[Review] iPhone 8GB

tckrockz · **[Review] iPhone 8GB -** 07-15-2007, 01:13 PM

Instead of a traditional review, I'll more or less give a summary of the experience I have had owning an iPhone for the last 3 weeks; since its release.
Purchase:

Lets start with the purchase, that part could not have been any more uneventful, especially since I purchased mine at the AT&T store. It was quick and painless, all they did was ring up the phone for me and my girlfriend who ended up getting a 4GB model.

We raced home, and connected mine to iTunes first, went through the signup process and after a quick sync the phone had all of my calendar setting, contacts, music, movies, email accounts, photos and Safari bookmarks. The process was just as easy as its made out to be on the Apple website. Next I did the same with my girlfriends phone, we decided to get a shared plan, and after a quick sync she was up and running
The Looks:

What can I say; the phone looks like a million bucks. The reactions I get from just taking it out of the pocket without even turning it on are priceless. Needless to say once I do turn it on and start showing some of the features off, people seem glued to it. Most of the time when I do give it to someone to mess with, I have a hard time getting it back, I practically have to pry it out of their hands.

The phone feels just right weight, and size wise sitting in the palm of your hand. One of the striking features of the phone is the lack of any buttons. There are only four external buttons: Wake/Sleep, Ring Silencer, Volume Adjust, and Home button. The back has the camera lens and the Apple logo, but besides that there is nothing much to see. The front real-estate is taken up almost entirely by the huge LCD screen.

Let me tell you though, the phone is a magnet for finger prints. I find my self cleaning the front of the phone all the time. However one thing that is surprising is how scratch resistant the iPhone is, I did not expect it to be this tough.

Phone:

Making, and receiving calls is comically easy and simple. Actually every feature in the phone part is great; lets not even mention how great the Visual Voicemail is. What I have a problem with is how low the call and ring-tone volumes are. I constantly miss calls because I don't hear the phone ringing, even when sitting in my pocket. What's even worse, there is no external indicator light to tell you when there is a missed call. But thanks to the vibrate mode I do get to pick up most of the calls.
iPod:

I don't have a singe bad think to say about this, its absolutely amazing. Its fast, easy, great looking and simple to use. They have hit the jackpot with the Wide Screen iPod part of the phone. I can't wait to see what the stand-alone iPods will look like.
The Web / Safari:

Surfing the web on a phone has never been great, but on the iPhone its actually usable. The thing that makes it usable is the fact that web pages look and feel just as they do on a regular computer. Thanks to the iPhone I now don't have an excuse not to be on Neowin 100% of the time, well except when sleeping

. Download speeds are great on Wi-Fi, EDGE is not bad either. As for EDGE I honestly don't have problems with it, its not as if anyone will be surfing the web for extended times on their iPhones anyhow.

E-Mail:

So since my girlfriend and I are on a shared plan and have only 200 text messages, we find emailing each other to be a better idea. Doing so on the iPhone is actually practical, and let me put the rumor of typing on the iPhone being difficult to a final rest; its actually real easy, if you let the auto correct feature do its magic.

The email application on the phone is quiet bare, and the lack of features can be bothersome. For instance when I went to check my email the first time, I had some 200+ emails and there is no option to delete multiple emails at once. I had to do it all one by one. But having the convenience of emails that look just as they would on a computer is great.
Quick Rundown of the other Applications / Widgets:

SMS: Too much fun, it sucks away text messages like crazy.

Calendar: For a mobile device its good, and the fact that it syncs with iCal on my Mac is great.

Photos: Everything looks great on the huge screen, and the whole multi touch + tilt function of the phone make it awesome.

Camera: Takes good pictures but lacks settings and features.

Here are some some pictures I took of Elanor, the car used in the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" at a car show last week:

YouTube: Works just like the AppleTV version, surprisingly its fast too, especially when on Wi-Fi.

Stocks: 100% copy of the OS X Widget, I don't use it at all

.

Google Maps: Has a lot of features, fast on Wi-Fi and EDGE, but lacks GPS.

Weather: 100% copy of the OS X Widget, I like it since you can get to it with one touch when in a hurry.

Clock: Again 100% copy of the OS X Widget, but hidden under here is also the Alarm Clock, Stopwatch and Timer.

Calculator: Unlike the other Widgets this one is not similar to its OS X counterpart, it has been visually upgraded.

Notes: Don't use it, but its a bare minimum application for doing just that; taking notes.

Settings: I will add to this section tomorrow as there is too much to cover right now.

To Summarize:

I can see it selling like hot cakes, the iPhone is just as revolutionizing as it is being made out to be. Unlike my brothers Smart-phone that runs Windows Mobile the iPhone is fast, easy, and fun to use. The mayor fault I see with the phone lies not with Apple but with AT&T; for one they have hidden charges for everthing, service is not great, and reception sucks to put it nicely.

All in all the iPhone will change the future of the cell phone industry, and you can quote me on that.

RATING: 8.5/10

Source NeoWin Forum