FaceTime review: Face to face with iPhone 4 video calling

You can also switch a normal call to a FaceTime video chat at any time without hanging up: just move the phone away from your face so the menu appears, and tap the FaceTime icon.

The phone on speaker

FaceTime automatically puts the phone on speaker, or uses hands-free earphones if you've got them plugged in. Either party can turn the phone sideways to switch both phones to landscape orientation. You can mute the audio with an onscreen button, and pause the video too by pressing the home button to go to the home screen.

The niftiest feature is the option to switch between the two cameras on the phone at the touch of a button. That means you can show the other person what you're looking at by simply switching to the front-facing camera. Handy if you want to show something, or simply want to spare your friend from looking up your hairy nose.

The biggest drawback is that FaceTime only works when calling another iPhone 4. If your social circle is stuffed full of hip young gunslingers all rockin' the latest tech, then you're laughing, but it's not much use if your mates have better things than a phone to spend a monkey on.

It also requires Wi-Fi, but as that means calls are free we don't see that as too much of a drawback. 3G FaceTime could be on the cards if Apple can work something out with the networks, but we can't see the providers being too keen on promoting a feature that cannibalises their voice calls business and puts more strain on their data infrastructure. Compatibiliy with Skype and other VoIP apps is also a possibility.

Face it: video calling is fun. Sure, FaceTime isn't revolutionary or even particularly useful. It's massively hamstrung by the restriction to calling other new-model iPhones, but then again it's also free. In our admittedly limited testing we didn't suffer from any dropped calls or glitches.