Earliest Iphone Reviews

#1
SWIL

SWIL

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#1
iPhone Review Roundtable
By Edward N. Albro, PC World

Reviews of the iPhone from the anointed few journalists who got a sneak peek at the device are starting to come in.

Since we at PC World don't have one yet (we'll be the ones waiting outside the AT&T store on Friday with the "Will Edit for an iPhone" t-shirts), I thought the least we could do is host a sort of virtual roundtable of iPhone reviewers. So here's a compilation of takes from Newsweek's Steven Levy, the New York Times' David Pogue, Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today's Ed Baig.

Ease of Use
Ed: ".., a breeze to set up and fun to use …"
David: "It's fast, beautiful, menu-free and dead simple to operate."

Overall Design
David: "… so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese."
Walt and Katie: "It feels solid and comfortable in the hand …"

iPhone Review Roundtable (Photo courtesy of © Apple)

On-screen keyboard
David: "Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first."
Steven: "Maybe I'm a spaz, but I'm only beginning to get the hang of two-thumb typing [on the virtual keyboard]"
Ed: "Finger-tapping takes getting used to."
Walt and Katie: "Overall, it works. But the error-correction system didn't seem as clever as the one on the BlackBerry, and you have to switch to a different keyboard view to insert a period or comma, which is annoying."

Screen
Ed: "… visible even in direct sun."
Walt and Katie: "…the way it displays photos, videos and Web pages on its gorgeous screen makes other smart phones look primitive."
David: "The glass gets smudgy -- a sleeve wipes it clean -- but it doesn't scratch easily.

Multi-touch interface
Steven: Using it "was fun, in the same way that switching from an old command-line interface to the Macintosh graphical user interface in the mid-1980s was a kick."
David: "Sure, it's eye candy. But it makes the phone fun to use, which is not something you can say about most cellphones."
Walt and Katie: "… works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions."

The EDGE network
Ed: "pokey"
Walt and Katie: "pokey"
David: "excruciatingly slow"
Steven: "feels like dial-up speed"

As a phone
Everybody loved "visual voice mail," a visual display of your voice messages that lets you choose which to listen or respond to.

Web Browsing
Steven: "It does the best job yet of compressing the World Wide Web on a palm-size device."
Walt and Katie: "…best Web browser we have seen on a smart phone …"

Battery Life
Walt and Katie: "excellent … far exceeds the talk time claims of other smart phones …"
Ed: "… it's a good idea to charge it overnight."
David: "… you'll probably wind up recharging about every other day."

Bottom Line
Walt and Katie: "… despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer."
Ed: "… iPhone's splash of a debut is worthy of the attention it is receiving."
Steven: "… the rare convergence device where things actually converge."
David: "It does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles."
 
#2
#2
I love how they left out most of the problems with the stupid thing. Isn't it supposed to be a TELEPHONE?

David Pogue said:
Making a call, though, can take as many as six steps: wake the phone, unlock its buttons, summon the Home screen, open the Phone program, view the Recent Calls or speed-dial list, and select a name. Call quality is only average, and depends on the strength of your AT&T signal.
Click to expand...

:crazy:
 
#3
#3
^ Same thing as the Sidekick, and I don't know of any T-Mobile users who have had a problem with it.
 
#4
#4
GPRS Edge data network isn't exactly the best out there. Hopefully have EVDO or HSPDA models in half a year or year.
 
#7
#7
DrRosenRosen said:
GPRS Edge data network isn't exactly the best out there. Hopefully have EVDO or HSPDA models in half a year or year.
Click to expand...

AT&T doesn't have EVDO on their network do they? As far as I understand, the CDMA networks of Sprint and Verizon are the only ones with EVDO in the US.
 
#8
#8
Oh, don't think I'm opposed to more than just ATT carrying the phone. I think when other carriers get them and they have variety in model types, the thing will perform better.

Cool gadget. I'm not in the market for a phone but I'm sure there's lots on this thing that will trickle down to other phones in the future. I'm interested in seeing one in action.
 
#9
#9
DrRosenRosen said:
Oh, don't think I'm opposed to more than just ATT carrying the phone. I think when other carriers get them and they have variety in model types, the thing will perform better.

Cool gadget. I'm not in the market for a phone but I'm sure there's lots on this thing that will trickle down to other phones in the future. I'm interested in seeing one in action.
Click to expand...
I gotcha. I'd say Verizon will never carry it, but if they did, it would only be available with plans that are excruciatingly expensive. Sprint/Nextel would be a different story.

I just got a new phone. LG VX8700. Beautiful piece. I love it. The internet and e-mail functions kinda suck, but it is a great phone, and decent WMA Player. :)
 
#10
#10
LG VX9400. getting it today.
lg-vx9400-open.jpg
 
#11
#11
:eek:hmy:

Did you steal that from a Star Trek set??!
 
#13
#13
vols kick balls said:
LG VX9400. getting it today.
lg-vx9400-open.jpg
Click to expand...
Cool. I've heard there are some drawbacks to shelling out for the TV feature. Getting TV is expensive as f***, the battery life is crap. If you watch TV on it with any regularity, be ready to charge it at least every night, if not during car rides, too. Also heard it's kind of uncomfortable to use.

But still, it's TV on a freaking cell phone.
 
#15
#15
milohimself said:
Cool. I've heard there are some drawbacks to shelling out for the TV feature. Getting TV is expensive as f***, the battery life is crap. If you watch TV on it with any regularity, be ready to charge it at least every night, if not during car rides, too. Also heard it's kind of uncomfortable to use.

But still, it's TV on a freaking cell phone.
Click to expand...

Because I use mine as an mp3 player as well as talking on it all the time, I have to charge it every other day.
 
#16
#16
The phone is f'n sweet. It came with an 80 dollar music transfer kit and memory card. They dont have TV yet but they said it should be here pretty soon and that i could upgrade my service. VCast video is pretty sweet so VCast TV has to be F'n awesome.
 
#17
#17
milohimself said:
Cool. I've heard there are some drawbacks to shelling out for the TV feature. Getting TV is expensive as f***, the battery life is crap. If you watch TV on it with any regularity, be ready to charge it at least every night, if not during car rides, too. Also heard it's kind of uncomfortable to use.

But still, it's TV on a freaking cell phone.
Click to expand...
Milo is a teckno geek:)
 
#18
#18
I went shopping yesterday at the mall, and there was a huge line of people waiting for the iphone. I actually saw one of my good friends in line lol.
 
#21
#21
rwemyss said:
AT&T doesn't have EVDO on their network do they? As far as I understand, the CDMA networks of Sprint and Verizon are the only ones with EVDO in the US.
Click to expand...

if memory serves correct, AT&T's wireless broadband goes by EDGE, and at least has the potential to be better than most land-based broadband. As for Verizon, I think they have something in the works that may very well blow anything we have seen, land-based or wireless, out of the water.
 
#23
#23
emainvol said:
if memory serves correct, AT&T's wireless broadband goes by EDGE, and at least has the potential to be better than most land-based broadband. As for Verizon, I think they have something in the works that may very well blow anything we have seen, land-based or wireless, out of the water.
Click to expand...

EVDO already beats the other current wireless data networks.
 
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