Review: iPhone 3GS

It's not the goal of our reviews to list and describe every single feature. Apple's web site and other materials are a better place for that. We use it as extensively as we can (in this case, in a limited amount of time) and report on the features that stand out to us as particularly good, bad, or notable. Apple can tell you the features, but you need a review to tell you how well they work. We focus on the things we feel will help people make a purchasing decision.

For example, yes, you can now select things from a list to batch delete, etc. We covered that in a few places (gallery, messaging) but what stood out to us most was that you can't do this in the call log, so we were sure to mention that.

What stands out to us may not be what stands out to you. That's natural. We try our best to put ourselves in others' shoes when reviewing a phone, and cover everything that might be important to the widest group of people, but everyone has their own most-used feature and common pet peeves.

Yes, opinion is part of it. That's what makes it a review and not just a description. We strive to be unbiased in our evaluation, but we are passing judgment; that's the name of the game.