The iPhone: What’s the Verdict?

Now that the initial pre-release hype is over and regular consumers are getting their hands on the gizmo—how does it really stack up?

Steve Jobs promised us three things when he announced the iPhone: "an incredibly great cell phone," "the best iPod we've ever made," and "the Internet in your pocket."

Does the iPhone deliver on all of Jobs’ promises? Here’s a summary of what the 1st generation buyers are saying after picking up their iPhones last week.

 

As a Cell Phone

Buyers are not super enthusiastic about the phone features. Yeah, it works, but it’s not an “incredibly great” cell phone—sorry Steve. It’s average. The sound quality is fair but it won’t blow your mind. Even the die-hard enthusiasts are admitting as much. Also, you have to tap 4 buttons before you’re actually calling someone. The real kicker is that buying an iPhone automatically locks you into an exclusive 2-year contract with AT&T. I have nothing against the phone mogul, but there are arguably better options out there—if only you had access to them. One last thing, you don’t even get to use your songs for ringtones. Even though your iPhone is also an iPod, you still have to buy your ringtones. Lame.

As an iPod

Consumers are saying it has the most easy to use, fantastic looking player interface currently available. Most will agree that it wins in the looks department with a sexy, slim design. But beauty is only skin deep, what about the functionality? Basically it will make your old iPod very jealous, as you certainly won’t be missing the old scroll wheel. As a music player, it’s definitely a cool upgrade from a regular iPod. Jobs’ told the truth about it being the best iPod ever made. You can transfer your music, videos and photos from your Mac or Windows PC. The YouTube videos do look pretty decent on the bright 3.5-inch high-rez screen.

As Internet

What about the “internet in your pocket”? E-mail works fairly well. The incoming messages are fully formatted, with graphics. You can even open Word, Excel and PDF documents. The web browser does the job too with full Web layouts that look the exact same as the originals only smaller. Scrolling by fingertip is pretty fast and smooth. You can easily enlarge an image with just a quick double tap. By rotating the screen horizontally, the screen will automatically fill to the wider view. However, it is lacking some fairly common features such as stereo Bluetooth support, 3G compatibility and GPS to name a few.

The Verdict

It’s cool. It’s a little overpriced, but if you have the cash and the inclination, you probably won’t regret the purchase. BUT it’s not necessarily any better than other smartphones with similar features. It’s still worth it to take a look at your options if you’re in the market. If you need some features more than others, keep in mind that the iPhone is less equipped than some other options.

If all you want is a nice looking device to replace your phone and media player—you’re good to go. Get it now if you can’t wait, but if you’re the patient type, it should eventually come down in price. Not to mention that 1st generation products usually have a few bugs to work out.

Feel free to share your own personal review/thoughts in the comment section below. To keep up-to-date on all things iPhone, stop by the iPhone Freak blog

Posted by Rebecca Sato

Realted Galaxy Post:

Ultimate iPhone Commercial -Daily Comedy Classic

iPhone Future -A Video Tour
 

More reviews:

Review 1
Review  2
Review 3
Review 4

Comments

[Dave K. Welch]

Casey / Rebecca: Had you thought of going out and grabbing yourselves one and giving us a first hand review? THAT would have been cool!

Dave

Dave: Rebecca did....that was the lead in her post.

[rebecca]

Sorry Dave! I should have made the review more personal. I was attempting to share what the general consumer consensus seems to be, more than my own experience.