How to Test iPhone 4 Hardware to Avoid Potential Problems?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Looking at the cost of the iPhone 4 in the countries of the former CIS and the peculiarities of doing "national business", you involuntarily catch yourself thinking that when buying this gadget I would like to make sure that there are at least no hardware problems. Today we will talk about actions that will help you test the "hardware" of your smartphone and, at the same time, will save a lot of nerve cells.

Perhaps most of the advice will seem obvious to you, but for some reason often buyers hope for the Russian "maybe", and when a defect is found, they grab their heads and say the sacramental phrase "why didn't I think about it before?"

Before you connect your brand new iPhone to your computer for the first sync with iTunes, take a look at appearance devices: the glasses should not be scratched (believe me, even the front glass can be damaged with "certain skill") and fit well to the steel edge of the antenna on the side of the gadget, all parts should adhere very tightly to each other, not play or creak.

Any crevices not only contribute to the ingress of dust into the smartphone, but also reduce the integrity of the structure, increasing the chance of cracks and chips on the glass during accidental falls. To make them, it is enough to stand in front of a powerful light source and look at the iPhone in profile. This should not be:

If you are satisfied with the appearance, then feel free to go to the review Home and Power buttons … They should immediately perform the functions assigned to them, but at the same time not hang out and not "stick". However, their slight wiggle should not be cause for concern.

The same recommendations apply to mute switch with only one addition: it should slide smoothly and immediately turn on the vibration motor.

Further "tests" will require you to do an initial sync with iTunes. But already during it, you can pay attention to dock connector: The USB cable should not dangle in it, and if something is wrong, then the program will simply not see the iPhone and the gadget will not charge.

Errors that occurred during the first synchronization may be due to a corrupted flash memory - the percentage of such defects is minimal, but users also sometimes encounter it - and, of course, this is not about one unsuccessful attempt (in the beginning, you should refer to the basic tips for troubleshooting iTunes and look for information on the error code on the Internet). Also, you can fill the drive to capacity with multimedia content - this is a long process, but it will definitely confirm its full performance.

The first sync is finally over, which means it's time to check headphone jack and volume buttons, because in the previous step we uploaded what you can listen to or watch. A dangling headphone jack, no sound in the left or right channel, inoperative playback control buttons, and a microphone on the headset, which can be checked using VoiceOver voice commands or Dictaphone.app, may indicate a problem.

For check front and main cameras photographs should be taken, this is obvious. You can also try out the features of the "Tap to focus" function by pointing the gadget at objects located at different distances from you. It is unlikely that it will be possible to shoot a masterpiece with the help of the iPhone 4, which is destined to become the personification of the era, but there should be no noticeable defects in the photographs. The same applies to the recorded video, adjusted for the smoothness of the picture and sound track.

There are many ways to test accelerometer … For example, via mobile Safari or iPod.app by activating Cover Flow. You can, of course, somehow get perverted in any program that supports text input, type a couple of characters and shake the gadget - thanks to the working accelerometer, iOS will prompt you to undo the last input.

By the way, I will be grateful if you can tell me in the comments how to check the operation of the gyroscope using regular or free tools.

Moving on to testing the connection quality of the iPhone 4. If you are in the coverage area 3G networks, then you practically don't need to do anything to check it. Unless you try to open several sites in Safari and not try to reproduce the legendary death grip that caused Antennage.

To switch to the mode EDGE / GPRSyou need to go to the Settings> General> Network application and disable the 3G module. After a few seconds, your smartphone should switch to slow (EDGE) or very slow (GPRS) data transfer mode.

Testing GPS navigationimpossible to imagine without the Maps application. Almost immediately after clicking on the special button in the lower left corner of the running application, you will see a blue arrow pointing to your location. This does not fully apply to buildings with thick walls and ceilings, but even if the determination of coordinates on the street does not succeed, the problem is obvious.

Module check Bluetoothcan be done by connecting a Bluetooth headset or using the iPhone as a modem for your computer. I have come across this only a couple of times in my life, but there was nothing complicated in these two procedures.

Thanks to Wi-Fi module enabled by default, iOS will prompt you to automatically connect to a wireless network as soon as you are within range. Air scanning and successful connection unambiguously indicate the functionality of the wireless module.

Assess the absence of "dead zones" in touch screen can be done by using a special multitouch gesture (called “pinch zoom”) in Photos.app / mobile Safari or by typing each letter of the on-screen keyboard in all four possible positions of the device.

Dead Pixel Check LCD-matrix may end without even starting, since the pixels should not be visible at all on the retinal display. However, if you still want to make sure that there are no flaws in the gorgeous iPhone 4 display, install any free flashlight app from the App Store on it, which allows you to display a variety of colors. Backlight brightness and the ability to adjust it can be checked in the Settings.app> Brightness application using the corresponding slider. What about work light sensor will become immediately visible in a dark room (for this you need to enable the Auto Brightness item in the same window).

Launching any intense 3D game, especially one optimized for grid-based display, will allow you to fully enjoy the possibilities CPU and GPU iPhone 4. At the same time, distorted or incorrect display of the picture may be the result of a graphics problem. Also, you can try to play the pre-loaded h.264 HD video in the iPod.app application. It should play smoothly, without stuttering or obvious artifacts.

There are only a few tests left to do, but this requires making the first call:

• First, one of the basic elements of any iPhone is microphone, which should work equally well both in normal mode and in speaker mode.
• Secondly, in the device's speakers you should not hear distortion or other audio interference.
• And thirdly, the proximity sensor must turn off the iPhone screen if you bring it to your ear, and then return the smartphone to its original state.

All of the tests described above will take you approximately 20-30 minutes, not counting the time for the initial sync. I am more than sure that if a particular smartphone has any hardware problems, they will definitely show up in these tests.

I think you noticed that the article does not mention another important component - the battery. It seems to me that it simply cannot be quickly verified. It remains to charge the smartphone to 100% and, for example, leave it to play the video for 10 hours claimed by Apple.

Perhaps that's all. If you know alternative / more effective ways to check certain "hardware" components of the iPhone 4, do not be lazy to tell about it in the comments. Our readers will be very grateful to you.