It’s time for your daily fix of iPhone updates! The first reviews are in from The Wall Street Journal (Walt Mossberg), The New York Times (David Pogue), USA Today (Ed Baig), and Newsweek (Steven Levy), and overall I’d say the reviewers were pretty impressed and generally had nothing but good things to say about the phone. My biggest concern after reading the reviews however, is that they mentioned that AT&T’s Edge Internet service is slow. I’ll get more into that later, but first we’ll start with the areas where they were all in agreement.
Areas of Agreement :
Worth the hype?
Is the iPhone worth all of the hype that it’s been receiving lately? The general answer is absolutely! Pogue of the New York Times says, “most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years,” while Baig of USA Today says “This expensive, glitzy wunkerkind is indeed worth lusting after.”
Design, Screen and User Interface
Good news! All four pointed out that it’s practical, but more importantly fun to use. And in a nutshell, it’s slim, sleek, and comfortable in the hand to use and touch.
Regarding the screen, many people including myself were wondering how the screen would stand-up to heavy use. I was thinking that users would end up using a screen-protector of sorts to keep it scratch-free, however that may not be needed. All four reviewers noted that the screen doesn’t scratch easily, and after weeks of use, it was nearly as good as new. Now, whether or not the phone will look “as good as new” a year from now we have yet to know.
Edge Internet/Wi-Fi
While they were all in agreement here, they’re not agreeing that the Internet is great. Instead, the resounding agreement was that it was slow. Not good!
- Excruciatingly Slow (Pogue)
- Pokey; far slower than Verizon or Sprint networks (Mossberg)
- Pokey, compared with 3G data networks (Baig)
- Feels like dial-up
The one thing that will help compensate with the slow Internet is the Wi-Fi access which Levy notes is partial compensation, and Baig says is iPhone’s savings grace for data. Mossberg says that it doesn’t fully make up for the lack of a fast cellular data, but Pogue says it is fast and satisfying.
I have a feeling that users will be quick to switch to a Wi-Fi network for data when one is available if the Edge Internet is as slow as all four said it was.
Areas of Disagreement :
Typing
I had already been hearing that the keyboard is difficult to use for typing, however it may be one of those things that just takes getting used to. The reviewers didn’t all agree here with Pogue saying it was frustrating, especially at first, and Mossberg saying it’s a non-issue because of smart software.
Apple has actually put together a video specifically for typing on the iPhone. I must say, it does look like there is pretty amazing technology behind the keyboard. While they recommend getting started with just one finger, I don’t think it’ll be too difficult before you’re using both of your thumbs to quickly type emails and text messages (unfortunately, no instant messages).
Battery Life
Just a couple of weeks ago, Apple surprised everyone with battery life details for the iPhone saying that it will get 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and 24 hours audio playback. While those numbers are impressive, how did the reviewers rate battery life?
Well, three of them thought it was great with comments like “impressive,” “so far so good,” and “generally lasts the day.” Pogue however, said that it was not quite as impressive.
I think we’ll wait for the masses to give their opinions on this one, because I’m sure it will widely vary depending on what people are doing with their phones.
Overall
Overall, I’d say wait for the masses to give their opinions. While I think all four reviews had a lot of great insight in them, I tend to find the average-joe review to be more accurate, and I’m sure we’ll be reading plenty of those within the coming weeks. From the sounds of it, the iPhone will in fact live up to its hype and really change the cell phone industry.
Note: Gizmodo has a great iPhone Review Matrix for quick, easy referencing.
“I have a feeling that users will be quick to switch to a Wi-Fi network for
data when one is available if the Edge Internet is as slow as all four said it was.”
Like finding a hotspot when you need one is *ever* practical.
I cant beleive that in 2007 that we as consumers are still banging our heads against the wall from the fallout of not selecting a singular network standard.
When the iPhone launches in EU the network will be a complete non-issue, as with all of their handset launches.
They are just over there, popping SIMS in and out of their handsets at will, surfing around on 3G everywhere, without a care in the world.
And here we are every year wondering how to get out of our contracts just to get a new phone, jumping from provider to provider as they come out with better hardware, data networks, prices, or coverage.
We’re slaves to this crappy industry.
SprintPCS has decent phones, fast data, but are LAST in customer service.
Verizon has a tremendous network, coverage, customer service and are usually a year behind in handsets and are pricy.
AT&T has awful data speeds and changes hands every 18 months, yet they get the iPhone, Curve, and 8800!
T-Mobile has good pricing, good customer service, and decent phones, but the same crappy EDGE networks.
There is just no way to win in the game.
I’ve started looking at the Sprint Mogul as a serious competitor to the iPhone – fastest data, every feature you can think of, although its Windows Mobile on SprintPCS. Opera Mini Beta 4 has the best features of the iPhone browser also – full page rendering with zoom.
You know, I forget that I’m in a college town and there are WAY more locations with free Wi-Fi than most other locations. My bad!
I think widespread WiFi is becoming a big thing these days though, because the speeds are actually decent compared to most cell networks. Google did it in Mountain View, California and other cities are starting to do similar things developing multi-million dollar plans to supply widespread WiFi.
I have heard that Verizon and Sprint offer the fastest Internet access, and with Opera Mini Beta 4 I don’t think you would be missing out too much, as you said. I do feel like we are pretty far behind when it comes to developing decent cell networks that can handle any sort of load and speed though.
All of Chandler and I think Gilbert, along with Tempe’s Mill Avenue and Arizona State Univ Campus are all overplayed with WiFi. Heck some of the apartment complexes out here are pushing WiFi as part of their community’s amenities.
I don’t think there is one apartment complex in my town that doesn’t have free high-speed Internet as part of their amenities. Usually it’s free high-speed Internet, and free Cable TV.
Thats great that you have them at your apartment or college, but you probably also have computers there – why would you use your mobile browser if you have a full-featured PC nearby?
Mobile browsing is when you in your car in the middle of town and are trying to get movie times or look for a restaurant directions, or stuck on a train for 90 minutes a day and want to kill that time surfing.
Or you’re at a friends house and want to check the scores of a game, or you’re sitting in an office waiting for an appointment. Or even at Panera (a bakery around the United States) which has WiFi. There are a lot of instances that I can imagine needing Internet access where I would also have a connection to WiFi.
Don’t offer that here. When I first started living in Mark-Taylor communities back in 2000, I got free basic cable. They stopped offering that in 2001.