iPhone 3G Mega-Review

Well, I've had my 16GB iPhone 3G for nearly five days now, and I believe I've explored every part of the phone's interface. As such, I think it's high time for a review.

I already wrote about my experiences purchasing the phone, so I’ll start off with my first impressions using it.  It is totally amazing.  I instantly connected with this thing in a way I’ve never connected with a device.  The touch interface is simple, elegant, intuitive, and very responsive.  As I tried out all of the apps on the phone I didn’t have to think about how I was going to interact with them; I just did.  When I went to visit my first web page on the phone, I was confronted with the controversial “soft” keyboard.  I did as Apple suggests; I started by typing with one finger.  I got a lot of letters wrong, but I quickly learned not to point at the letters;  it was better to actually mash my finger over the virtual keys as if they were really there.  Once I realized that, typing was a breeze.  Within a day I upgraded to the “two thumbs” method and I haven’t looked back since.  I especially like the virtual keyboard’s flexibility; when typing in a web address, for instance, the keyboard ditches the space bar in favor of period, forward-slash, and “.com” keys.

The widescreen display is also amazing.  The resolution is 480x320 and at 3½” diagonally it has a higher dot pitch than most desktop monitors.  It has a wide gamut of colors and brightness levels, too; I’d place it just above our laptop LCD display, which looks quite good to begin with.  The display and touchscreen are perfectly calibrated (unlike many of the touchscreens I use at work), and the interaction between the two is seamless.  The feel of the touchscreen is nice and light; no heavy pressure needed here.  Even the few external buttons on the phone are well-thought-out and have a good feel to them.  The audio quality from the onboard speaker is good considering it’s grille is smaller than a rice grain.  The onboard microphone is also quite good, or at least Karrie thought so when I was using it.  Even the shape of the phone feels good in the hand.

The phone has every basic app one would expect on a phone and much more.  Text messaging exchanges are grouped into conversations so you can easily reference an earlier text.  The calendar is fully functional with day and months views, as well as my new favorite: list view.  The onboard camera — while only two megapixels — takes very good pictures (on par with a mid-range point-and-shoot digital camera), and the photo viewer can be told to scroll through the pictures automatically to look like a slideshow.  Stocks, weather, the clock, the calculator, and the notepad are all slick to use, as are the App Store and iTunes Store applications.  I haven’t bought anything from iTunes through the phone yet; however, I did get several free apps through the onboard App Store, including a cool free crossword puzzle app.

Google Maps with GPS is just the coolest thing.  I programmed in my route to work last Friday and watched in awe as it tracked my progress.  I could picture any number of cases where seeing exactly where you are on a map would come in handy.  While other handheld GPS devices that cost the same can do similar things, they don’t come with all of the apps that the iPhone does, nor do they have slick touchscreens or phones built-in.  The one thing Google Maps with GPS lacks is turn-by-turn voice directions; while it has a “List” mode that directs you turn-by-turn, it doesn’t vocalize them.

Speed is pretty good on the iPhone, especially considering that Maine doesn’t have 3G service yet.  Google Maps was able to keep up with my driving progress quite easily over the EDGE network, and I even had it in “Hybrid” mode, so it was downloading satellite imagery.  Complex internet pages can take several minutes to load (a page like this takes about three); however, most web browsing is tolerable over the cellular network.  Once you are on Wi-Fi, though, things really speed up.  The phone renders pages nearly as fast as my desktop computer when on my wireless network at home.  The iPhone will attempt to hook into open wireless networks when available in order to speed up the user experience; I actually recommend turning this “ask to join” feature off to avoid being constantly asked if you’d like to join networks as you’re driving down the road.  When 3G hits Maine sometime before Thanksgiving, cellular speeds will be nearly that of Wi-Fi.  3G will be fast enough that you can even browse the Internet while on a phone call.

So, I haven’t said a bad thing about the iPhone yet.  That should not be misinterpreted as the phone not having any drawbacks; it does.  My biggest beef with the Phone is the lack of password management for Safari (Apple’s web app); while typing on the virtual keypad is faster than typing on my old phone, all of my passwords contain numbers and symbols and this makes for cumbersome access to secure sites.  Another drawback is the absence of a copy/paste function.  I didn’t realize how much I used copy and paste until I couldn’t; I wouldn’t expect this feature on a regular phone, but the iPhone is so much like a small computer I just expect it to be able to do every basic computer function.

Another basic computer function the iPhone lacks is access to the file system.  One of the big selling points of this phone for me was the ability to read Adobe PDFs.  All of my school books come in PDF form, and I’d rather read them on the couch than in front of my computer.  Problem is, I’ll have to email them to myself to read them on the iPhone (or go to my secure school site every time and enter my complicated password).  I don’t need access to every file and folder on the thing, but some sort of “My Documents” folder would be nice.  I can sync pictures to the iPhone through iTunes; it would be nice to also sync one or more folders of other files as well.

Overall, I am very pleased with the iPhone.  When it comes to basic computing tasks, it untethers me from my computer in all but a few circumstances.  What’s more, I can make calls, listen to music, watch videos, and navigate, all with a device that easily fits in my pocket (although I use a holster).  Before I bought it, I asked Karrie if she was going to want one; she decided to wait and see if she liked mine.  After using it for less than fifteen minutes she knew she wanted one as well, and once the demand dies down, she’ll have it.  At $200 for the 8GB version, you just can’t beat it.

Rating (out of 4):