Edible Apple

You gotta give props to Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky. His gadget reviews are always well-written, comprehensive, and incisive. Just a few hours ago, Topolsky published his/Engadget’s official review of the iPhone 4, and in case you had any doubt, the iPhone 4 appears to deliver in a big way.

Here are some snippets:

We can’t overstate how high-end the design of the iPhone 4 is. The 3GS now feels cheap and chubby by comparison, and even a phone like the HTC Droid Incredible — which just came out — seems last-generation.

One of the biggest design changes on the iPhone 4 is the steel band which envelops the device and puts the UMTC, GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth antennas on the outside. When this was first announced, users hoped that this would do something to alleviate the all-too-frequent number of dropped calls iPhone users tend to have on AT&T. So, did Apple’s design shift do the trick?

Well in our testing, we had far, far fewer dropped calls than we experienced on our 3GS. Let’s just say that again: yes, the iPhone 4 does seem to alleviate the dropped call issue.

Regarding battery life, Topolsky writes that he “managed to squeeze more than 38 hours — yes, 38 hours — of life out of a single charge using the phone as we normally would.” Unbelievable.

And Engadget’s parting shot is nothing if not glowing:

We’re not going to beat around the bush — in our approximation, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely formidable package. Yes, there are still pain points that we want to see Apple fix, and yes, there are some amazing alternatives to the iPhone 4 out there. But when it comes to the total package — fit and finish in both software and hardware, performance, app selection, and all of the little details that make a device like this what it is — we think it’s the cream of the current crop. We won’t argue that a lot of this is a matter of taste — some people will just prefer the way Android or Symbian works to the iPhone, and others will be on the lookout for a hardware keyboard or a particular asset that the iPhone 4 lacks — but in terms of the total picture, it’s tough to deny that Apple has moved one step past the competition with this phone. Of course, in the hyper-accelerated smartphone market where the Next Big Thing seems to always be just around the corner, it’s anyone’s guess how long they keep that edge.