Just when you thought a few lucky customers beat the rest of the world to getting an iPhone 4, some technology journalists with early access to the device just published their reviews.

Apple typically handpicks a select group of publications to get early review units, and the first round of reviews comes from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Engadget and others.

The reviewers agreed that the iPhone 4’s hardware is state-of-the-art industrial design. However, they debated about whether the handset solves the iPhone’s biggest recurring problem: handling phone calls on the overloaded AT&T network.

Priced at $200 for the 16-GB model and $300 for the 32-GB model, the iPhone 4 hits stores Thursday (though a few lucky pre-order customers are getting theirs as early as today).