SpecEagle
SpecEagle review · Apple

iPhone 4 review: The 2010 redesign — the Retina display and FaceTime began here.

SpecEagle Editorial·Jun 2010·$599
Overall
20/100
Class rank
#2 of 3
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
Look elsewhere
The verdict, up front

A defining iPhone — Retina and FaceTime started here.

The iPhone 4’s flat glass-and-steel design and Retina display reshaped the industry. "Antennagate" aside, it is one of the most influential phones ever — and now a museum piece.

01Display

40/100

40/100 puts it above the 35-point average for flagship phones of 2010.

TypeRetina IPS LCD (debut)
Size3.5 inches
Resolution960 × 640 px (330 ppi)
ProtectionGlass front and back

02Camera

30/100

30/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2010.

Main5 MP, f/2.8, LED flash
Selfie0.3 MP (VGA)
Video720p @ 30 fps

03Performance

12/100

12/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2010.

ChipsetApple A4 (45 nm)
CPUSingle-core 1 GHz
GPUPowerVR SGX535
RAM512 MB
Storage8 GB / 16 GB / 32 GB

04Battery

34/100

34/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2010.

Capacity1,420 mAh
Wired~5 W (30-pin dock)
WirelessNo

05Build

58/100

58/100 puts it above the 55-point average for flagship phones of 2010.

06Value

22/100

22/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2010.

What works
  • Introduced the Retina display — a generational leap in sharpness.
  • Launched FaceTime video calling.
  • Iconic flat glass-and-steel design.
  • Multitasking arrived with iOS 4.
What doesn't
  • "Antennagate" — gripping the phone could drop signal.
  • Single-core A4; 512 MB RAM.
  • No LTE; stuck on iOS 7.
  • Discontinued — a vintage device.

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 3-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .