For tech and mobile phone gear heads like Mike “Evorgleb” Belgrove and me, yesterday’s announcement of the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4 was matter of fact.  While most of Apple’s product launches have been held very closely to the vest, the 4th generation iPhone was leaked when a careless trusted employee misplaced a prototype leading to its widespread leakage on the net lead by tech site Gizmodo.

But the fact of the matter is most of us aren’t tech geeks and get a little bogged down in the language.  So I’ve digested the basics of the iPhone 4 for you to help you decide if you should junk your not-so-smartphone or upgrade from your 3GS.The Screen 

The 960 x 640 pixel display is what you’d expect from your iPhone.

The Size

The iPhone 4′s most defining physical characteristic is how much thinner 9.3mm it is than its 3GS predecesor 12.3mm. The iPhone 4 is only slightly heavier (4.8 oz) than the 3GS (4.76 oz) so there are no issues there.

Battery Life

One of the major beefs that iPhone owners (and most smartphone owners for that matter) have is battery life.  In developing the iPhone 4 Apple gives users boosts talk time 2 hours up to seven hours of 3G talk and 1 hour of WiFi data up to ten total.  Bottom line is you’re still going to have battery life issues when using certain apps and making calls in NON-3G coverage areas.  That’s not Apple’s fault its just with all the applications that require data bloodlines it forces the phone to do a lot of searching when not in quality coverage areas.

Camera

The new iPhone 4 features 2 CAMERAS!  One front camera so all the Highbrid Honey’s can look at what they’re shooting reducing the need for a mirror to capture those Fat Back candid shots.  But the true utility comes in its compatibility with the iPhone 4′s iChat feature which allows you videoconference…a very cool feature.

But for those who still enjoy them, there’s an upgraded traditional five megapixel camera replacing the 3Gs’ 3.2 megapixel obsolete model. Plus the Motorola Droid will no longer be able to diss the iPhone for having no flash.

Enhanced Mail

The iPhone 4 has taken a page out of the Google Powered phones with Gmail.  You can have a merged inbox and switch between inboxes.  And instead of entering and exiting multiple emails from the same conversation, the new threaded messaging lets you see the whole conversation neatly displayed on one screen.  That’s what a SMART phone should do.

Other Features

Spell check

Ability to link with a Bluetooth enabled keyboard

App folders for sorting apps so you don’t have scroll through pages and pages as your app catalog grows.

Using the iBooks app you can wirelessly sync books with your Kindle.

Buy and Download apps on your Desktop via iTunes and wirelessly sync them with your iPhone 4.

So the question everyone wants to know is how much will the iPhone set you back? New AT&T users will pay $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB one on a two-year contract. Without of contract you’re looking at $599 for 16GB or $699 for 32GB.

So what do you think?  Let us know.  Are you copping the new iPhone 4?  

Here’s a little video courtesy of Engadget to help you decide