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
The iPhone is Cool; lots of potential
I'm with AT&T and I recently purchased an iPhone. Once the hype wore off, I really got to get into the phone and see what it was all about.
Pros:
1)the GUI touchscreen interface is very easy to navigate.
2)Branching text messages (Conversations are in chat format).
3)Safari is awesome for a mobile phone.
4)2 mega pixel camera.
5)8gb of memory.
6)maps is awesome.
Cons:
1)no multi-media text messaging.
2)lacks some practical apps like IM.
3)music ringers are way too hard to come by (iTunes is the only way to get them, and they are few in number).
4)the onscreen keyboard is sort of difficult to use if you have bigger fingers. The tilt application would affectively fix this, but it only works when you use Safari (doesn't work with the texting).
Some of the problems that the iPhone has that others may complain about (speed of internet, dropping of calls, etc.) are issues with the carrier, not the iPhone itself. It has alot of potential to be much better. Apple could easily send some more updates and applications. The next iPhone will be the test. All in all, it's better than my treo. Kudos to Apple.
best phone ever!!!
i would prefer this phone to anyone. i had this phone for about a mth now and i cant get off of it. all of the feature are amazing, the things you can do with it is endless. i don't even go on my laptop no more, its like my laptop is in my hand. the Internet is great if you are on wi-fi.
pros-
1. music - music and more music thing is endless i have about 3,000 songs on mine!!!
2. the touch screen omfg is crazy!!! you have to see it to believe it...
3. the pictures are very nice and high def.
4. some Internet app are good for certain applications.
5. google earth is the best i ever seen on a phone!!!
6. to many to mention.
cons-
1. sms- they really need to get mms.
2. battery life kind goes after listen to 6 hours of music start!!!
3. that is about it i love this phone and its only going to get better!!!!
All In All
Admittedly I have not had the iphone for very long but it has been amazing. My sister and I recently got them and mine works like a charm. Activation was simple and easy and all the features are very self explanatory.
My one man issue with this phone is that you must have USB 2.0 to use it. I currently have a quite old powerbook as well as a dell desktop. Neither of these two machines has USB 2.0. With the iphone, unlike the ipod, no data transfer is possible with the slower USB, instead I had to get someone else to put music and my address book on for me. This will not be a problem for most people as USB 2.0 is very common now. I will in fact be fixing this when I get a new computer after mac world.
I have very good coverage everywhere I go, much better than with my old t-mobile nokia 6103. I have never had a dropped call and the wifi works seamlessly. While EDGE does leave a little to be desired I knew that when I bought it and it is working surprisingly fast.
The camera is very good quality for being part of a cell phone. My nokia 6103 supposedly had a very good camera, and that simply pales in comparison to the one on the iphone.
I have no problems whatsoever writing on the keyboard, although I do have rather small hands. My boyfriend was using it recently and he was having a little bit of trouble but it got better quickly as he got used to it.
I love that even though I can't put stuff on my phone because of lack of a USB 2.0 I can still get stuff off. When I plug it into my computer iphoto recognizes it as a digital camera and can download the pictures from it.
I would strongly suggest this phone to anyone who is looking for a smart phone, it out performs both my mother's Treo 750 and my father's Blackberry Pearl. I would however caution the consumer to also get an iskin (the silicone case) as the one time I have dropped mine it bounced as a result of this case and didn't break. This case is also very attractive and can help with gripping the iphone.
iPhone won me over
First of all, I apologize iPhone for all the negative things I said about you. I didn't even know you, how could I be so judgemental? I guess I was jealous because I could not sell you. When you came into my life, you brought so much joy into it.
No seriously, I have always talked about all the negative things about the Phone, price and otherwise., but then I broke down and bought one for the hell of it. Rarely can I keep my hands off of it. It's just fun PERIOD. Even small tasks like deleting email amuse me, watching that asian porn spam mail get sucked into the trash can has never been so much fun.
As a phone, call quality is on par with some of the best phones I've had for that purpose (v3xx). Internet is unbelievable, my laptop rarely gets attention anymore. And of course the attention that everyone talks about. It's kind of like the consumer electronics version of driving a high-end Italian sportscar around, people just look. They can't take their eyes off.
Sure I would've liked it to be 3g, and that's the only reason it did not receive a perfect rating from me.
So to my Curve, Pearl, and 8525... I truly loved you, but I found something a little younger and sexier that I need in my life. It's not you, it's me...
Iphone = well worth the money
I have purchased two iphones one for me an one for my girlfriend. Both of us have been very happy with them. They are capable of anything you can imagine the any wireless gadget/cellphone to do (talk, text, email, sync to BT, watch youtube clips, and more) we switched to ATT from Verizon about 1-2 weeks ago, and are very happy. The iphone is very easy to use, and very convinient, now we dont need to have a phone a labtop and ipod, you can simply just have the iphone, which is capable of all 3. As far as cingular/att goes, so far so good, much better then when i had them 5 years ago.
From about 20+ cellphone I had in the past 4-5 years I think this one is definately the best and also the keeper.
I Have Tried it but still thinking about it...
I'm definately not amazed by any of the PDA phones... I love technology and work in the cellphone industry, but the iPhone definately has got me thinking about getting my first PDA phone... I have had the chance to get my hands on it and try all of its applications... yet i cannot convince myself fully to purchase the phone. At first I definately thought it was way too expensive.. but now with the new price I'm definately temped although I take in consideration all the iPhone's reviews and people's opinions.... Most people tell me to wait for a newer version but I definately know that it will be of good use for me with its current applications... I know a lot of people expected more but come on... Technology will never be perfect! Besides people want different things in a phone that other people don't really use... therefore I believe that this is the most complete phone yet in Technology's history.. I mean you pretty much have everything you need at the touch of your fingertips.... I will definately be thinking about purchasing it on my next paycheck lol
Great Phone!!!
The Iphone has lived up to the hype for me. The music and video player are awesome. The ability to download music over wi-fi is great. I had it for about a week and the battery life has been great. There are some improvememts I would like but they are all software upgadable.
Pros:
Touch Screen.
Music Player and Video Player.
Interactive usage and style of design.
Great Internet Browsing!!!
Cons:
No stereo bluetooth.
Poor PDA functions.
No exchange support.
No MMS.
No flash support
No horizontal keyboard for texting.
No 3G.
The only con that really bothers me is the lack of stereo bluetooth. My previous phone had that feature and connected to my stereo bluetooth car quite well. All the other cons will be fixed or can be fixed in an upcoming update while 3G support on the next version of the Iphone.
Apple has a winner
I own the 4 gig, it dose every thing I need from a phone. Battery life, call sound, touch screen, all good. I have one question I will be asking AT&T. No matter what kind of bluetooth I pair with this iPhone, the paring only lasts about half an hour and than I must repair the headset again.
I have tried 3 Motorola's, a Jawbone & a Jabra, all do the same thing.
I called Apple and was told to contact AT&T. I hope they have an answer.
Coming from a V3XX I love this phone.
I live in N. AZ. There is no 3G network in this area, and most of the time the phone tells me there is no Edge also.
Pros:
size
ease of use
Cons:
Bluetooth
No games
Ringer a bit to low
I would have given this phone 5 stars, but with the bluetooth issue I am having, it will stay at 4.5
very good for a first try
for a company with no previous phone experience, this is a damn good first attempt.
pros:
* the best, tightest integrated phone UI out there, bar none. look up a contact and call, send an email, sms, or find their location on google maps
* beautiful screen
* jack of all trades (phone, itunes, video, surfing)
* easy to sync with itunes, on a pc or a mac
* wifi connection is fast and slick, grabs a network anywhere you go
* safari browser is amazing
* beautiful form factor
cons:
* no hard buttons, forget dialing blindly (while driving), you have to look at screen
* no voice dialing
* no saving attachments to browse later
* non-expandable memory
* not a single game, not even solitaire, come on apple!
* a brick without activation, can't even demo the unit
* needs an open API for widget programming
* no GPS
* expensive
* no voice memo recorder
* edge is slow
* no instant messaging (supposedly coming in an update)
hopefully many of the cons will be addressed in a future software update.
addressing complaints:
* non-user replaceable battery- neither is the ipod technically, but you can do it, check many 3rd parties out there. most people never replace their battery anyway
* non 3g- neither is most of the US, wifi is everywhere anyway. more of a moot point in the end
* no mms- everyone i know sends sms msgs only , most people don't even have phones that support mms, and mms doesn't easily go between carriers. maybe this will be addressed in a software update
i think apple's got a winner on their hands for their first try. things can only get better.
Setting the Record Straight
Pro
- Solid construction
- Well-thought out user interface
- Great integration with my Mac
(should be good with PCs, too)
- Battery life looks promising
- Gorgeous screen
- Wide range of functionality
- Touchscreen keyboard better than I could have imagined
Cons
- Some missing features may be forthcoming as updates
- Notably: no bluetooth Dial-Up Networking support for tethering laptops
- Expensive
- 3G would have been nice
Yes, I'm generally a fan of Apple's design sense and I am a Mac user. No, I don't rave about everything they produce - I still don't see the point of AppleTV, for instance. I stood in line with everyone else and got my first hands-on yesterday.
Activation was quick and painless, and setting up the device with contacts, bookmarks, etc. was completely automatic over USB. I was expecting a learning curve on the touchscreen keyboard, but found it to be much faster than T9 right out of the gate, and I'm just getting faster. Auto-corrections are are really helpful and I'm learning to "trust" them.
PDA functions include calendar, contacts, alarms - not sure what else you'd need exactly. Contact information far more complete than I'm used to on a phone.
The full HTML browser is amazingly compliant. It has worked wonders on every site I've tried and makes casual use a breeze. The 3.5" screen is great, but still too small to make me want to read a lot of content.
