iPhone 4 reviews hit the intertubes

The first round of reviewers, traditionally hand picked by Apple, have sized up, weighed up, and played with Apple’s brand new iPhone 4, before publishing their reviews online a day before the device officially goes on sale.

Here are the key quotes from the early critiques:

“In fact, we managed to squeeze more than 38 hours -- yes, 38 hours -- of life out of a single charge using the phone as we normally would. We're talking calls, some gaming, lots of push email and calendar invites, playing music over Bluetooth in the car, and just general testing (like downloading new apps, rearranging icons, tweaking settings).”

“I was impressed with the quality and ease of FaceTime calling, though the experience seems to depend on a strong Wi-Fi connection. I encountered momentary hiccups talking with a caller in Europe and on calls in which I was on the edge of decent Wi-Fi.”

“I brought my iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 to the Venice Beach skate park, to take shots of fast-moving skaters in those magical aerial moments, just before a swan-dive into the belly of the bowl. With earlier iPhones, man, just forget it. You're using the wrong device. Response is too sluggish for good odds on getting good action shots. But with iPhone 4, I was able to tap-tap-tap in rapid succession, or tap once at just the right instant, and bring home some real trophy jpegs.”

“I can't recommend this new iPhone for voice calling for people who experience poor AT&T reception. For everyone else, however, I'd say that Apple has built a beautiful smartphone that works well, adds impressive new features and is still, overall, the best device in its class.”

“If what you care about, however, is size and shape, beauty and battery life, polish and pleasure, then the iPhone 4 is calling your name. But you probably didn’t need a review to tell you that.”