Justifying my iPhone 4 purchase

The iPhone 4; a fantastic piece of pure Apple engineering. This all new creation is no doubt an amazing piece of craftsmanship, but is it really worth the money?

I am often asked "What's so amazing about the iPhone?". This is a question that I have a considerable amount of difficulty answering, in one sentence or even one paragraph for that matter. For many people the iPhone 4 is a no brainer because their contract has expired so they get it for free or for the tiny sum of $18. But for others, like my self, their contract has not yet expired so they have several options:

1. Simply wait until you eligible for an upgrade.

2. Pay the early termination fee on your contract, then start a new contract with an iPhone 4. This is the option I will take.

3. If you are in UK you can buy the iPhone 4 on pay as you go then cut down you current sim card and stick it in the new iPhone. If the £499 price tag is less that the early termination fee on your contract this is defiantly the better option as you don't have to start a new contract, so you will be eligible for upgrade when the iPhone 5 comes out.

My early termination fee is just over £350 pounds and then I still have to pay £119 to get the bottom end iPhone on the contract I want. thats a total of £469, a large sum for a phone that I'll be paying a £30 a month contract for. So after looking over everything I decided that to pay such a large sum of money I would have to justify this purchase.

I would begin with pros and cons but as the only con is the price ill just do the pros.

A beautiful new design, the retina display, 720p video recording, longer battery life, new A4 chip, 5MP Camera, flash, front facing camera, stronger glass, and of course FaceTime. So that 10 new features that matter to me. Thinking of the only con, the price, will any of these features actually save me money? At first glance no. But looking deeper i realised I could now sell my Flip Ultra because of the 720p and if the glass if a strong as they claim replacing cracked scenes would no longer be an issue. But the flip ultra would only fetch me £50 and the glass would only benefit me supposing I would of broken the glass if it were not as strong. I came to the inevitable conclusion that the new iPhone is not going to save me much money.

I pondered on this very topic for several hours, it even once crossed my mind that I would be better off with an Android phone. But finally I decided that at whatever the price even be it £1000 I would have to purchase an iPhone 4. The retina display is really the most key element for me, I love screen clarity, and the new camera would pretty much replace my point and shoot, 720p video recording replaces my flip, breaking the glass is no longer a major problem, its as fast as my iPad, it is without a doubt the most beautiful handheld device Apple has ever branded a product with and of course FaceTIme; I need say nothing about that.