iPhone Review

After ignoring the initial hype and the first month of its release, I bought an iPhone. I’ve had it for a week now, and thought I’d share my impressions. I feel like it will take at least a month or more before I’m ready to give a truly thorough review, and by that point, it probably won’t be worth it, as so many other people have already written in-depth reviews. So I’ll give you my one-week impressions. It’s a long blog post, so read it at your whim.

It’s interesting to note that this phone has gotten more backlash (as in “I think the iPhone sucks” reviews) than most phones or even most electronic devices in general. This is not because it is a poor product; this is because it was heavily hyped and as such, open to heavy criticism along with the accolades. Apple is one of those companies that garners strong opinions. People either love their products, or hate them. There aren’t a lot of people out there who feel indifferent about Apple, at least not within the tech community.

I, however, am someone who falls in the middle. I’m not a fanatic, but I like Apple. I like their products. I like their attention to design, and to making something both useful and pretty. I have an iPod, an iPod Shuffle, and now an iPhone. I do not, however, have a Mac laptop or desktop. I’ve used their computers (mainly in college working for the newspaper) and liked them, but it hasn’t been practical for me to switch. I have thought about switching before, but I have quite a bit of imaging and design software that was not cheap the first time around, and would not be cheap to replace with Mac versions. So I use a PC at home by choice, and I use a PC at work because that’s what they gave me.

I read more reviews about the iPhone than about any product I’ve ever bought. Because of that, I knew what I was buying. I knew about a lot of its shortcomings, and I knew which would affect me the most. Knowing that, I still bought one, and I still think it is a very cool device.
My officemate just got a new phone that runs Windows Mobile, and he ragged on the iPhone a lot, listing the typical major faults: non-replaceable battery, fixed 4GB or 8GB capacity, no cut-and-paste. He also showed me all the things he could do with his phone, and all the things you can add to it via third party applications. I have to admit that it was very impressive. I have never had a smartphone until now, and I was very tempted to get the same thing he has because wow — look at all the features and all the potential!

And yet potential is nothing if you’re not going to use it. Or, to put it more accurately: my phone needs to do what I need it to do. Not what every other person out there might need their phone to do.

Take email, for example. His phone pulls his work email from JSC’s Exchange server. My iPhone cannot do that, since I don’t have adminstrative privileges on the server. Seems like a major issue, until you realize that I don’t need to get my work emails on my phone. I’ve never needed that capability in the past, and I don’t need it now. In fact, I don’t even want it. I don’t want to check my work email while I’m away from work. So what might be a problem for a lot of users is not a problem for me. The iPhone has no problem pulling my personal email from Gmail and my own domain, which I did want. If I do decide to check work email away from the office once in a blue moon, I can use the webmail interface.

All that said, here are the top issues I have with the iPhone. None of these are new; they are simply the issues that affect me.

Negatives
(I should state that none of these caught me by surprise.)

+ It is overpriced. Probably by at least $200. This was the single biggest factor that kept me from buying one for the first month. Though I could (and eventually did) afford the $599 cost for an 8GB model, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. I looked on eBay, which could have saved me up to $75 if I was patient and bought a used-for-a-month model, but decided that $75 wasn’t enough of a savings to justify me taking the chance of not buying directly from Apple (and thus having them behind me if I had problems.) I also thought long and hard about waiting for version 2, which undoubtedly be both cheaper and better if the evolution of the iPod is any indication. I didn’t wait, so I’ll probably just upgrade.

+ Inability to send a text message to more than one recipient. It is a feature that I rarely need, but when I do, it’s very annoying not to have it. Makes it hard to send, say, a single text message to 5 people suggesting “Simpsons movie, 4:00 at the Cinemark.” I hope this can also be fixed via software update, and soon.

+ Lack of cut-and-paste. As expected, it does bug me. Not a lot, but occasionally. I hope that Apple can fix it in a software update.

+ Necessity of iTunes. This is a more minor complaint, but I do wish there was a way to sync my Outlook calendar and contacts without having to start iTunes, or even without having to have iTunes installed on my computer (talking about my work computer here; I like iTunes as an application). My PDA used HotSync software that was activated by simply pressing a button on the cord, and that was nice.

+ Non-replaceable battery. Yep, it’s bad that I can’t replace the battery myself, since everyone knows that rechargable batteries will eventually start to go bad and lose their ability to hold a charge. Yes, I wish I could replace it. In buying the phone, I decided to simply cross that bridge when I get to it.

+ Required two-year AT&T contract. Nobody likes to be tied down.

+ Lack of Flash and some Java in the Safari browser. Actually, this doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would, however, I do wish I could see weather radar animations.

Issues That Bother Other People That Haven’t Bothered Me So Far

+ Difficulties with Microsoft Exchange email servers. See above. I can easily sync my calendar and contacts via a physical cord connection when I am in the office, and that is all I wanted.

+ AT&T’s EDGE network. For the first few hours that I was exploring the phone, I was using the wrong password protocol in trying to log on to Jose’s wireless network. As a result, the phone defaulted on EDGE. I’ve also used it while out-and-about and not under the cover of any WiFi. EDGE is slow, yes, but reviews had led me to believe that it was practically unusable. I have not found that to be true. Sure, it could be faster, but it’s very usable.

+ Camera shutter button. Reviews complained that it was hard to take a self-portrait, and that they wished the whole screen became the shutter button, or that there was a dedicated shutter button. Those are good ideas, but the current implementation seems ok to me.

+ Virtual keyboard. Maybe this doesn’t bug me because I’ve never used a physical phone keyboard and thus don’t know what I’m missing. In the web browser, when turned on its side for landscape mode, the keyboard is very easy to use. In email and other applications, when squished into a smaller space, the keyboard is more difficult to use, and I’m still practicing. The built-in spelling/word correction algorithm seems good though, and overcomes most of my mis-types.

+ Hard limit of 4GB or 8GB. I could be wrong, but most other smartphones take some kind of micro SD card, which are available in comparable capacity — but not more. (My officemate mentioned getting a 2GB card for his new phone. That’s 6GB less than my iPhone.) I’m sure micro SD cards will improve in capacity in the future so at some point I’m sure a Blackberry will be able to handle more than my iPhone, but at the moment, 8GB storage seems extremely competitive against other products on the market. And it’s plenty for me.

+ Activation. The phone was a snap to activate. It was fully functional and capable of making outgoing calls within 10 minutes of plugging it into my computer. I activated on a Saturday night. I did have to carry around my old phone for a couple more days until it was able to receive calls, since my number wasn’t fully ported until Monday, but I’m guessing they need a business day to do the transition.

Positives

+ It is just plain cool. Many people will scoff and say that “coolness” is not a legitimate thing to list as a positive, but I disagree. Good design is important, and to me, having something that is functional and beautiful is worth more than something that is functional but ugly. The iPhone is just a cool device. It is comfortable to hold. It is pretty to look at. It is fun to use and I enjoy having it. These intangibles are just as important to me as the technical specs.

+ It consolidates the amount of stuff in my purse. Again, people will scoff as this not being a legitimate positive, and I know that any smartphone could accomplish this. Regardless, Razr + PDA + 30 GB iPod has now become iPhone. I will still carry my iPod on occasion, as I cannot fit my entire music collection onto the 8GB iPhone. However, 8GB is more than enough room to carry around the music I happen to be listening to this month.

+ Google Maps. The application and implementation here is great. I don’t know if other smartphones have the same interface or not but even if they do, I doubt it looks as nice. When Jose’s car battery died, I just went to Google Maps, zoomed in to League City, and did a search for “auto.” It popped up the nearest NTB store. I tapped on that, which gave me its website and phone number. I tapped on the phone number, and it dialed the store. Awesome.

+ The Internet looks like The Internet. Not a stripped down mobile version of the internet.

+ Screen. It’s big. It’s bright. It’s awesome.

+ Battery life. I have already listed the fact that it’s non-replaceable as a negative, but on the flip side, battery life is good. Better than expected, granted that it’s only been a week. I do expect it to deteriorate; what remains to be seen is over what timeframe. On a full charge, the iPhone lasted 48 hours before dying (I let it run all the way down). This was with moderate to heavy use, including making and receiving calls, surfing the web, sending text messages, taking pictures, and checking email — and remaining in standby (i.e. not powered off) when not in use. I was impressed.

+ It can use the same cord as the iPod. The supplied iPhone cord has a slightly smaller connector in terms of the amount of plastic on it, but the connector itself is the same. This means I don’t have to buy any additional cords, since the extra iPod cord I already have at work will also connect to my iPhone. Apple doesn’t have the best history of keeping stuff like that consistent between products and models, so I was excited.