Very easy interface, tons of great features, free USEFUL updates
Disadvantages:
Requires iTunes which doesn't play nice with windows
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
First let me start off with the fact that I am NOT an Apple fanatic. Sure, I bought my wife a Macbook and I own an iPhone -- but my daily computer is a Sony Vaio running regular old Vista Ultimate. At the office we have 2 Macs, 4 Windows PCs, and a few Linux boxes. Why mention this? Who cares, right (ok you may have a good point there)? Well I want to set the stage that this is not just another "Apple Guy" raving about all things Apple.
Why did I buy this phone? Three reasons, in order of importance: 1) make phone calls / get phone calls 2) stop carrying a separate MP3 player everywhere 3) get my biz email
Why an iPhone versus the others? - Looks cool - We had a client that needed an iPhone app designed - My Razr was pissing me off
Ok, so I took the plunge. Let me say that I am VERY happy I did. I don't even mind paying $600 for a phone that was $400 2 months later. The point is I actually USE this phone and that is what matters.
The Good
I use email regularly because it is easy to use & it works. Even more so now that it works directly with our Exchange server.
I use text messaging often. I *never* used text messaging on my other phones. The phones without keyboards (pressing 333, 111, 333, 22, 9, 33, 7) to get one word out is a pain. The phones with built-in keyboards have keys so small that any grown man has to contort his fingers in ways not meant by nature in order to type anything on the keyboard. The apple soft keyboard on the other hand is very easy to use. Quick to type messages with the auto-zoom running by default & the word-guessing for fat-fingering words just makes it hat much better.
The contact list, while originally a pain, is now very usable. The search feature makes finding anyone in the phone book quick & painless. I store hundreds of contacts in there for business & home life. With 8GB of built in RAM I never worry about running out of space & the synchronization with Outlook means never entering things twice.
The built in calendar (also synchs with Outlook) is easy to use & great for setting alerts, quick "hey let's do lunch Thursday" appointments, and pre-scheduled meeetings via the Outlook synch. An awesome calculator, great intergration with Google maps... speaking of which...
One thing I use a LOT and never thought I would... the Google Maps. Not for finding my way as much as finding businesses nearby. If I'm at a client site and want to find the closest Chilis... just pull up the map and type Chilis. Wham.... 2 seconds later I have a map of all the closest stores. Touch the pin on the map & I get the phone number, website, address... one more click on the phone # and I'm ordering lunch. Great! Works well for finding the local computer store, pub, gas station. Very cool.
Anyway... there are a ton of cool apps that ship for free. The App store, a great addition in the 2.0 software release, makes it even easier to add more applications. Many of the apps are free, those that aren't are CHEAP (99-cents to $9.99... most on the lower end of the scale).
The ONLY thing I can't rave about on this phone is the connectivity. I am always having issues with getting a good phone signal. Granted, many of the places I'm visiting didn't give me reception on my Razr either, but the iPhone is a little worse than most of the phones I've used in the past few years. Since the primary reason I bought the phone is to use it as a phone, I give it one demerit for not having phone reception on par with the quality of the rest of the features of the phone.
OK - so overall I LOVE this gadget. The phone signal isn't horrible, but it's not the BEST out there, which is what I expect from a top-end phone.
The Bad
What don't I like? A few things:
- AT&T replacement warranty is not available (I heard this is changing on the new 3G phone and may now be available on older iPhones)
- Given the prior statement, a $400 replacement cost if you drop your phone sucks... I did it... it sucked. BUT I liked the phone enough to pony up ANOTHER $400 on top of the original $600.
- You MUST use iTunes to do anything useful with the phone including getting the frequent & free software updates (which BTW, is another feature I LOVE... the updates tend to be usefule & add new USABLE cool stuff). iTunes does not play well with windows.
- The phone locks up and you can't do a damn thing with it until 3-5 minutes pass & it resets the interface. Then you have to power off & power back on. It ALWAYS recovers, but it sucks being in a meeting and having a phone you can't use when you need it (I use my iPhone as a notepad and/or voice recorder). Good thing is that the lock ups occur only about once/month or less... not bad since I use this thing constantly (my windows PC locks up a lot more than that)
Summary
So overall, would I spend $600 on this phone. Definitely. So the new $300 price tag on the 3G model... a no brainer. I only give it 4 stars because there is SOME room for improvement, not much but it isn't perfect and to me 5-stars is only to be given to the perfect product that can't be improved.
Granted I'm a gadget freak & this is just another really cool gadget, but this is the one gadget I actually use. Daily. And it makes me more productive. Very cool!
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Candy bar - With two digital cameras / digital player / FM radio / GPS receiver - Wireless Interface: Infrared (IrDA), Bluetooth (A2DP), IEEE 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR - Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 - 4.4 oz
Slider - With two digital cameras / digital player / FM radio / GPS receiver - Wireless Interface: Infrared (IrDA), IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR - Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 - 4.2 oz
Candy bar - With two digital cameras / digital player / FM radio - Wireless Interface: Bluetooth (A2DP), IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11b - Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 - 4 oz
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