My iPhone Experience

The iPhone came out in 2007 amidst a lot of hype.  I asked back then if the iPhone was revolutionary.  It certainly had its failures in key aspects as noted in my article, but Apple has improved upon the original and is now on its 3rd iPhone and 3rd version of the iPhone software.  So I picked up an original iPhone with version 3.0 software to review.   Here is my experience.

The first thing to note is the introduction of features I lambasted the iPhone for not having.  Features such as MMS, Copy & Paste, Video Recording, Voice Activated Dialing.  Now all these features do require the new iPhone 3GS though Copy & Paste has come to all iPhones and MMS official to the 3G as well.  Jailbreak your iPhone and you can have MMS on the original as well.   Also iTunes allows you to quickly turn songs you purchased into ringtones, so that feature shouldn’t be a problem.  In addition new generations have GPS and 3G internet speeds which brought the device up to par hardware wise with offerings from competitors.

That does leave some issues like no removable battery, no add on memory, and no flash.  Overall those are still strong issues.  But to be fair, the battery is adequate even for this used original iPhone.  8GB can be limiting but you do have choices now upto 32GB which is the limit of expandable memory meanwhile most other phones are struggling with .5 GB and require added expense of additional memory.

But it’s the integration of a portable music player and a phone that makes the iPhone shine.  Sure others have tried but why worry about a stylus or complicated syncing.  People want a phone that is as advanced as Windows Mobile or Blackberry but as easy to use as their iPod or Zune.  And with each software update the iPhone gets better and better.  Now it has over 50,000 apps that push the iPhone even further and expand its use.

Furthermore the user interface is done very well.  It is extremely user friendly.  My only gripe there coming from Windows Mobile is a today screen to show the current weather, upcoming appointments, and a synopsis of texts and calls.  Instead one has to enter the weather application or the calendar application to get an overview.

The one thing it did right from the start (well mostly) was the internet browser.  Sure it lacks flash, but it really allows with ease the browsing of the entire internet.  I think I and others over minimized the importance of this feature.  But I would not say it was wrong to focus on what it did wrong either.  Standards such as MMS are there to allow all phones to work together over the network.  And getting a text message or email without the ability to copy parts for a forward or reply was such a under sight.

I think the biggest thing wrong with the iPhone is multitasking.  Sure push notifications in the 3.0 software update address some of those issues where it concerns instant messaging.  But it does not address wanting to listen to Pandora radio while browsing the web or responding to email.  I think allowing a limited amount of applications to run in the background would further improve the iPhone.

I would say cell reception is decent, not as well as my Nokia 6680 which really is unparallel but adequate when compared to other phones such as my AT&T Tilt.  Call features and quality is equal to that of other phones with the added benefit of the great user interface.

Would I recommend the iPhone?  Yes, Absolutely!  Is it the phone to end all phones, a complete revolution?  I would say not.  Other phones do other tasks better such as multitasking or allowing for a physical keyboard which is faster to type regardless of what fanboys will say.  But the hype has allowed it to succeed and it has grown up to be a good phone.  The iPhone really is here to stay and I think other manufactures could learn from the integrated approach and the ease of use.  9/10