Congratulations! After all the hype, teasing keynote presentations, and hours spent waiting at your front door or the entrance of the  Apple Store, you’ve finally landed a new iPhone. Do you feel any different? If you’re like us, probably not––aside from sweaty palms and the sudden urge to dance a jig. But thanks to a sweet design and exciting technology inside, your iPhone 4 feels different from any model that’s come before. Here’s a crash course in getting the most from your new iPhone’s hardware so you can look your best the first night with it on the town. Who knows? If you follow our tips, the next person to write Steve about scoring a date with Apple gear may be you.

For our tips on iOS 4.0 features, go here.

The Retina Display

The most obvious new hardware in the iPhone 4 has to be the Retina Display, but you probably won’t see its full benefits right away. To show off what that gorgeous screen is capable of, follow the tips in our iOS 4.0 guide for updating iTunes and your iOS apps. Not only will updates get you all the benefits of multitasking, your new apps should sport higher-resolution artwork and textures, too.

While you’re waiting for Apple’s approval process, make sure “Prefer standard definition videos” isn’t checked in iTunes’ Summary tab when you sync your iPhone 4 to your Mac. This will ensure that the HD version of your iTunes Store movies and TV shows will sync to your phone instead of the standard definition file. Not only will you get a better picture on your phone, you’ll be able to take your HD files with you to watch on a big screen if you have an Apple Component AV Cable.

The Front and Main Cameras

Twice the cameras mean twice the complexity, right? Not so fast––camera options are right where they’ve always been, onscreen in the built-in Camera app, and controls for iPhone 4’s new camera flash are no exceptions. Just tap the flash icon in the upper right or left corner of your screen (depending on your phone’s orientation) to call up a bewildering array of options––On, Off, and Auto––whether you’re shooting videos or still pictures.

It’s just as easy to switch between the front and back cameras. Tapping the “spin the camera” icon flips you from one to the other, and just like  flash controls, this works in video and still modes. Of course, both these controls are also available from other apps, like Contacts and Facebook, that have always been able to access the iPhone’s camera.

And yes, we’re happy to report that iPhone 4’s flash fires off a redeye-reducing pulse before a picture is taken. Huzzah!

FaceTime

Wi-Fi hiccups aside, FaceTime sure looked easy to use during its debut at this year’s WWDC. But it’s not quite as magical as Steve made it seem. Before you can make a FaceTime call, you may need to manually activate the feature by navigating to Settings > iPhone. Just switch on FaceTime. Then you’re good to go. Just make a call as you normally do, tapping the FaceTime icon in the middle of your screen to show grandma what you’re up to. One question… how did she get her iPhone 4 so quickly?

The Home Button

It’s nice to know some iPhone hardware has stayed the same, like the trusty old Home button. Unfortunately its new iOS 4.0 feaature––double-click to call up the app switching tray at the bottom of your screen––wipes out old favorites like double-tapping to access the iPhone’s camera, iPod controls, or Phone favorites. Bummer. As of today, the only other tricks your Home button can perform are toggling VoiceOver or inverted screen colors after a trip to the Accessibility section of your General settings. Welcome as those features are, here’s hoping future software updates teach the Home button some of its old tricks.

The Micro SIM Tray

The more things change, the more they stay the same, and nothing about iPhone 4 proves that more than its Micro SIM tray. Yes, after numerous phone calls with Cupertino’s top brass––we’ll never name our sources––we can confirm that your trusty old SIM eject tool (paperclip) will still remove iPhone 4’s SIM card tray just as it always did. Nice to know Jony Ive is watching out for us and sweating the small stuff.

Got a tip? Drop it in the comments below.