From the outside of its white box, labeled "Phone no. 4," it's clear to see that the Air Phone 4 is trying awfully hard to be an
iPhone 4. But then
we already knew that. How does it compare to the real thing in the
real world? Not well, according to intrepid reviewer Stuart Ashen. The external metal surface (which you
might be familiar with) is here actually plastic, so you don't have to worry about dropped calls if you fondle it the wrong way, but the phone is said to have awful signal regardless -- despite showing full bars even when missing a SIM. Ashen concludes the thing is an "astonishing bit of copycat work" held back by "the worst touchscreen ever." (Yeah, it's resistive.) Oh, and that Facetime app we spotted before? It "doesn't seem to work properly," about the kindest thing that can be said about this junker. If you'd like to see the full (and thoroughly entertaining) review, it's embedded for you right after the break.
posted August 11th 2010 10:14AM
UGLY! Well at least it doesn't have AT&T Service! THE WORST!
@angelusp : and Haters just hate.
@Juggernaut408
I NEED THE ONE WITH MORE GEE BEES. AND THE WIFIS.
@schultz
Not funny anymore.
This guys doesn't know how to use a resistive screen (with fingernails).. maybe he did it on purpose though.. other than that it was pretty good :)
@angelusp Well they also build the real iPhones. =)
@angelusp
Hell, they are the ones making and assembling them anyway.
It's not like we don't have knock-offs of stuff from others countries.
This is the worst fiddling of the reception bars since...well the real Apple!
@angelusp and cacausins just steal - language, land, people ya know the basics
@Bipoler23 Being Native American Indian I think you know where I stand on that one.
@gargle didn't work too well with a stylus... do you really think it would work better with a finger nail?
I can't believe I just spent a half-hour watching this.
Isn't summer vacation great?
@Juggernaut408
Haha. Good vid, surprisingly crappy phone, even though I expected crap.
@kcs7272 I have indian in my blood so yes
10 points for trying.
"despite showing full bars even when missing a SIM."
Just like the Jobs solution:
"Lets just make the bars fatter and people will think they have more signal... Cha-ching!"
I kinda like the chinese phone that gives me bars even without a SIM.
@Mr w00t
They corrected the bars to show a more realistic version of the signal strenght , that made the signal appear weaker than before if anything.
Nice trolling tho , good luck next time.
@Accelerator But the fact that they KNOWINGLY programmed the phone to look like it had more bars than signal in the first place means that he isn't trolling, he's just pointing out the ironic similarities...
"They corrected the bars to show a more realistic version of the signal strenght , that made the signal appear weaker than before if anything."
So am I to understand that the lower the number of bars the stronger the signal? because technically the iPhone 4 was showing 5 bars of signal when really it only had about 2 bars worth...
Nice try though, come back soon.
@MrFluffyThing wrong. read up on the topic.
@MrFluffyThing Bars are not a 'standard'. They readjusted the amount of bars shown at a given signal strength. So, for example, previously -89dB would show 4 bars, its now 3. The signal is still the same, the way its represented has changed.
Again, there is no standard for 'xxdB = x bars', so no one was 'seeing 3 bars when they should have been seeing 1' because 1 bar doesn't correlate to anything outside of a single manufacturers algorithm to determine said bars.
@MrFluffyThing Ooooh you epic noon pwned him brotha! You're so cool here on engadget!
@icase81 Never said there was a set standard, but they knew beforehand that the 5th bar equated to a significantly lower signal strength to what the user would assume to be a "good" signal. I also was too quick to quote him and took his comment wrong thinking he said that the bars before the fix made the signal look weaker, which was the opposite as the fix did that. Contrary to what my last comment said I actually follow engadget and know what the issue with the signal bars on the iPhone 4 were.
@MrFluffyThing Clearly you do not know what the signal problem was, the OS was displaying a stronger signal than the phone actually had, due to the algorithm being used to calculate the signal bars was incorrect. They did not "KNOWINGLY" make it display more signal, I would suggest actually reading articles properly, and definitely not just from Engadget, they have a habit of being incredibly misleading.
@charlieward Yes and I can read. I knew it was the algorithm, I'm not stupid. My point was that Apple put the algorithm in with a curve that ended up leaving the 5th bar's lower end more around a weaker signal than a stronger one. This left users believing they had full signal rather than a potentially weak one.
At least you can hold it any way you like...
@AlistairDavies
go away...
@AlistairDavies Omfg.... the joke is over!
@ComboBreaker No it's NOT ! Mwahahah! :D
@AlistairDavies
Boo! YOU SUCK!!!!!!
@heathmaxie
Ohh.. Tochy..
It is pretty bad when even the KIRF makers don't bugger up the antenna like Apple did.
@AlistairDavies Stupid...
@(Unverified)
WTF does tochy mean? can anyone elaborate?....lol
@AlistairDavies Damn you're so witty and quick! How come I am able to hold my iPhone 4 any way I want and don't have any issues what so ever? Maybe the whiners blew that issue out of proportion? No. People don't EVER do that.. Right?
@AlistairDavies I believe the correct term is "fondle"
@AlistairDavies The fanboys! They're everywhere!
"the phone is said to have awful signal regardless"
sounds like they did a great job making it just like the real iPhone
Sounds like the headphones might be the same as the ones bundled with Apple products - cheap, nasty, painful, useless. :)
They put QQ on the box, lmao!!
I'm sure anyone that buys this will definitely QQ
@Plazmic Flame
What is this QQ thing?
@Apple Google Microsoft
Most refer to it as crying, but Urban Dictionary says....
"Contrary to popular belief, QQ is not a set of crying eyes. It actually originated with the advent of Warcraft II. On battlenet, you could press ALT+Q+Q to immediately exit the match and program. Thus the term "QQ" was to tell people to just quit because they are unskilled. The term later developed and lost it's origin and is usually mistaken as crying eyes. In contemporary gamer culture, QQ has become the mainstream emoticon for crying eyes, though it is still often used in it's traditional sense."
Examples:
"Shut up or QQ!"
"Why don't you QQ, noob?"
@Plazmic Flame QQ is an instance messenger widely used in China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_QQ
The guy on the video is a legend!
@yeoldgreat1
The intro was the best, lol and he said "crikey!!" more times than I could remember, lol
@yeoldgreat1 Absolutely. Engadget, hire him to do KIRF reviews. NOW.
@Plazmic Flame
I was disappointed in the Very_Very_Hot.3gp video :(
@yeoldgreat1
Engadget..please hire the guy to do all crapgadget reviews!!!
@yeoldgreat1
Look at the man thumb. Now look back at the iphone. Now back at the man thumb. Now back at the iphone. Sadly the guy can't afford a bigger phone. But if you buy a 4.3" Android phone, you could think you're using an iphone 4. look down, back up, where are you? You are now in a line full of Fandroid. What's in your hand? Back at the man thumb. Now what's in your hand? It's an Evo, that thing you hated before.
@Modred189 +1 on this. He's funny.
If I ever visit China this will be my souvenier. Freakin' awesome.
You have not seen kirfs until you watch all of ashens videos.