My First Post, ....is the Iphone worth the hype ?

[stecarey]

Hi Guys

My Name is Stephen , i'm from Dublin Ireland ( I feel like an AA member )

Ok , so i've let the hullabaloo die down a little, and decided to let the real experts ( IE general public ) gauge the response.

Is it annoying not having video record function ?
Is the lack of MMS a big deal?

How quick is the EDGE network ?
Is it worth the hype ?
And finally , does the screen eat the battery time ?

I've been dribbling at this Phone ( like the world ) since it's announcement.
However some little things ( lack of mms / record function / small memory ) have stifled my desire slightly.
And have been looking at alternatives, ...however ...I still come back for this baby

So can you guys answer me honestly ( no fanboys please, just honest to goodness genuine responses )

Is the I phone worth the Hype ?
And should I buy one when they hit Europe ?

Cheers

[Neil]

Originally Posted by stecarey

Hi Guys

My Name is Stephen , i'm from Dublin Ireland ( I feel like an AA member )

Ok , so i've let the hullabaloo die down a little, and decided to let the real experts ( IE general public ) gauge the response.

Is it annoying not having video record function ?
Is the lack of MMS a big deal?

How quick is the EDGE network ?
Is it worth the hype ?
And finally , does the screen eat the battery time ?

I've been dribbling at this Phone ( like the world ) since it's announcement.
However some little things ( lack of mms / record function / small memory ) have stifled my desire slightly.
And have been looking at alternatives, ...however ...I still come back for this baby

So can you guys answer me honestly ( no fanboys please, just honest to goodness genuine responses )

Is the I phone worth the Hype ?
And should I buy one when they hit Europe ?

Cheers

Hi, Stephen,
Welcome to EI! I bought the 8g iphone on iday and have truly enjoyed it. Definitely one of the best purchases I've ever made. Speaking just for myself, obviously, I don't mind no MMS, not a big deal for me. It would be nice to have video record, but again not a big deal. The EDGE network varies somewhat depending on who knows what (time of day, location, etc.). However, it is generally much better than I thought it would be, and almost always very useable. WiFi, of course, is totally awesome. My battery life has been good, and I turn the brightness, etc. way up all the time. I just dock it and recharge every night.
In summary, I love it and think it is worth the hype. Every day I discover new things that it does, websites made just for it, etc. I agree with reviewers who think it is a work of art. Beautiful to use. Videos and photos are gorgeous. That's my 2 cents; let me know if you want any more opinions!

[stecarey]

Originally Posted by Neil

Hi, Stephen,
Welcome to EI! I bought the 8g iphone on iday and have truly enjoyed it. Definitely one of the best purchases I've ever made. Speaking just for myself, obviously, I don't mind no MMS, not a big deal for me. It would be nice to have video record, but again not a big deal. The EDGE network varies somewhat depending on who knows what (time of day, location, etc.). However, it is generally much better than I thought it would be, and almost always very useable. WiFi, of course, is totally awesome. My battery life has been good, and I turn the brightness, etc. way up all the time. I just dock it and recharge every night.
In summary, I love it and think it is worth the hype. Every day I discover new things that it does, websites made just for it, etc. I agree with reviewers who think it is a work of art. Beautiful to use. Videos and photos are gorgeous. That's my 2 cents; let me know if you want any more opinions!

Cheers Neil
Thanks for that, im dying to get my hands on a working model.
so far, all we have in Europe is Youtube vids and nothing else.
Apparently there are some demo's working in Denmark and Greece, but Im not sure how true that is.
Anyway ..Im sure I'll be bugging people for more info as soon as I find out the release date for Europe ( im betting on week 2 of December , just around the Time the NanoPhone will be released in USA )

[Neil]

Just used my iphone world clock to find out it's almost 5:30 pm in Dublin. I knew you'd want to know that--

[jbaraga]

As the former owner of a Treo 600, 650, 700 & 750, Motorola Q and a pile of other phones, PDAs, etc., I can tell you this...

If there are 5 things the iPhone doesn't do well (or at all) there are 20 things it does better than any other mobile device I've ever touched. No matter which way you slice it, the iPhone is superior to other options on the market today.

To address some of your specific questions...

Video Recording - not a big deal for me. I occasionally use my mobile phones to take pics, but rarely to take videos. The quality isn't good enough for me to really enjoy, so I leave the videos to the video cameras. I don't see this as being much of an issue at all.

MMS - it's my understanding that there are workarounds. Instead of sending pics via TXT, there are ways to send them via e-mail to people's cell phones. Again, not something I use, so it's hardly an issue.

EDGE - it's adequate, but not great. I have found that the places where I use the iPhone browsing most often (home & work), I have WiFi available. IMO, the way that the iPhone renders pages more than makes up for the lack of speed. It's so much easier to navigate around pages once they load, that I find the web browsing experience to be much better, even over EDGE, than it was when I had other smart phones connecting over faster connections. It was such a pain to navigate on those other devices' web browsers that the speed at which pages loaded almost didn't matter.

Battery life - by far the best battery life of any mobile device I've used so far. If you're smart about when you use Bluetooth & WiFi, you'll get far better battery life out of this than other devices. I charge my iPhone every night, although I probably might only need to charge it every day and a half with pretty decent use. My Moto Q (even with extended battery) and Treos would barely last through a work day before needing to be recharged. Granted, I don't spend a ton of time playing music & video on my iPhone, but even when I have, I was pleased with the battery life.

Even despite some of its shortcomings (especially its lack of true Exchange functionality, which is a pretty serious inconvenience), I wouldn't trade the iPhone for any other device right now. It's extremely stable, has a beautiful, sleek form factor, and is extremely user friendly.

[OJsakila]

Man... quit reading this stuff and go get one now!

(u will not regret it)

[petalmom]

Stephen,

I could not agree more with these two posters. It's EXACTLY the way I feel. This phone meets all of my expectations, and much more. IMO, it was well worth the $600 and I don't regret the purchase for a minute.

Good luck!

[jacjac2]

Hi Stephen and Welcome, Great Site here and well monitored.

Originally Posted by stecarey

Hi Guys

My Name is Stephen , i'm from Dublin Ireland ( I feel like an AA member )

Ok , so i've let the hullabaloo die down a little, and decided to let the real experts ( IE general public ) gauge the response.

Is it annoying not having video record function ? Not at this time, too many other great features.
Is the lack of MMS a big deal? A little but the work around is email for now.

How quick is the EDGE network ? I feel that depends on where you are, I have had great success, but I have had a few weak moments, success out-weights the weak.
Is it worth the hype ?
And finally , does the screen eat the battery time ?

I've been dribbling at this Phone ( like the world ) since it's announcement.
However some little things ( lack of mms / record function / small memory ) have stifled my desire slightly.
And have been looking at alternatives, ...however ...I still come back for this baby Once you get the baby, your life will change.

So can you guys answer me honestly ( no fanboys please, just honest to goodness genuine responses ) I waited about a week and then ordered, was one of those who worships Macs ( as my husband tells me), going to wait for the second generation as I usually do, but this time, I did it and I do not have any regrets.

Is the I phone worth the Hype ? I can only tell you that for me it was, is , and will always be. I left Nextel, and husband - behind.
And should I buy one when they hit Europe ? I personally feel that is something only you will know inside, for me, I knew I needed it and glad I did.

Cheers

[thegasguru]

Originally Posted by jbaraga

As the former owner of a Treo 600, 650, 700 & 750, Motorola Q and a pile of other phones, PDAs, etc., I can tell you this...

If there are 5 things the iPhone doesn't do well (or at all) there are 20 things it does better than any other mobile device I've ever touched. No matter which way you slice it, the iPhone is superior to other options on the market today.

To address some of your specific questions...

Video Recording - not a big deal for me. I occasionally use my mobile phones to take pics, but rarely to take videos. The quality isn't good enough for me to really enjoy, so I leave the videos to the video cameras. I don't see this as being much of an issue at all.

MMS - it's my understanding that there are workarounds. Instead of sending pics via TXT, there are ways to send them via e-mail to people's cell phones. Again, not something I use, so it's hardly an issue.

EDGE - it's adequate, but not great. I have found that the places where I use the iPhone browsing most often (home & work), I have WiFi available. IMO, the way that the iPhone renders pages more than makes up for the lack of speed. It's so much easier to navigate around pages once they load, that I find the web browsing experience to be much better, even over EDGE, than it was when I had other smart phones connecting over faster connections. It was such a pain to navigate on those other devices' web browsers that the speed at which pages loaded almost didn't matter.

Battery life - by far the best battery life of any mobile device I've used so far. If you're smart about when you use Bluetooth & WiFi, you'll get far better battery life out of this than other devices. I charge my iPhone every night, although I probably might only need to charge it every day and a half with pretty decent use. My Moto Q (even with extended battery) and Treos would barely last through a work day before needing to be recharged. Granted, I don't spend a ton of time playing music & video on my iPhone, but even when I have, I was pleased with the battery life.

Even despite some of its shortcomings (especially its lack of true Exchange functionality, which is a pretty serious inconvenience), I wouldn't trade the iPhone for any other device right now. It's extremely stable, has a beautiful, sleek form factor, and is extremely user friendly.

wow, does this post ever hit the nail on the head. I loved my Blackjack. It was the best converged phone I ever used. And the other day I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, I should consider going back to it. The lack of cut and paste was annoying me...I don't need it often, but when I do, I really miss it. MMS is not a necessity, but it is nice, when apart from family, to send MMS messages. And I personally really rely on a ToDo list, which is absent from the iPhone.

so...I pulled the Blackjack out of the drawer yesterday, dusted it off, and fired it up.

What was I thinking?!! How did I *ever* live on that postage stamp screen?!! I mean, after getting used to the absolutely luxurious screen of the iPhone, that Blackjack screen looks like my thumbnail, literally!

And the Blackjack has no wifi. and the rocker button is hard to hit just right. And the battery blows. etc, etc.

And oh yeah, web surfing on a smartphone actually makes me throw up in the back of my mouth a little.

Anyway, it's true. For every one thing where the iPhone is lacking, there are 20 things that no other device in the world can touch.

So there.

[rittchard]

Originally Posted by stecarey

Hi Guys

My Name is Stephen , i'm from Dublin Ireland ( I feel like an AA member )

Ok , so i've let the hullabaloo die down a little, and decided to let the real experts ( IE general public ) gauge the response.

Is it annoying not having video record function ?
Is the lack of MMS a big deal?

How quick is the EDGE network ?
Is it worth the hype ?
And finally , does the screen eat the battery time ?

I've been dribbling at this Phone ( like the world ) since it's announcement.
However some little things ( lack of mms / record function / small memory ) have stifled my desire slightly.
And have been looking at alternatives, ...however ...I still come back for this baby

So can you guys answer me honestly ( no fanboys please, just honest to goodness genuine responses )

Is the I phone worth the Hype ?
And should I buy one when they hit Europe ?

Cheers

Hi Stephen! You can check out my blog for my one month (and previous impressions) where I tried to relate my feel after the hype has lessened: rittchard.blogspot.com

As to your specific questions, I suppose it really depends on how much you really feel you "need" those specific functions *immediately*. No video or MMS has not given me a second thought - but I also never used those functions on my prior phones. I anticipate those "missing" features will be added eventually, just a matter of time. The EDGE network is great for certain things (maps, stocks, weather, mobile sites) but weak for download heavy apps like YouTube. I have had no issues with battery time thus far, but I am not the type to use it constantly. There are a number of battery saving features for the screen which really help.

I guess i'd ask if you are the type that loves your iPod, specifically the interface? If so, I think you'll see that Apple has created another device that transcends what others (and even themselves) have done with similar devices. For me personally, interface is everything, and nothing else I've owned has even come close.