My review on the iPhone-- Not worth the money or the effort
Saturday, 30. June 2007, 02:13:41
Today I went to the AT&T store to play around with the iPhone. Me, being a total phone junkie, observed closely the aspects of the iPhone. So here's my review:
First of all, I'm gonna say that it's not a PDA at all. It feels more like a regular phone that happens to have a touch screen.
The QWERTY keyboard was not as bad as I had imagined, but still pretty bad. I made many mistakes (repeatedly as well) and it took a long time just to write something quick. The layout was good however, and if they had made the same design into a hard keyboard, it would have been stellar.
The web browser was fine, but far from perfect. For one, I couldn't log into Phone Scoop. It froze. But the rendering was good, and pages loaded fairly fast considering it was using EDGE. In fact, everything on the device didn't feel like EDGE, it was quite fast.
YouTube worked surprisingly well. It was easy to find videos and they streamed very quickly, and without hiccups. They were pretty grainy though. I watched the HTC Mogul Phone Scoop review and it worked great.
The iPod music player was nice. However, the internal speakers are crap. They sound totally horrible. It sounds like one of those "real music" ringtones. Bob Dylan's "Thunder on the Mountain" souned okay at best, but some louder songs were almost unusable.
The best part of the iPhone is the hardware. The design is great. Better than great, actually. It's thin, it's lightweight, it's a perfect size, it has a great texture, and it's stylish. There is no way to tell where the phone ends and the screen begins.
The screen is pretty good, but with all the touching it easily gets messed up. The accuracy is bad. When you are trying the put the cursor somewhere it usually ends up somewhere else. The multitouch is nice though, and resizing is easier than what I do for my i730 (quick double tap and drag up or down).
Just as I had suspected, the sound quality was lack-luster. Even almighty Apple can't get it on the first try. It was very crackly and quiet even in the AT&T store where they have repeaters.
The OS was not at all powerful. It was very stylish, but lacked power. It was like what you get if you smushed a Mac and a phone together. Not a PDA, just a phone with a touchscreen. The Wi-Fi menu was easy to use, unlike Windows Mobile, so I'll give the iPhone a + there. The accelorameter was disappointing. It only works in Safari web browser. If you turn the iPhone sideways during anything else, it has no effect. With Windows Mobile, you can manually switch orientation whenever you want.
The camera was very good quality. Even when I purposefully shook the iPhone while pressing the shutter button, the picture came out clear. Must be a great shutter reaction time. I wish my digital camera was like that.
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As a wrapup, the iPhone is a cool toy, or for someone who just wants a nice high end phone and not a smart device. I could not use the iPhone as my only phone after owning a Treo 650 and now the Samsung i730. Also, even that it's nowhere near worth $500-600. I'd pay only $200 at the most.
First of all, I'm gonna say that it's not a PDA at all. It feels more like a regular phone that happens to have a touch screen.
The QWERTY keyboard was not as bad as I had imagined, but still pretty bad. I made many mistakes (repeatedly as well) and it took a long time just to write something quick. The layout was good however, and if they had made the same design into a hard keyboard, it would have been stellar.
The web browser was fine, but far from perfect. For one, I couldn't log into Phone Scoop. It froze. But the rendering was good, and pages loaded fairly fast considering it was using EDGE. In fact, everything on the device didn't feel like EDGE, it was quite fast.
YouTube worked surprisingly well. It was easy to find videos and they streamed very quickly, and without hiccups. They were pretty grainy though. I watched the HTC Mogul Phone Scoop review and it worked great.
The iPod music player was nice. However, the internal speakers are crap. They sound totally horrible. It sounds like one of those "real music" ringtones. Bob Dylan's "Thunder on the Mountain" souned okay at best, but some louder songs were almost unusable.
The best part of the iPhone is the hardware. The design is great. Better than great, actually. It's thin, it's lightweight, it's a perfect size, it has a great texture, and it's stylish. There is no way to tell where the phone ends and the screen begins.
The screen is pretty good, but with all the touching it easily gets messed up. The accuracy is bad. When you are trying the put the cursor somewhere it usually ends up somewhere else. The multitouch is nice though, and resizing is easier than what I do for my i730 (quick double tap and drag up or down).
Just as I had suspected, the sound quality was lack-luster. Even almighty Apple can't get it on the first try. It was very crackly and quiet even in the AT&T store where they have repeaters.
The OS was not at all powerful. It was very stylish, but lacked power. It was like what you get if you smushed a Mac and a phone together. Not a PDA, just a phone with a touchscreen. The Wi-Fi menu was easy to use, unlike Windows Mobile, so I'll give the iPhone a + there. The accelorameter was disappointing. It only works in Safari web browser. If you turn the iPhone sideways during anything else, it has no effect. With Windows Mobile, you can manually switch orientation whenever you want.
The camera was very good quality. Even when I purposefully shook the iPhone while pressing the shutter button, the picture came out clear. Must be a great shutter reaction time. I wish my digital camera was like that.
---
As a wrapup, the iPhone is a cool toy, or for someone who just wants a nice high end phone and not a smart device. I could not use the iPhone as my only phone after owning a Treo 650 and now the Samsung i730. Also, even that it's nowhere near worth $500-600. I'd pay only $200 at the most.
(25%)
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