Apple iPhone Review

June 30th, 2007

The Apple iPhone went on sale yesterday at 6PM, to thousands of people who lined up with anticipation. I’ve been wanting an Apple-made mobile phone for a loooooong time, since syncing my devices with my Macintosh computers has been sketchy at best. Yesterday morning Mike D. and our superstar intern Rob made their way to Southcenter Mall at around 10AM to stand in line. There were already 100 people in front of them. Hearing this, I gave up on the idea that I could go plop myself into line sometime around 4-5 and not have to wait several hours. Eventually, a friend and I hatched a plan to get our hands on the hot little iPhone.

Around 11AM, while sitting at breakfast, we called a friend and asked if their son would sit in line for us for $100. Their kid was busy but he had 2 friends that were chomping at the bit to make a quick Benjamin on an otherwise unprofitable Friday during summer vacation. So, the two 14 year olds headed to the mall and started waiting in line. Around 5:50PM I showed up at the mall and relieved the boys. They were thrilled and went off to buy their skate shoes with the money. 10 minutes later they started letting us into the store. The guy in front of me only wanted one iPhone, so he let me buy his other one - for a total of 3 (typically, 2 per customer). So, at about 6:20 I walked out of the Apple Store with 3 iPhones. Not even 5 feet out of the store I saw a guy I know and he offered to buy one off of me for $100 more than they cost. I said sure, and this essentially paid for the kid standing in line for 6 hours

Getting home, I couldn’t have been more eager to play with a new toy. The box was very small and simple, not unlike the packaging for the latest iPod Nanos. Not much documentation inside, just the iPhone, dock, cable, wall charger and headset. Plugging the iPhone in automatically opened iTunes. Activating the iPhone was a breeze, it took 15 minutes tops to activate and initiate transfer of my telephone number. I have to admit, the AT&T rate plans are very expensive compared to T-Mobile, my previous carrier - my monthly bill has essentially doubled as a result of going from the Blackberry Pearl to the iPhone.

The finish and feel of the iPhone is amazing, the size is quite a bit bigger than my BB, but it fits well in the pocket. It’s a little heavier than I’d like, but with all of those features you have to compromise somewhere. The touchscreen interface is Awesome. Processing is very fast, even with my iPhone completely full (30mb of free space remaining). The camera seems serviceable, but doesn’t handle low light conditions very well (no flash). Locking and unlocking the iPhone is a snap. I love the touchscreen interface for everything except typing so far. Even though I know I’ll get better/faster at using the iPhone to type, it’ll never be as easy to use as physical buttons, which was one of the things I really liked about the Pearl.

Syncing up my music, mail settings, contacts and address book couldn’t have been easier! A breath of fresh air after using Missing Sync, PocketMac and the rest - which has always been frustrating. You can select playlists, contact lists, photo rolls, and more - or wipe clean whatever you already have on your iPhone with just a few simple clicks. This is how a smart device should work.

The automatic wi-fi switching is MONEY. I had the Nokia E60 and it was a bit of a pain to switch between networks. Like all Apple products, the iPhone does its work pretty seamlessly and painlessly. Having wi-fi speed is very important and allows you to surf the web, watch YouTube videos and do everything else at a speed that the iPhone deserves to be used at. The AT&T Edge network is a different story. I had connectivity problems a few times and it was serviceable, though the iPhone really needs wi-fi to shine.

Using the iPhone last night to make calls in a loud club was as good as any other phone I’ve ever used. Drunken text messages came out legibly. After using it quite a bit last night and leaving it in standby mode overnight, I’m left with about 40% battery life remaining, which isn’t spectacular.

I have noticed a few small problems. Using the iPod functionality today, I got to a part of an Aerosmith song that paused on its own and then started ’skipping’. It rectified itself once I woke the iPhone from sleep (instead of freezing till the battery runs out, as has happened with my iPods a couple times), so no biggie. There’s also a bit of plastic still wedged in-between the two sides of the case, like you see on brand new car seats before they’re prepped for delivery. One thing that is pretty annoying is that my Bose headphones can’t plug into the iPhone without an adaptor, since the headphone jack is recessed.

These minor gripes are just that, very minor. I’m still thrilled to have what I consider to be the best handheld device I’ve ever used. The Apple Store still has some at this point, so grab one if you can!

Day 3 Update

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I seriously think I may return the iPhone if there isn’t some way I can get the battery to last an entire day. After a full night’s charge, it’s at about 1/3 battery power after very light use today and wi-fi off for half of the day. It’s 4:25PM.

Day 10 Update

Crisis averted. I went back to the Apple Store and told them about my battery woes. They quickly offered to swap out my iPhone for a new one. They were out of 8GB iPhones for sale, but kept some on hand just for exchanges. That was very cool. Swapping an iPhone is as easy as changing out the SIM card and then verifying it on the machine at the Apple Store. It was pretty quick. The new iPhone’s battery is better than the first. It still doesn’t knock my socks off, and is bearable at best, but it lasts a whole day w/ moderate use so that’s good enough for me at this point.

A few other details that I hope are fixed, remedied or redesigned eventually:

• The recessed headphone jack is driving me batty.
• Mail does not seem to check automatically every 15 minutes, as it should given the settings. Rather, it only checks when I open the mail app, which is strange b/c the first iPhone I had did check by itself.
• The speakerphone volume isn’t terribly loud.
• I wish I could view all mailboxes at once, as you can in Mail App for OS X.
• It would be nice to be able to view battery life remaining in %.
• When sending an SMS from Contacts, it leaves me in SMS, when most of the time I’d rather be brought back to my Contacts list, which is related to my next small gripe…
• I wish I could send SMS to multiple recipients. Even the most simple Samsung free handsets can do this.
• The iPhone recharges at glacial pace, taking around 5 hours to fully charge.

Here are a few quick pics of the iPhone, in-hand.

Entry Filed under: Gear