Apple iPhone (8 GB) Smartphone

My experience with cell phones has always been positive until a week passes, by then something about the interface or phone itself has begun to irritate me. After just over a year using a Blackberry Curve (actually 3 different Curves as I broke 2, don’t ask), I was ready to give up on the whole integrated phone/internet platform. As a die-hard Apple addict I had up til now looked skeptically at the iPhone, I’d heard plenty of horror stories about the original iPhone and its horrible battery life and other issues. It just seemed too gadget-like to be a good phone and a still be a great mulitimedia device. After the launch of the iPhone 3G I was surprised to find AT&T offered me their promotional deal of $199 for an 8GB iPhone 3G with a new 2-year contract. With much trepidation I decided to go for it as I needed a new phone anyway as the trackball on my 3rd Curve had started to fail.

----- Quick iPhone Overview -----

For shoppers & readers out there unfamiliar with those features that lend the iPhone its coolness (yes, I’m talking to both of you…), I’ll give you a quick overview. The Apple iPhone 3G is actually the 2nd generation model, the 3G refers to a high-speed data transfer network which this model is optimized for. Unlike most current cell phones, the iPhone user interface is completely touch-screen activated, not a button in sight. The surface of the unit is a glossy, real glass screen which mirrors Apple’s MacBook laptops, very pretty and a sucking black hole absorbing all manner of fingerprints, oils, and bits of your bagel & cream cheese… why yes, I do recommend a screen protector. The screen is typically devoid of the normal keypad on most phones; instead you’ll see a picture-based user interface which gives way to a touch-screen QWERTY keyboard or standard phone keypad when needed. A pretty sweet feature built into the iPhone is a tilt-sensor and accelerometer which (other than giving game developers more toys to play with) allows you to rotate your iPhone sideways to wide-screen for web browsing, music, movie, and game playing.

IF you’re not a member of the AT&T network, that’s the only garage you’ll find the iPhone parked in… you’ll have to say goodbye to your current network and sign up at a hefty base price of $80 a month, this does not include any free text messages.

The iPhone features all of Apple’s mobile media features it could fit into what’s essentially a MacBook UltraMini. ITunes, iPhoto, the Safari web browser, full iPod music, podcast, and movie/TV show functionality, and of course email and YouTube videos, all present and accounted for. The big question for most people is how well does this black beauty work? Okay, maybe that’s a falsehood, I’d bet that most buyers probably rushed to the store for their 3G, simply realizing it was small, sexy, and showing off its many secret-agent Q-like features in dark, smoky places might start up a conversation with a stranger. Well for the REST of us, people that love technology but also have to rely on their phone every day for business and communication, I’ve put down a few thoughts on the iPhone 3G. Read on if you want, this won’t be a full-featured review as I’m not a professional, however I hope what I’ve written will help with your decision.

----- Phone System impressions -----

The first big thumbs up I have for the iPhone is its user interface when it comes to calling and voicemail, it’s beautiful! At the bottom of your main screen is what I refer to as the “Dock”; these are your main 4 buttons (Phone, Email, Web Browser, iPod) that stay in place no matter which page you’re on above. When you open the Phone mode you get a main screen with 5 options underneath; Favorite #s, Recent Calls, Contacts, Keypad, and Voicemail. These options streamline your dialing and save you time by making your most frequently called numbers easily accessible, Favorites, Recent Calls, and Contacts all allow you to find numbers already stored in your phone using various methods. The keypad brings up a standard phone keypad for calling Pizza Hut to order a deep dish Meat Lovers, you don’t have them in your contacts but just want to type in the number.

Voicemail is totally awesome on the iPhone, once you set up your mailbox, password, and greeting, all your voicemails stack up in a list and you just tap on each one to hear it immediately. No more calling your v-mail, entering your password, and waiting for the irritating lady to tell you once again you have unplayed messages. You can delete your voicemails one at a time which sends them to a “trash can folder”, you have to empty the trash to actually delete them completely.

Since I primarily use my phones as, well… phones, I was glad to find the iPhone has a quality microphone which clearly transmits my voice and seems to cut out most background noise. Most people I call frequently say I sound about the same or a little clearer than on my old Blackberry. On my end I have no trouble listening to conversations clearly, however the earpiece volume is on the low side even turned up all the way. Since I’m a service technician I’m often in louder areas and it can be hard to hear the person(s) on the call.

Once you commence a call the screen pops up with your in-call options, these include; Mute, Keypad, Speakerphone, Add Caller, Hold, and Contacts. This gives you pretty much all the flexibility you need to find a number, enter phone extensions, 3-way call, etc. Speakerphone mode isn’t designed for loud environments as the speaker is on the quiet side, I could hear it in my car but not in a coffee shop environment. Reception in northern Michigan has been at least as good as my old Blackberry Curve in cities and out on country roads, I’ve had no dropped calls in the two weeks I’ve owned my iPhone.

----- Text Messaging -----

Big kudos here, thank you Apple for including threaded text messaging instead of the typical individual messages on most phones. Text messaging usually means you have to open and read each new incoming message "file" and write a reply to that message. This makes a conversation feel more like a bunch of chopped up, smaller conversations than an ongoing dialog.

With the iPhone each contact will have it's own message stream under the SMS Text app, if you're talking with Kendra, Jeff, and Juan, you'll be able to select names from the SMS main menu screen and then all your incoming and outgoing messages to that contact will appear in chronological order. Each message appears in a colored bubble, beige for incoming and green for outgoing. It looks exactly like an iChat or AIM conversation and makes it much easier to stay in a conversation over the course of a day. If your stored conversations get too lengthy you can clear the message stream for that contact and start over. Overall I love the streaming message thread concept, the only downside is you can't save certain SMS texts for later... once you clear a conversation it's all gone.

----- Email, Gadgets, Geegaws, and other Frippery -----

My business and work environments don’t require me to use email at all, so the only email account synced to my iPhone is my Yahoo account. The email push feature works great and keeps me up to date on incoming mail throughout the day, I can view, reply, and delete at will without having to face a mess piled in my Inbox. Really responding at length on my iPhone is a bit inconvenient since the on-screen keyboard is good enough to make plans with your wife or confirm an appointment, but seriously too small to write my average Epinions review. If you receive email attachments such as photos or .PDF files you can view them easily after downloading, this is a big plus to me as I sometimes need to view .pdf technical manuals on the job which are emailed from my office.

Safari does a good job as web browser and I’ve had no trouble with any of the sites I frequent. Using the iPhone rotated sideways is nice for viewing most websites since the aspect ratio works better for viewing text and images. Data download speed while browsing varies depending on signal strength (usually slow), however the closest city with 3G network availability is 180 miles from me… I’m stuck on Edge pretty much all the time. When near WiFi networks Safari clips right along smoothly and pretty much allows you freedom to browse as you would on any laptop, provided you can type quickly on the mini-keys.

The big brouhaha with the 3G is Google Maps going techie with the “Where am I?” feature. This locates you on the screen with a dot and also loosely allows you to “navigate” somewhere using your iPhone as it can tell when you’re moving. This is NOT recommended by me, I consider this feature unsafe to use while driving (you need to frequently look at the screen) and not nearly as good as a Garmin or TomTom system for navigation. As a mileage calculator or trip estimator it works great and I use it almost daily to check service call distances, just don’t to travel to Grandma’s house this Christmas using only your iPhone.

As far as the rest of the included software goes I’m not going to comment much on it, the Calender, Contacts, iPhoto, and iPod apps are all sync-able with your desktop and keep all your favorite stuff at your fingertips.

Camera wise I’m not impressed with the iPhone as I think the Blackberry Curve took better pics and had a zoom and flash… I know they weren’t great but better than none at all! I love the iPhone’s photo handling and interface, I just think the camera should have been a little better than 2MP for a $400 phone.

The dozens of mini programs available at the App Store are a bit overwhelming at first, I must say I went a bit crazy and downloaded 5 or 6 before I slowed down and started reading reviews. There’s quite a few free apps and of course ones you have to pay for, most fall between $ .99 and $9.99 depending on functionality and quality. I probably won’t add many more apps as they tend to clutter up your phone and after the coolness wears off you won’t use the games much. There are several productivity apps which I like and are worth their $5 tag.

Lastly, I totally love the integrated syncing with Apple’s software suite… your contacts, anniversaries, appointments, photos, music, and more will all auto-sync for your eliminating having double databases and missed dates.

----- Downsides -----

Granted, battery life isn’t good by any means, but since I’m never on the 3G network I think my impressions are a bit skewed. I’ve always had to charge all my phones when I go to bed, therefore charging every night is normal to me… yeah, I use my phone a lot! My iPhone usually has to get charged up about 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon and then I’m good until nighttime… this doesn’t seem all that horrible to me and quite acceptable for a phone with this big of a screen. My Belkin car charger brings my iPhone from nearly empty to full in about 30 minutes, I don’t have a problem with that.

I’m really bummed Apple didn’t include MMS texting with the iPhone, what were they thinking? That’s a big no-no in my opinion, a multimedia phone with a camera and unlimited data that you can’t send pictures from (other than as email attachments)! Stupid.

As I mentioned before the monthly charge for an iPhone is $80 plus any text messages you want added. You do get unlimited data transfer and internet time but this is pretty pricey for a basic low-minute plan as there’s an extra $30 charge just for the iPhone… thanks AT&T.

There’s no insurance available at this point on the iPhone, so if you do something stupid that’s outside the 1-Year AppleCare warranty you just bought a very expensive paperweight. Be careful and buy a screen protector and skin, you’ll need them both.

----- Bottom Line -----

I’m happy with my iPhone so far, I know it’s drawbacks and I’m willing to live with them since I enjoy the advantages of all-the-time Internet access. For someone like me that does on the road service and is often far from WiFi or internet access, the ability to call tech support, get them to email me service info, then access my email immediately on-site is priceless. The interface and screen is both better designed and easier to read than my old Blackberry Curve which makes reading and replying to email that much easier.

The ability to zoom in and out of the screen using only two fingers is both very cool and functional on an everyday basis and I continue to find new features that just make sense from an end user’s point of view.

If you doubt you can deal with a short battery life (60-90 minutes talk time max) or possible software glitches (although the latest update cleared up most of them) then I’d recommend waiting on the iPhone. It’s an expensive purchase that straddles the line between toy and tool, fun and function, and you may not want to gamble on an expensive monthly bill only to feel used down the line. I like mine but I’m just an average Joe that likes technology when it works, as many other reviewers have stated they find the iPhone lacking. Best of luck shopping and hope you’re slightly more informed now.

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Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

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