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The world grumbled about the cameras on the iPhone and iPhone 3G: 2MP with no flash simply wasn't going to cut it.
Last year the iPhone 3GS brought a 3.2MP camera when the world was readying itself for the first 12MP cameraphones – again, Apple seemed to be lagging behind.
So thankfully the iPhone 4 brings not only a 5MP camera, but also an LED flash and significantly upgraded sensors to improve picture quality.
And what a leap – this is so, so much better in terms of cameraphone quality. Any budding mo-phos out there (mobile photographers, in case you're wondering) will be very impressed with the quality of the camera on the iPhone 4.
For starters, Apple's overhaul of the sensor has done wonders for extending the light range of the snapper – now it can take excellent pictures in both low and strong light, even without the LED flash.
The options to mess around with are minimal – for instance there's no option to play with white balance or colour saturation, like that offered on the HTC Legend.
It's a shame because these little tweaks can really improve picture quality with little input.
But there is one ace up the iPhone 4's sleeve, in touch to focus.
Tapping an area of the screen not only brings it into focus, but also adjusts white balance and brightness very well, making the subject clear in any picture.
The LED flash is good, if not awe inspiring... it has a mid range throw that's perfectly fine for night pictures of your pals.
The digital zoom is silky smooth too, and it's dumbfounding how clear the pictures are at 5x zoom – take a look below to see how well they came out:
CONTRAST: The first image is taken with the focus on the leaves, and the second on the sun
DARKER CONTRAST: The same as above, but this time from a darker scene, which leads to a slightly less pure picture
DIGITAL ZOOM: The iPhone 4's digital zoom is top notch - at 5x closer the detail is preserved incredibly well
AUTO MACRO: There's no macro mode on offer here, but the iPhone manages to intelligently find the right level
TOO BRIGHT: However, if there's too much surrounding light it struggles to focus on the foreground
