Apple iPhone
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 2, 2007 by Eric Lin, Eric Zeman & Rich Brome
Phone Scoop takes an in-depth look at Apple's iPhone. Is it the Swiss Army knife of cell phones that Steve Jobs promised? (with video tour) read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Not for me...
I didnt get this phone, but a co-worker did. I had a chance to play with it for a few hours and heres what I found:
My Phone: LG "V" 9800 on VZW
Texting:
V: full keyboard, easy typing, unlimited texts, AIM/MSN/Yahoo! Messagers
iPhone: iffy soft Keyboard, lame word predition s/w reminecent of what comes with WinMo devices, no IM software at all.
2 - 0
Mobile Web:
V: Lightning fast instant page loads. nice sized inner screen. not compatable w/ outter screen
iPhone: Awesome, beautiful display. SLOW page loads, even on a Draft N linksys router.
1 - 0.5
Call Ease:
V: Voice Dialing, easy contact management via speed dial presets, tactile buttons (bump on "5")
iPhone: have to look at screen to dial anyone. not so good while talking to the boss when Im calling a vendor.
2 - 0
Call Quality:
V: Mostly excellent, when the call doesnt drop. Speaker phone is excellent
iPhone: bad, quite, headset issues... bluetooth is a joke. speaker phone isnt bad.
1 - 1
Battery Life:
V: CDMA has typically bad battery life, and this is no exception. thou it does have better then most.
iPhone: From what ive seen, its awesome, but for how long? Apple came out and said 300-400 charges, thats a year... and you cant replace it yourself, very bad.
1 - 1
Other Features:
V: 1.3MP camera, low MP, above average pic quality, Video support, MP3 player, removable storage, one handed operation, VZ Navigator, VCAST/Music, Notepad, Calc, tipcalc.
iPhone: 2.0MP camera, below average pic quality, no video, iTunes mandated music, Google Maps (nonGPS), heafty internal storage
2 - 1
Summation:
9 to 3.5
V wins
This phone has a lot of potental, but it needs a lot of work. A replaceable battery would have been a start. Fluid OS is a massive plus, but a lockdown on 3rd party apps is gonna hurt a lot. Tactile Touchscreen needed. For all the hype, I expected way more and way better.
Very Much Like Treo Interface
The menu is very much like a Treo's menu minus the shortcuts. Lots of fun features (visual voicemail, ipod, beautiful interface design) but its just not powerful enough. Terribly slow processing and data access and no video or MMS is a huge drawback for me as I am a heavy user. Its going back. Too slow, reminds me a lot of the sidekick craze many moons ago, maybe will try again with iPhone II.
The iCrap
The iPhone;
has no 3G.
has no wifi.
has no A2DP Bluetooth meaning that wires are your only option
has no Pic Messaging.
has no Flash.
has no expandable memory.
has no over-the-air music downloads.
has no USB for download
has no mms.
has no PDA functions.
has no insurance for a $600 phone.
has no voice dialing.
has no ringer profiles.
has no task list.
has no picture messaging.
has no gps navigation services.
has no saving attachments to browse later.
has no multitasking whatsoever.
Has poor battery life is poor.
Cannot manually manage music.
Cannot open video attachments in the emails.
Cannot be used as a modem.
No Java applications can be installed on the phone, so the user is limited to the pool of applications drawn by the maker in the first place.
There are no games are available, and for want of hardware keys, there wonât be a wide array of them.
There is a camera in this device, but it has no settings, or allows you to make any use of the snaps (no stock editor, one and the same wallpaper all the time),
No video recording capabilities. In this sense the iPhone is quite meager.
Photos are mediocre quality.
The battery can not be replaced.(by you)
Ability to plug in any 3,5 mm compatible headphones without adapters (jack mounted on a headset or the device itself). The iPhone actually retains one, but it was intentionally recessed, so as to prevent the users from connecting custom earphones and force them to buy new from the company â a very limited choice, mediocre quality (especially true for the default headphones), well, no good;
Direct music uploads â the iPhone doesnât deliver this feature, you are down to iTunes, which requires synchronization every time;
Getting music from friends over Bluetooth â disabled in the iPhone;
Stereo-speakers â none in the iPhone;
Dedicated music keys on the casing â the iPhone comes with its touch-screen alone, have to call it to life all the time.
BIG DISSAPOINTMENT FOR $600
Mine is going Back.
Reception not so great
I live in a bad reception area. iPhone has trouble just like my 3yo Nokias did. The 2yo Nokias worked flawlessly.
Still, with the WiFi inside my house, I am keeping it because of Safari & mail. Reading email and rss feeds without sitting in front of my computer is liberating.
Apple Crap Iphone
I bought this phone just like everyone else, but guess what it is a junk, touch screen do not work on the upper part after 30 days and now the software have alot of issues that Apple wants to fix the phone but they will not give me a new one. and now the phone is locked up and it won't even power down or up you can not even reboot the phone what is this with this phone it is a piece of garbage. I wish I never bought the phone and now I am going back to my blackberry with sprint who is so much better.... I think Apple should fix the phone and give me a brand new one instead of trying to fix all the problems with the phone. I can not even pull up my address book and contacts from it. Edge what edge it sucks so slow my grandma runs faster that. Concept great but network and the phone noooooooooooooooooo.
iPhone is not 3G capable & no support for Java or Flash.
I really like the iPhone but the fact that it does not support
3G high speed internet is a deal breaker for me.
Safari web browser doesn't work on websites that use Java
or Flash. Bummer...
The iPhone is way over-priced. It's just too expensive for
the average person to own. You should get a discount for
signing up for new service with AT&T.
For the high price the iPhone should have like 120GB of
space in my opinion.
Email is difficult to setup.
Keyboard makes many errors.
Turning the iPhone sideways doesn't always switch it to
landscpae mode. Software bug?
You can't customize the iPhone to a theme you like.
Poor selection of ring tones and you can't add your own.
The iPhone should come with a lot more accessories for
how expensive it is.
In conclusion: This version of the iPhone is not very good
for the price. Save your money for the next version of the
iPhone which will HOPEFULLY have 3G internet and also
a Safari browser that will support Java and Flash... and
have a better keyboard... and be cheaper... and let you
add ring tones.
phone for a child
the phone is a nice phone, but that all it is, a phone not a pocket pc, it has nice thing for a child, no Execl and just a view for Word, that' major. and people keep talking about youtube, I ues that on my Wing. 8gb of memory that is by far the best thing I ever had in a Phone, but the os is a feature phone so you can't use it for those nice programs you have on you pocket pc. if you are a business person this is not for you, let the kids have it.
uhmmm NO!!
WOW where should i start? should i start by talking about the awesome return policy or The NO warrenty????? hmmm lets take it a step further. NO removable battery? SAY WHAT? or how about the great qwerty keyboard
try typing on this awesome phone and driving or even just typing!!! GOOD LUCK!
Great job with the EDGE network! great job to AT&T for the awesome phone that does everything the 8830 does!! woop woop!!!
No positive things do i have to say for this phone!
AT&T+Apple= perfect combo
Awesome Awesome AWESOME. Big vibrant screen, amazing camera quality, decent sound, very good reception. Menus are quick and responsive. Keyboard when typing SMS will give some with big fingers fits.
[...]
Ed. note: removed Verizon rant
This phone is all HYPE
I would tell you not to get this phone, it is all just a trend and a fad and "the next big thing".
First all AT&T service is horrible and I would not get a phone to have that service. Also, it's all touch screen which means tehre are a unlimited amount of smudges. I would tell you to get the "HTC TOUCH" if you want a touch phone. HTC has been doing it for a while, and knows what they are doing.
The phone is poorly built, and honestly, it is horrible. The internet is just a OS you can download it for any phone, and the texting in my opinion is horrible. I had how horrible the battery life is.
I guess I hate this phone because before I got it, I had a real phone, a Blackberry.. so I have something good to base it off of. Save yourself the time, and get a real phone, that will last.
