Guide Rating -
A lot has been said already on the wonders of the Apple iPhone. The revolutionary iPhone is sleek, has a very large display, a very efficient multi-touch screen system, visual voice mail, and up to 8GB of memory to store music, pictures or videos. But like any cell phone, the iPhone is not perfect. Here is what every circumspect shopper should absolutely know before spending $600 and committing to a two-year contract on the iPhone.
Hardware & Design Quality
Pros:
Sturdy and durable design. PC World tortured the iPhone and was impressed by its durability.
Sleek
Lightweight
Cons:
The iPhone is a bit taller than some other PDA phones. The iPhone doesn't have a real keyboard. Characters and number must be typed on a visual keyboard displayed on the touch screen. Some users think that it is difficult to type text messages or emails. The keys are quite small. The iPhone includes a program that corrects typos but it does not always work. I found that it was easier to type text with just one finger, my thumbs being too big and frequently hitting other keys. Too bad, since typing with two thumbs is faster than with just one finger. If you plan to exchange a lot of email, you may end-up hating the iPhone's keyboard.
It doesn't have much buttons either. Of course, the iPhone is meant to be controlled by its multi-touch interface so be sure you like using a touch screen before you buy an iPhone. There is only one button on the front of the iPhone: a "home" button.
Software
Pros:
The multi-touch screen makes it very easy to navigate anything. Want to zoom out a map? Move two fingers away from each other on the display. Want to browse through pictures? a sideways fingertip movement will slide the next picture in.
The "accelerometer": No need to physically flip anything to go from portrait to landscape mode. Just move the iPhone to landscape or portrait and it adjusts automatically.
The visual voice mail should be offered on all cell phones. It simplifies things by letting you listen to the messages you want in the order of your choice.
Cons:
Users have reported software crashes.
No voice dialing, a feature common to most other cell phones.
Doesn't come with any IM program.
Performance
Pros:
Software reacts swiftly
Cons:
The iPhone uses AT&T's slow speed EDGE data network, which makes surfing the web relatively slow. I surfed the web on the iPhone on AT&T's network and speed was still acceptable but Apple could have used AT&T's faster 3G data network for faster speeds.
Call Quality
Cons:
The speakerphone's output volume is not strong enough.
Multimedia Experience
Pros:
It features a simple way to browse through pictures or music albums, simply by sliding your finger forward or backwards. Awesome!
Cons:
The iPhone's 2-megapixel camera doesn't have a camcorder. Still images only. A surprising shortcoming, considering that most other camera phones include a camcorder, even low-end models.
The day my iphone
touch screen died |
