dandino's Full Review: iPhone 3G Black (16 GB) Smartphone
OVERVIEW I have been wanted to get a smartphone for years and now work at a job that subsidizes my phone plan. It was finally not overly expensive to do. I had every intention of getting a Blackberry. I do not like Apple as a company or a culture, but there is no need to elaborate on why for this review. After months of reading reviews and handling a few competing devices, I crossed over to the dark side and bought an iPhone 3G 16GB. After 6 weeks I am thoroughly impressed. The phone is far from perfect, but it is an amazing device that is clearly well done. INTERFACE 5 buttons and the touch screen. There is a silent button, which is nice. With one flick you can set every option on your phone to silence, perfect for meetings. There are volume up/down buttons. This is a great feature above the iTouch, as you don't need to be in any particular part of the software to change the volume. There is a button on top which will turn the screen off when you are done with what you're doing, and holding it down will give you the option of turning it off. Finally, there is the "home" button. This will let you get started and return you to the main list of apps. And of course, there is the touch screen. Some key features are its sensitivity, and its multi-touch. To zoom in, drag your fingers apart. To zoom out, pinch your fingers. Some applications allow you to rotate, so you just put two fingers down and twist. I was always concerned that I would not be capable of navigating this phone due to the large size of my hands. But I work it without problems. I was amazed at how quickly I got used to typing on the screen. As a testament to how easy it is to work the iPhone, you only get instructions on what the different gestures are. No other instructions are provided, it's that intuitive to use. Compared to other smart phones I've handled, it is by far the easiest to get through. PHONE Honestly, the call quality is a bit poor for such an advanced phone. It's rather silly that simplest feature of the phone had so little attention to it. It sounds slightly muffled on both ends. Also, getting to the actual phone is slower than expected. I can check my email faster than I can make a phone call. I'm used to opening up a clamshell, hitting one of the 1-button shortcuts and starting a call. This is an instance where the iPhone has so many features under the phone aspect, that it takes 2-3 seconds to get to the keypad or contacts. Not a deal breaker, but it's rather silly that this aspect isn't better. There is probably an app to download that will make this better, but I haven't found it yet. The contact list is quite nice. It is very fast to scroll through, or simply touch the letters on the side. From the contacts, you can text, email, or call, assuming that you've added all that info. One aspect that I truly appreciate is that the phone recognizes phone numbers on web sites, emails, text messages, etc. This is quite necessary considering that it doesn't have cut and paste features (yet). There is the option of keeping the phone on the basic "Edge" mode or in the advanced 3G. If you are in 3G, you can surf the web while on a call. If you are on Edge, you'd need to be on a Wi-Fi network to use the net. IPOD I've never been a fan of any of the iPod interfaces. I'm not a fan of the iPhone's either. While it's nice that you can just plug in the headphones and hit the play button, it always starts on the same song and plays in order. It would be better if I had the option to make it go to shuffle all. Fortunately, the volume control is on the side of the phone, I hate adjusting the volume on my wife's iTouch. It's not that the interface is particularly bad, it's simply not as fluid as the rest of the phone. For those that like pretty shiny things, there is the cover flow. This is an animated way to spin through your collection. I don't use it much, but it is pretty. Having said my minor complaints, let me say that it is a great convenience to have your music on your phone with an earpiece that is also a microphone. There is a seamless conversion from iPod to iPhone, and back again. You'll be listening to music, push the button on the microphone to answer/hangup, and then back to your music. Wonderful. My last phone was a clamshell that could play MP3's (WMA's actually), but it was so overwhealmed by music that the battery drained just as fast as if I were on a phone call. EMAIL It's fantastic. Its pre-set for various accounts, (Microsoft exchange, yahoo, google, etc) which makes setting things up a breeze. Here is where a bit of my ignorance to smartphones comes in. I understand what Push email is. I have it turned off as a battery saving measure, but my phone will still get emails faster than my computer sometimes. So I don't know how that's better. But if you need push, you got it. Otherwise, I'm loving how easy it is to email. TEXTING I'm doing a ton of it now. I was always a bit slow before on a traditional clamshell phone, but this makes texting so easy. There is a very nice thread formed when you go back and forth in a text. Just know, that this is SMS only, there is no MMS. This isn't an issue at all for me, but it may be for some people. If you want to send a picture, you have to email it, which is fine for me. BATTERY By far, this is the biggest flaw of the phone. I need to charge the phone every day to every other day. There is simply so much that the phone does, that the battery is completely overwhealmed. Shutting off Location services("GPS"), WiFi, and 3G does wonders to preserve it. It does charge incredibly quickly, but this is something that really needs to be addressed in the future before any other additional features are added. It's not a deal breaker for me, but it may be for you. One of my co-workers got the Blackberry Bold, that battery is not much better. It all depends on how much time you are actively working on it. I am constantly emailing, texting, and playing games when I have 10 minutes to kill. APPS Wow. Just wow. Thousands of apps. Many free, most are only a few bucks. The community of developers that has made all these apps makes the iPhone from something extraordinary to legendary. Many have made free apps that are somewhat commercial. For example, Amazon.com made an app where you can go shopping at a mall, snap a picture of something you want to buy. Amazon will figure out what it is, and send you an email with how much it charges for it. If you like it, you can buy it right from your phone. Amazing. There is Pandora radio streaming music, addicting little games, and a host of productivity, reference, etc. As this community develops, it will get even better. EARPHONES The sound quality is so-so, but it is as good as it gets for this type of earbud. I'm used to using the in-ear buds, which are far superior for sound quality. However, the iPhone earbuds have an inline microphone that is also a button for answering the phone, playing, pausing, and advancing tracks. That is very nice. I would greatly appreciate a pair of in-ear with the microphone also, but these are sufficient. ITUNES Wow, I hate iTunes. I've been using the Zune MP3 player for a few years and using that software for all my music management. Going to iTunes was a huge step backwards. It's sluggish, terrible at finding album artwork, crashes frequently, is inept at realizing I've downloaded new music, and is aesthetically lacking. I thought the performance issues were because I am running Windows, but a buddy who owns a Mac has the same complaints. You need iTunes to manage your music, pictures, applications, and calendars (if you sync with Office). WiFi While 3G is noticeably faster than the Edge network, nothing beats WiFi. When you're at home, or a hotspot, you can surf the net at nearly the same speed your computer can. Downloading large apps, pictures, etc happens in seconds rather than minutes. This is a huge advantage over the competing BlackBerry Storm. BROWSER This is not a mobile browser. This is a browser. While some sites will recognize that you're on a phone and connect you to their mobile site (like hotmial, cnn, etc), this is a full blown browser that renders web sites as you would see them on your computer. From the other platforms that I've used, this is clearly the best. It doesn't (yet) support flash, but it is quite incredible. With the zoom feature, browsing the internet is a breeze. UPDATES The great thing about the phone, is that although you may read this and think that there are a lot of short comings of the phone, they are being addressed with updates. Most of it is all software, which Apple is updating every few months. So not only is it a fantastic device, it has such great potential to be updated, and its functionality is boundless with the app store. BOTTOM LINE If you're in the market for a smartphone, you cannot go wrong with the iPhone. While far from perfect, it is clearly closer than any other phone that I've worked with. I think BlackBerry has ceded the lead, for now at least. I would advise to go for the 16GB. Apps, pictures, and music build up quick. After spending so much for the phone and so much on a monthly plan, it would be terrible to regret not paying more in the beginning for twice the storage.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300 Recommended for: Professionals On-the-Go - Internet and Email is a Must!
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