About a week ago we wrote a MyFive including five things we wished the iPhone 3G had. Among them were more than a 2 megapixel camera, a flash for the camera and video recording, multimedia messaging service, a replaceable battery, and a 32GB option. In the comments, Pieter pointed out that to be fair, we should write another article about five things that the iPhone can do better than other phones. We thought it was a great idea because as iPhone owners, there is a lot we do enjoy about the phones. Today’s MyFive will include things the iPhone does better than other phones out there.
1. Battery Life
The iPhone 3G offers up to 5 hours of talk time on 3G, 10 hours of talk time on 2G, 5 hours of Internet use on 3G, 6 hours of Internet use on Wi-Fi, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback, and 300 hours of standby time. Enough said.
2. Browser
When we had Internet capability on previous phones, we really didn’t use it much. Why? Well, because it was a pain in the butt to use! Apple did an amazing job with Safari for the iPhone which makes surfing the web hassle-free.
Studies have shown that iPhone users are more likely to browse the web on their device, more-so than other phones, simply because it’s easy to do. The device is what we like to call “Internet-centric” — it’s centered around the Internet and thus, people actually use it.
3. 3rd Party Applications
If you take the time to go through the applications that are available, you can find some really nice ones that will help increase productivity, and others that will give you a few minutes of fun. Not all are what we’d consider “quality” apps, but there are some great ones out there. For original iPhone owners, these 3rd party applications almost don’t make it a necessity to upgrade to the iPhone 3G.
4. Usability
The iPhone has a lot of features that other phones offer, but the ease of use is what stands out with the iPhone. Simple features that most phones have like a clock or calculator, are presented in front of you instead of buried with-in menus. And the clock is more than just a clock, it’s a stop-watch and a timer, and has an amazing alarm clock system. This alarm clock system has replaced my stand-alone alarm clock.
The camera is another great example. We’ve had camera phones in the past but this camera (despite the fact it’s 2MP) is easier to use than most cameras on other phones not to mention the fact that sharing those photos with others is great with the nice big touch-screen.
Apple definitely made a phone that their users will want to use, because of the ease-of-use.
5. Overall Experience
The overall experience of the iPhone is amazing. Sure, the new firmware has a few kinks, but the overall experience is what makes the iPhone worth all of the hype and the money. Great battery life, an awesome browser, a selection of quality 3rd party applications, and the ease of use provide the user with an overall experience that is hard to beat.
I agree with all your points.
Do you have any idea how many excellent free applications there are for Windows Mobile PDA phones with touch screens? I was hesitant to switch from Palm because of 3rd-party applications, but I was completely wrong. Perhaps iPhone apps will eventually catch up – as long as the closed nature of the platform doesn’t prevent too many developers from even trying – but there’s just no way that it’s already ahead in that department.
I’m not an iPhone hater (except for hating Apple’s typical protectionism and being a very happy Verizon customer), but I have to say that your cop-out answer for #5 (you might as well have said #4 counted as two) shows that you couldn’t come up with 5 things.
I agree with AshGhost.
I have a Touch and my brother was trying to show off his Iphone and simply wasn’t able to because the only things he could do that I couldn’t were gimmicks.
Geeze, he can’t even cut and paste!
I need my PDA to be useful for personal and business, not a fancy gadget to show people my light saber app to…
Still needs better battery life, sure you can say it’s better than other phones but you have to remember in addition to using it as a phone you also are using 3g internet and using it as an ipod not to mention the other 500 things you can do. If Apples wants it to become the “All in one device” it’s going to need an “All in one battery”.
jupp..but a lot of people don’t agree, a 3g phone that simply can’t work in a decent 3 g area…is not a good phone…i need my internet to be stable…otherwise the iphone is useless
[fixmy3giphone.com]
The camera is better??? OH, COME ON!
Show me where’s the camera flash, because I can’t find that “easier” way to activate it when I try to take a picture in a low light situation. Oh wait, it doesn’t have flash…
Be that as it may, but Apple is the first one that actually made it EASY to use third-party apps. Does Windows Mobile have such a thing like the mobile App Store? Uhmm… no.
ashley, i’m curious
what reception do you get in chicago ? full bars all the time…because in the apple forum chicago posters says the different
i’dont understand, since there are so many people all over the world, complaining on the 3g reception..but the newspaper don’t write about it..
so it, like you think you have decent 3g reception, or do you actually have full reception everywhere where it supposed to…or is it like that you think the phone is OK because you can use the GSM and edge ?
what is your dBm average value **call** *3001#12345#*
regards Lars
cnet reports
:)
[news.cnet.com]
I’ll admit that the camera could use a flash, but at the same time it doesn’t. The flash just washes out an image if you don’t know how to use it right (and most people don’t).
I have to say that my favorite feature is the alarm clock. I know, I know it’s not anything special. But it does get me out of bed in the morning, no matter where I am. Plus it has the option for setting the alarm by the day of the week. My only complaint is that it erased all my weekly alarms when I updated the firmware and I was late to work the next morning.
If you read my previous article about things we wished the iPhone 3G had (linked to at the beginning of this article), you would have seen my complaints about the camera including the fact that it lacks a flash. My point with the camera here is that it is easy to use and sharing the photos with the big screen is great as well.
Cop-out answer eh? It was actually hard to come up with just five – I could have come up with several more. Usability and overall experience are not the same thing. The usability definitely helps make the overall experience better, but it’s certainly not the same thing. The overall experience includes the ease of use, the applications (Safari is amazing for browsing on the iPhone), the hardware itself, and more.
I do have a “general” idea of how many applications are available for Windows Mobile, but can you tell me exactly how many apps there are? I can go to the App Store and get an exact count of the apps available for the iPhone, browse through them and download them, but you can’t do that for Windows Mobile. From my point of view, the biggest downside to Windows Mobile apps is that there is no centralized location to get them. Sure there’s Handmark, but that’s not specific to Windows Mobile and doesn’t include every app out there. When you want an app, you have to go search for what you are looking for. It’s not that they are hard to come by, it just takes more effort.
Cutting and pasting is definitely something the iPhone needs, and I’m surprised Apple didn’t try to implement it with the 2.0 Firmware.
Definitely not full bars all the time, but I’ve never had full bars all the time with any carrier or phone in this area (previous to AT&T I had Sprint). It depends on the area, sometimes it’s full bars, other times it’s just one or two. My idea of reception is, how clear are the calls? If I have one or two bars yet the reception is perfectly clear, I have no reason to complain. If, however, I have one bar yet my calls fade in and out, or I can’t even make calls, then there is a problem, but I haven’t experienced that with the iPhone 3G or my original iPhone.
Most areas in the Chicagoland area, I get 3G coverage with only a few spots where it switches to the Edge network.
I’m completely with you about the alarm clock. I absolutely love the alarm clock. I have a bunch of different times available that I can just turn on depending on if I want to wake-up at 6:00, 6:30, 6:45, 7:00, etc.
as i said before, ashley then you are one of the lucky ones
but my idea of reception is, how good the reception is in dBm, so 1
bar is not very good if you are in a “zone”
apple will get sued over this…so many problems and so short of answer from Cupertiono, or if not it will cost them…
beacuse you do understand this is a major ?
Stop the presses right there. Weren’t people complaining about the fact that you can only download new apps using iTunes before the App Store was opened? I guess it’s true: Apple knows what’s best for us.
There is definitely the good and the bad with all of the control that Apple has over the App Store — this just happens to be one of the good aspects to it.
Uh, we 3G iPhone users have generally been ranting and raving all over Gizmodo and Engadget about how TERRIBLE the 3G iPhone’s battery life is!
But the coverage is even worse. I have had Sprint and T-Mobile and never had problems with call quality – and with Sprint I was always in 3G range.
Now I have dead spots where I get no signal whatsoever – and I live dead smack in the middle of the humungous AT&T 3G coverage area (according to their maps). Similarly, my wife gets calls dropped in Manhattan daily on her iPhone (as did Walt Mossberg in his review) – I *never* dropped calls in Manhattan on either T-Mobile or Sprint.
Sometimes I have to actually go into settings and manually enable or disable 3G, because sometimes I can actually increase my call quality by turning it off (or on). Its ridiculous. I never had to do this with my 3G Blackberry – calls ‘just worked’.
I love my iPhone – but mostly because of its other features – definitely in spite of its ability as a telephone!
Actually Gizmodo has a story today about 3G data slowness and call reception on the 3G iPhone being poor in every country – so it is likely the iPhone’s chipset which is to blame, rather than AT&T coverage:
[gizmodo.com]
Really? The only time I’ve had issues with the battery life is when I am using the GPS and then it gets drained pretty quickly. We heard a tip that you can help improve battery life by turning off push (I don’t use it) – so both Ryan and I did and it seems to have helped.
I totally agree! I am getting an iPhone 3GS and I am so excited! All of these features are so great, I cannot wait!!
Anyone that says there is a phone thats better than the iPhone is not right! The iPhone is the best phone ever, cannot wait!
Nathan