iPhone pros and cons list - rather than a gripe fest.

[dasjestyr]

This was the review i sent to my pops. I figured it might be helpful for those who havent yet bought one. As far as smartphones go, i have owned a treo 650, a Motorola Q, and a blackberry in the last year and a half.

Well here it is lol:

Im gonna post this then go put my Motorola Q in the microwave.

Pros:
- I've recently switched my preferences to mac so i do most everything on there. PCs never do this kind of stuff smoothly, although im sure it would have been fine. Your phone imports all of your contacts and bookmarks and calendar entries in about a minute or less.
- The phone feels SOLID in your hands. Very surprising
- The phone knows when youre holding it up to your face and turns the screen off as to conserve power. The instant you take it away from your ear, it turns the screen back on. No annoying quirks about this feature either. It doesnt lock the phone or take forever to wake back up.
- To delete text messages or email messages, rather than having to go through a ton of confirmations and/or menus, all you do is line through it with your finger, which brings up the delete button. Click that as a confirm and youre done!
- You can assign photos out of your iPhoto library to contacts in your address book. When they call, it comes up on the phone FULL SCREEN, unlike the Treo that just gives you a thumbnail. While youre assigning it to your contact, you can position and size the pic as you want it, using the multitouch screen. Very cool.
- The interface operates just as smooth and fast as seen on tv and internet.
- Sync'ing is quick and painless. iTunes gives you the options to be very specific about what exactly you want to be sync'd when you plug the iphone in.
- Quirky things like what happens if you're on a call and you get texted or called has been taken care of very thoughtfully and elegantly.
- Text messages appear as a lite popup when you recieve them, even if the phone is locked. So you can read the first few lines of text and tap it to enter SMS and read the rest of it. Or just ignore it, as it doesnt interfere with anything at all. Also, it keeps your text message sorted like an instant messenger rather than leaving all of your received text messages being piled into your phone in the order they were received. it actually shows them as conversations. The treo does that too, i dont know why all phones dont do this.
- The screen doesnt scratch easily at all
- The WiFi function is nice, it will automatically switch you off of the EDGE data network when an open WiFi connection is detected. Quietly and smoothly. EDIT: I've been having issues with this lately. All of a sudden, if theres another network around, it wont switch automatically and its pretty random in deciding to ask me if i wanna switch. It needs an option to "never use this network" and "always use this network if available"
- Package comes with a microfiber screen wipe, stereo earbuds with controller, usb charger adapter, docking cradle, and sync cable. Most of these are extras you pay for with other phones
- The earbuds sound great for the ipod function and the rx/tx quality on calls are nice. Just as advertised, the ipod fades out when you have an incoming call or message. You dont even have to pick up the handset. Just squeeze the clicker on the earphones.
- The voicemail is as advertised. It downloads the voicemail straight to the phone for you to listen to and lists it by name or phone number if the number isnt in your contacts. All you do is tap on it and it starts playing the voicemail. Also you record your greeting right there, without having to call in. When youre done, the phone connects to the servers and uploads your voicemail greeting. no more waiting for prompts! love it.
- The screen is large and very high res.
- iPod features include EQ.
- Alarm function is pretty robust for an alarm. Also included is a world clock where you can setup what regions you want to display, stop watch and timer.
- OSX OS is nice because software upgrades will be far more impactful and easier to receive. They will be handled for free through iTunes.
- Battery life is comparable to the Treo 650. About 5 hours talk time, 6-7 hours video, 23 hours audio (iPod), and 5-6 hours of tinkering. EDIT: But the more often EDGE is trying to connect, the quicker the battery will drain.
- The calling/data plans are surprisingly low cost. Im actually paying less now and i now have rollover minutes. You can see the rates on the websites.
- Email browser will download and view office docs and pdfs, but you cant edit them.
- Overall, everything is as advertised, feature and performance wise.

Cons:
- Cannot tether the phone to your laptop for internet connection. At least not yet. Im pretty sure its going to have to be a hack to get this and even when you do, you have to deal with the EDGE network... but i hear theyre upgrading it. EDGE should be able to support a few hundred kbps, but ATT's doesnt atm.
- Cannot record video with the camera... yet.
- So far, the bluetooth option is only for the wireless headset. You cant network with it or sync with it. When i pair it with my mac, there arent even any usable services.
- Cannot sync wirelessly via WiFi or Bluetooth.
- Sync'ing photos can take a while because it reformats all of the photos to optimize for the iPhone.
- You cannot record your calls. From ive been able to find, you cant even record voice notes. This may be a software upgrade in the future.
- Phone does not use 3g at all. The data network is currently limited to the EDGE network which is retarded slow depending on your area. For me, personally, its only a little slower than the 3g speeds i got with my Q and Treo, Im averaging 15-30kps with the iPhone. But in some areas, there would be a larger difference.
- It seems to have a microsoft-like problem where it tends to bog itself down after running for a while and needs to be restarted.
- The phone slows down a bit when its trying to connect to the EDGE network in the background
- So far, all of the media interfaces lag up a bit when you have more than a few items, such as your photo collection browser, and cover flow.
- No memory expansion slots, though i doubt i'd need them. 8 GB is a ton for a phone imo. I only put my favorite albums on there and the other 10,000 tracks just stay on my media center at home.
- Cant use the iPhone to store files yet, it wont be recognized as storage device like the iPod can.
- The touchscreen keyboard is tricky to get used to at first. Its all about your aim lol. It does move quickly though, so once you get used to it, you'll actually type faster. Also the autocorrect does a good job and the more you trust it, the faster you'll go. I find that if I dont pay to much attention to the words im actually typing and just trust the auto correction, i can type extremely fast.
- No hands free dialing of any sort built into this phone! LAME.
- That whole turning your phone sideways thing that makes the picture or browser reorient to landscape... it only really works if the phone is held straight up and down or close to it. In other words, if its laying flat on the table, the accelerometer wont sense the change and wont reorient the view.
- The operating system takes up about 700MB. Not a huge deal when you get the 8GB model... but also means its only 7GB and the lower one is only 3GB... Booo.
- The 2 megapixel camera is decent, however there is no flash. So the lighting needs to be adequate. The auto white balance is good, but still needs a light source and its a bit slow. Also, there is no self portrait bubble on the back and taking your picture is tricky since the "take picture" button is on the touch screen and sensitive.
- You're stuck with iTunes. Not the best media player/manager ever, but decent.
- You cant assign any of your mp3s as a ringtone. From what I was able to deduct from Jobs's keynote, they reserved that for iTunes ringtones to come. Which is kinda lame, because ive been known to make my own ringtones from my own music. But that will no longer be an option. The preinstalled ringtones are nice though.
- So far, all the aftermarket widgets are all 3rd party and web based =(. They're limited and slow because of that.
- Phone only accepts AT&T sim cards.
- The voice quality on calls is good, but not very loud. Even with the earpiece volume cranked. However, if you do your calls using the included earbuds, everything is very loud and clear both ways.
- No i/o options to connect to a TV or external storage device or anything.
- The phone is very particular about what kind of quicktime video files it'll accept. So far, the only ones ive been able to get working were purchased out of iTunes. None of my personal video rips have imported successfully, even if they play fine in iTunes.
- If you're porting your number, you cant even play with the phone until the process is complete. Took 6 hours for me, which they said was the minimum time.
- It has been said that the phone is exclusive to AT&T/Cingular for 2-5 years. So you have to switch if you want it.
- The browser is wonderful but does not support flash or java yet. However, it does support advanced css and dhtml. Im able to use USAA's website flawlessly.
- The you tube function seems to be watered down. When searching videos, it wont find videos that you could otherwise find while browsing on your computer.
- Its an AT&T Phone. I havent had any real problems yet, but i can actually sit the phone on the table and watch the signal bounce between 1 bar and full bars while just sitting there. Ive lost service completely once for about 5 minutes. Im close the AFB so... i'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Im still a Verizon man.


I may have forgotten a few things. If you even care and have a question, then ask.