iPhone 4 Vs iPhone 3GS Vs. Xfi2, an amateur's comparison.

[Draconian Guppy]

First and foremost you'll ask, why the Xfi2 mention, well, simply because it was my main source for portable audio, but has been replaced by the iphone 4. Then, NO other phone except for the Samsung galaxy S (droid) and Samsung Wave ( badu os is meh...) are capable of standing up against the iPhone 4, period, do your research ( I did). The best source for comparing frequency response is gsmarena and well, the iPhone 4 ( as was the 3GS) is almost perfect and if it weren't for the samsungs phones above mentioned, apple would dominate cellphone audio quality. Now, it's not all about hardware, there's also software, headphones/earphones, etc. But again, the only droid capable of reproducing music the way it's meant to be, is the Galaxy S, no other droid does so. Then on Nokias side the 5800 has just above average, the N95 is plain nasty, etc. Anyway, After hours spent researching I narrowed it down to this:

1. iPhone (3GS/4)

2. Samsung Galaxy S / Wave

At the moment ( 2 weeks ago) no other phone was worth the money, heck even the droid X and droid 2 have terrible frequency response. And even the mighty Galaxy S, has it's quirks once tested on load.

I might point out though, I'm not a hardcore audiophile, amateur at best. But trust me, once you HEAR details you've never heard before, it changes the way you listen to music.

Now... I've been hesitant all these years to bite into the iWorld, simply because audiophiles almost 99% of times gave anything iRelated a bad review in terms of audio quality. I first heard the i3G and it's audio quality was decent. I then read a review in GSM arena, that frequency response had increased greatly in the i3GS compared to the i3G. That was what first sparked my interest. So I decided to do more research and the amount of people saying the i3GS was a suitable performer in the audio department. After that, I started looking to buy an i3GS.

A couple of weeks laters I managed to get my hands on a second hand i3GS for around $300 ( cheap consider in Central America a 3g Still cost $630 new! and carried locked FTL! ). I loaded up itunes, transfered some songs and man... I was impressed. Soundstage, clarity, detail, everything was on par with the XFI2, perhaps a bit "warmer" so to say then the creative xfi2.

Anyway... Down the road 3 weeks with the i3GS, I found a guy who was selling his i4 for around $500, So I said why not, I'll just sell this 3GS or pass it on to my g/f. So... Making the "How into the iWorld" story short. it's been 2 weeks with the iphone 4 and wow, it's miles ahead of the xfi2 in terms of soundstage, vocal clarity and just general performance in terms of audio quality. Now... Onto a couple of impresions:

First, iTunes SUCKS on windows, PERIOD. i've a q6600 2gb ddr 667 etc. and man it's slow, when browsing, when syncing it just refuses to do anything else, it's annoying AT BEST. For anyone out there, use Foobar and/or Media Monkey for transferring music, PERIOD.

The iphone 4:

1.Build quality is the best among any phone i've owned ( nokia e63, nokia 5800, Motorola w580, Motorola v360, but then again, these didn't cost what the iPhone 4 cost... ) and compared to the 3gs it's miles ahead, BUTT it's damned glass surface on the back just BEGS for some sort of protection (invisishield, BSE, et al.)

2. iOS 4 ( 4.0.1 )is snappy, though coming from a 3GS ( 3.1.2) there is not much a speed difference you can "feel", in my opinion at least. Games like PvZ, angry birds, take the same amount of time to load, same with earthworm jim. Regardings apps, I'd like to at least have a clock widget that doesn't eat my battery away ( sorta like how the time is displayed with the lock screen).

3. Apps. I bought a creative xfi2 about a year ago and the amount of apps available are such poorly coded, nasty graphics ( that bad) and the same 20 apps have been available for a year go and well compared to app store / cydia.

4. Volume to the headphone jack to my Etymotic MC5, head direct RE 0 and Etymotic HF5 seem to sound louder on the XFi2 and i3GS than on the i4, please note as I use IEM, I crank the volume up high, but as an example in the i3GS i never went past say 30-40% tops, the Xfi2, though on the iPhone 4 I find myself listening constantly around 40% to get just above normal hearing.

5. Capacitive screen vs. resistive ( xfi2) I never knew what I was missing with capacitive, I'll just put it this way, after using capacitive, you find resitive exactly that, you resist to use it, period. Resistive touch screen just limit your possibilities on any device.

5.1 oleophobic screen vrs. hard to clean and accumulate grease like hell Xfi2 screen. Need I say more.

5.2 Accelerator: Incredible the xfi2, being the processor and video hardware neutered device that it is, when moving a picture around, it's 100% snappier and quicker than i3GS and/or iphone 4. And before you say I had faulty devices, I compared a same 12MP image on several other iphones (thanks to ibluenova, 3 in total) and the result was the same, changing the player from vertical to horizontal, heck even rotating a complete 360? the Xfi2, felt like it was cutting butter. I simply don't understand how the iDevices, clearly 1000x better hardware can't do so, though I must say, it's not by any means slow.

6. Battery: In the Audio reproduction department the i3GS was basically around the same with the xFI2 in terms of amount of play time, however the iphone 4 vastly improves to around 30 hours ( i've gone more than a day and still have 40% left, using only as music player, airplane mode).

7. I HATE apples way of doing business, neuter your possibilities with the device: No xvid playback, no normal usb connector, no drag and drop, no acting as removable disk and what the **** is up that all my transferred songs appear like SFAKOJSA.MP3 why is YOUR software ruining MY properly indexed songs? I mean, why put so much effort into making a device, yet limiting it's capabilities? It won't make your consumers buy the next versions, it will make them find alternatives. Every other media player out there ( not apple branded...) can play xvid to some extent, so why not make the iphone do the same as well? I mean it is a PMP, why limit such things?

8. Interface, creative interface has never been it's stong point, though the navigation is fluid on the Xfi2, the resistive touch screen is meh... But and a BIG BUTT, I still prefer creative's way of browsing/playing and rating music, even with it's lame resistive touchscreen. And well, the music player in the i3GS ( 3.1.2) is basically the same in the i4 ( 4.0.1)

9. Non removable battery on both music players ( Xfi2 / any iDevice). Though if you take good care of your battery it should last you. Heck my ZVM from 2006 stills holds up for a couple days of playback and it's a device from 4 years ago. (Research battery university for this, but in short, never let the battery go under 75% if possible and do once every month or two full discharges to re-calibrate the batery). I realize this is easier said than done, but come on, portable chargers are dirt cheap, not to mention cables. I've got one in my office and one at home AND one in my car. plugging and unplugging is not a hassle if it means keeping my device performing the same way for at least 2 years.

10. Issues:

- On the Xfi2,I had a dead pixel and then the screen bruise ( yes BRUISE) for some odd reason, that's a big NO.

- On the 3GS the only complaint I have is that if you don't have a phonebook card or ATT ( or whatever your authorized carrier, att in my case, which is were both my iPhones came from) your update posibilities a very much limited until you can get ahold of either the phonebook card or sim card ( which I can't since I live in a third world country far away away from ATT.)

- Iphone 4.The same as 3GS

- At first, the iPhone 4 battery would die in a day, then I noticed, 1% would go around every 20 minutes. leaving me with aprox 20. hours of stand by time. I googled the heck out of it, removed every app. till I figured out it was frigging SBSettings... some weird iOS 4.01 issue apparently, because on my 3GS I never had battery issues with SBSettings. Sadly, I do miss SBSettings... But until a fix is available that guarantees my 2-3 days of battery with light to moderate use it's GONE.

I've had 0 connection/reception issues with the so called grip of death, the same with the Proximity sensor, as a matter of fact I'd say it works just like the one in the 3gs. And according to my iPhone 4 serial number, it was manufactured in week 25 ( mid june) and the clear coating and changes in the proximity sensor started after week 30. So my guess would be, that recepections issues are more related to your carrier. No idea on the proximity sensor though...

In terms of audio performance i'd rate things this way: Iphone 4 > iphone 3GS/XFi2 > creative zen vision:m/ Sansa clip and here's how:

This is all my listening, not any scientific evidence what so ever, just what I here.

Devices Used:

CMOY

IEM: Head direct RE 0s, Head Direct RE2s, Etymotic MC5/HF5, Creative EP630 ( yuck... ), iBuds ( Suprised how many people use these... christ....).

iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS Creative Zen Xfi 2.

Songs encoded by myself at VBR0/ 320 Constant and FLAC ( kinda cheating, more on this below).

Muse - Starlight, all the electric synthesizers on the XFI2 and 3GS are missing, where as in the iphone4, you can hear them clearly and vibrantly

ATB - Humanity, this song in special is my favorite for testing devices, it relies heavily on soundstage to deliver a nice experience, but the amount of detail is just not there on the 3GS, it is on the Xfi2 and Iphone 4 though, more so on the iPhone 4.

Arctic Monkeys - Crying lighting, the lead electric guitar stands out so much more it feels "in your face" in the iPhone 4.

Oh Sleeper - Commissioned by kings, another audio testing favorite. Kick drum is so important and on the 3GS it sounds like you're hitting a piece of cardboard with a pencil. The XFI2 with xfi disabled you can barely hear the kick drum, enable XFi and bam, there it is, but at some points it clips highs, which is annoying, I might add, the same clipping occurs with the iphone 4. Though I think it part is in fault with the producers of the song, they just made the whole album loud... But lead guitar is amazing on the iPhone 4, soundstage is impressive and channel separation is amazing, you can "feel" the guitar jump from one side to the other!

DJ tiesto ft. Andain, Beautiful things, on this one I test vocals and bass. I used to think Bass in the iDevices is much more prominent than the XFi2, simply because they're more consumer oriented in terms of sound, but I was wrong. Bass is tight and electrical sounds I didn't hear with the Xfi2 were present.

Norma Jean - A small spark vs a great forest. This songs depends a lot on guitars and bass. (being it metalcore/mathcore/whatevercoreyoufancy) and man, the separation between instruments is amazing!

Now... Trying to cheat I used a couple of flac'd albums and tweaked the Xfi2 to try and make it sound better than the Iphone 4, after all, it should.... I tried Panic ! At the disco - A fever you can't sweat out (because of it's eletric sound in the first 5 tracks and it's more instrumental in the last 5). And the more I tried, the more annoyed I got, because, to begin with, flac takes too much space for portable players and second I heard no difference whilst listening to flac and then listening to the same album VBR0 on the iphone 4.

Now... Part 2. If you hook up the iphone 4 line out + cmoy (which is what I have... sadly :p ). It improves loudness (which I find lacking ) by around 10-15% though I don't feel soundstage improves much, but I blame this on my IEMs, as the same happens with the XFi2, it gets the lacking clarity, but for some reason I can't get more detail out of it. Maybe with a more refined amp, but that's another story...

Oh man I just realized what a long read and no pics! sadly though, i'm on crappy as EDGE so, pics will come later.

Anyway, after that long long read a couple of questions:

1. What would you neowinians recommend for whole body skins? EG. invisishield, BSE, BodyGuardz, etc.? I've read the applying invisishild and bodyguardz can be annoying and that both have orange peel (tinting). And that both gather lint and eventually peel off. BSE is the apparently the one that covers up the most, but making your own solution for applying = more stuff that can go wrong IMO. (it has to be on amazon.com, international buyer...)

2. If I buy an ATT card from amazon.com or used/deactivated from someone on ebay/craigslist neobay, will it work for activating the Iphone or do I have to be in the US for it work? I guess my best bet would be buy a phone book card. Reason being is I want to be able to upgrade when eventually 4.1 becomes JB and unlockable.

[Draconian Guppy]

Bumpage for teh questions:

1. What would you neowinians recommend for whole body skins? EG. invisishield, BSE, BodyGuardz, etc.? I've read the applying invisishild and bodyguardz can be annoying and that both have orange peel (tinting). And that both gather lint and eventually peel off. BSE is the apparently the one that covers up the most, but making your own solution for applying = more stuff that can go wrong IMO. (it has to be on amazon.com, international buyer...)

2. If I buy an ATT card from amazon.com or used/deactivated from someone on ebay/craigslist neobay, will it work for activating the Iphone or do I have to be in the US for it work? I guess my best bet would be buy a phone book card. Reason being is I want to be able to upgrade when eventually 4.1 becomes JB and unlockable.