is hugely improved thanks to its beautiful, intuitive touch-screen. This is a big part of why people go with Apple— their devices are made with premium materials.
As a result, their smartphones feel great in your hands and come equipped with easy-to-use software. Sometimes having a camera attached to the phone in your pocket is better than no camera at all.
Most of the apps out there today are tailored to iOS 8 and above, which means that this model will start experiencing some hiccups and crashes while using more intensive applications. Aside from the fact that the iPhone 4 is only capable of 3G network speeds, its software may be slower than newer models.
The 4 misses out on certain features that are only available on newer models. Anyone who re-sells an iPhone 4 should feel comfortable knowing that their phone is going to a good home; there are tons of people for whom this model is ideal.
For starters, take someone who wants their first dip into the smartphone game. These days, most seniors know that an app like FaceTime can help them stay connected to loved ones. Its bright and intuitive interface makes the iPhone 4 still good as a gift for your parents or grandparents. Load it up with music, podcasts, and apps that you think they might like for extra brownie points.
Other bargain hunters are out there: newcomers to Canada, students on a budget, habitual phone losers, frequent travelers, and those who need an in-between phone after a good night out. Think about it this way: the iPhone is nothing like the old phones you used to have. Forget the days when old electronics ended up in a drawer to live the rest of their days.
We feel like the iPhone 4 is still good as an introduction to the iPhone for people who want something to handle basic tasks. A thing to note: even though we think that the iPhone 4 is still good, Orchard stopped buying and selling it a short while ago.
As new phones come out, we have to drop older models from our line up to avoid carrying too much inventory. Sadly this is Apples overall market strategy. Just as it has been with their laptops and desktops, Apple loves the idea of NOT letting you upgrade their hardware or devices just as you could do with a PC or Wndows based device. So they can quickly make all their hardware obsolete forcing you to buy a completely new device rather than an inexpensive upgrade.
So today, and for as far as I can see into the future, your only real choices are Android smartphones and iPhones. People love to say Apple products just work.
But so is the Android interface. Sure, a decade ago, when the iPhone first appeared and Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian phones were the competition, the iPhone blew them away. It was just so much easier to use. But that was 10 years ago. If we put appearance and home-screen setup into this category, though, things tip toward Android.
Android smartphones give you more control over your system and its applications. I like control. That flexibility has helped Android build brand loyalty. IPhones are beautiful. Thank you, Jony Ive. True, by controlling every step of the manufacturing process, Apple makes sure iPhones have great fit and finish, but so do the big Android phone manufacturers. That said, some Android phones are just plain ugly. Part of the reason for this is that Apple makes nothing but luxury phones. Are they good looking?
Not really, but they do the job at a fraction of the price of an iPhone. If you're wondering how hard it is to ditch the iPhone and move to an Android device here's our switching guide. The iPhone remains as proprietary as ever. Android is both open source and far more open to alternative applications. For most users, this is a difference that makes no difference. When it comes to Google Assistant vs. Google Assistant is more than an excellent voice interface to Google search.
Google Assistant will work out that you need to leave early to make your appointment, and it will notify you beforehand. Now, that is cool.
Here, on the other hand, is an area where Apple beats Android hollow. When Apple releases a new update or patch, all phones — those that are still supported, anyway — get it. Finally, we have to talk about manufacturer skins — bespoke user interfaces and Android system software that are customized by certain phone makers, offering extra features and, often, the ability to create themes for your experience from top to bottom.
Some Android fans prefer Google's "stock" interpretation of Android. However, but lots of users like phone makers' custom software, like Samsung's One UI or OnePlus' OxygenOS, because of their extra capabilities, such as the ability to take scrolling screenshots and hide photos and videos in password-protected folders. But Google is changing things up with Android 12, which brings with it the new Material You design language. This direction builds upon the last several years of Android's look and feel, offering more personalization.
There's a pseudo-theming system which adapts to the colors in your wallpapers and applies that shade system-wide. How the likes of Samsung and OnePlus tweak things in their own skins remains to be seen. You can sometimes expand the storage. Although expandable storage is somewhat less popular these days, many Android phones still offer it. This allows you to use a microSD card to keep photos, apps and other media that won't fit on your device's internal memory.
That's an amazing benefit, given the exorbitant prices that Apple and other phone makers charge to double or quadruple storage when you buy your handset. Additionally, while it's certainly becoming more of a rarity on high-end phones these days, many Android devices still come with headphone jacks — a hotly requested feature Apple retired from its phones in That's a big deal to people who still love to use their trusty old wired headphones.
USB-C is universal. Android phones largely rely on USB-C ports for charging and data transfer these days, which is super convenient if you're one of those people who really likes to pack light and carry only one cable.
It's a beautiful thing. Whereas Apple's Lightning cable is a relic of the days when every tech company felt compelled to develop its own proprietary connector, USB-C represents the ideal single-port solution the industry is working toward. It also opens doors to faster charging technologies. The OnePlus 9 Pro , for example, can charge from zero to 61 percent battery capacity in a mere 15 minutes. Compare that to the iPhone 12, which continues to stick with Lightning.
And Apple no longer even includes a charger in the box. There's an actual file system with drag-and-drop support on PC. Most people don't need to get their hands dirty with their smartphone's file system. Still, it's good to know that Android gives you that option, if you desire it.
Even better, when you plug an Android handset into a Windows PC, you can very easily drag and drop files into folders, as if the device were just another drive. That means your media libraries and documents are a snap to carry over and store locally, and you don't have to subscribe to a monthly cloud service if you have an especially large library.
Some Android phones, like the Galaxy Note 20 , even have special PC or display projection features, that let you use view and use your device in a desktop capacity.
Samsung's DeX interface is one such example of this. With such versatility, a high-end Android phone could legitimately function as a replacement for one of the best Chromebooks or similarly ultraportable laptops. Innovative features usually land on Android phones first. Sure, Apple's coffers are pretty stacked. However, it is just one company, with one philosophy. As a result, iOS can be slow — or at least slower than the Android community — to adapt to emerging technologies.
With so many companies building Android phones, it's little surprise that Android partners tend to beat Apple to the market with innovations in the mobile space. Wireless charging, fast charging, NFC, 4G LTE, 5G, OLED displays, in-screen fingerprint sensors, water resistance and multilens cameras all landed on Android devices before iPhones, as well as software breakthroughs like true multitasking, copy and paste and multiwindow support.
Of course, this isn't to say Apple hasn't delivered breakthroughs of its own. The iPhone X wasn't the first phone with face recognition, but it was the first with one that worked reliably and securely. However, far more Android phones are released from a variety of vendors every year, so it's just a matter of scale that hardware running Google's platform is swifter to adapt. Beyond the core iOS vs. Android argument, we have the big updates coming for both operating systems.
Android 12 is a huge design shift from previous versions, offering the Material You design language that caters itself to you with casual theming. There's also a new privacy dashboard and a whole host of other features. If you're interested, check out our Android 12 article. With iOS 15 comes the new Focus mode and a slight overhaul to notifications, revamps to many core apps like FaceTime and Wallet, and a bunch more that we don't have time to discuss here.
If you're interested, check out our iOS 15 coverage. But neither of these updates changes Android's or iOS' strengths, just fortifies them. And despite a world of difference between the two, there's a lot of overlap. Notifications in iOS 15, for example, are getting as close to Android's as possible with Apple outright copying the model. Android 12 is taking privacy more seriously, with very iOS-like microphone and camera indicators when either or both of those are active.
And they both now feature breakdowns of what your apps have been doing lately. As we approach the final software releases, we're all paying attention to the impending launch of Pixel 6. We've already gotten our hands on the four iPhone 13 models and they're all impressive in their own ways.
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