OK, here we go... this review is based on what I use a phone for. So I've not covered things like the camera, which I will never use. I've also not gone into the whole subject of downloadable applications - the only types I've ever installed on my Nokia are already preinstalled on the iPhone. But the review is otherwise intended to be objective.
Physical Device
The iPhone certainly can't claim to be small - but it is slim. Not quite as slim as an iPod touch, but almost the exact same depth as the Nokia 6300, which is generally regarded to be one of the slimmer phones on the market.
Held in the hand, the iPhone feels a little too big - although this is inevitably the price to pay for the impressive 480 x 320 display. The Nokia's LCD, at 320 x 240, is one of better handsets for display capability, and yet - with half the screen space of the iPhone - it pales in comparison.
Like the iPod, the headphone socket is at the top - meaning that the device stays 'the right way up' when you put it in a pocket. But, as has been noted in most reviews, the socket recess is narrow - precluding the use of many existing 3rd party headphones. Adaptors are available, and it's likely the accessory manufacturers will re-engineer their plugs to fit the iPhone.
On the opposite side from the headphone socket, is a simple on/off switch. This combines with a slide-to-unlock UI on the screen, to prevent accidental use.
Although my use has been limited to just 24 hours it hasn't picked up any scratches - unlike the first iPod Nano, which could be scratched with a fingernail.
User Interface
Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that this is a key selling feature of the iPhone. But is it merely a novelty? The short answer: No. Scrolling and zooming is not only infinitely easier than using buttons, but also much much faster. Operations like diagonal scrolling, stop being a dull game of up a bit, side ways a bit. Zooming is not only intuitive, with the pinching movement, but also much more accurate - gone are the fixed zoom levels that are often either too close or too far, when one is navigating things like maps.
The touch user interface is a genuine time saver. You get to do more of what you are actually trying to do, much more quickly.
Typing! Ah, now that was something that raised a few eyebrows when first said there would be no keyboard. Surprisingly, it's better than one might imagine. Much of this is thanks to the auto-correct. Providing you hit the right number of letters for a word, the iPhone generally guesses the right thing, first time. Don't be fooled into thinking this is just like T9 - it is far better. No more "fancy a riot", when actually you mean "pint".
When it's things that aren't 'words', such a urls, typing speed slows down. It's still way superior to a numeric keypad, but more hit and miss, I suspect, than using a full keyboard like the one on the Blackberry.
Possibly the least fun thing is password entry. Although the letters still light up in the keyboard, the visible text entry is - not unreasonably - masked as blobs rather than actual characters, making it a careful game of hover-and-dab, to get the right key.
Other niggles, for me: Hitting return when I want delete - just adding to the mistake I've already made.
The Phone
There's not a lot to say here yet. It works. A giant on screen keyboard means that manual dialling is error free, and the contacts list is incredibly quick to navigate. If you get a lot of voicemail, the visual voicemail feature will come in handy - the ability to see your voicemails as a list to choose from.
And, as well as being able to cherry pick the message you actually want to hear, you can stop, rewind, replay, just by dragging a slider. This comes into it's own when someone has left a tediously long message, with one key bit of information right in the middle of it.
Also, there is call merge, making it very easy to set up three way calls. You can merge calls regardless of whether they are incoming or outbound. It's not something I'm likely to use myself mind.
Whilst a call is active, the rest of the iPhone functionality is still there. You won't risk dropping a call, as you try to fish something out that you need whilst staying on the line.
Texting
In common with the Nokia - but not all phones - messages can be sent as 'fire and forget'. You can immediately carry on doing other things, without waiting for the actual send to happen.
Also there's threaded text conversations. It certainly looks cute, although how much of productivity benefit it is questionable. This is probably more of a fun factor thing than anything else.
But it goes rapidly downhill from here. There's no MMS. It's not something either me or my friends ever use, but if you want it, sorry, it's not there. And there's more - or perhaps I mean less. You can't send messages to multiple recipients. And you can't work around it. Not only is there no cut and paste, there is no ability to forward messages - whether they are ones you have received or sent.
All in all, the text features are ridiculously basic. How Apple managed to get this so wrong, is hard to fathom when you see all the other things it does so well. And it's not even as if it's a niche feature like diary management. Current owners can only hope that Apple sorts this out in a future software update. Until then, there will be occasions when - for a given task - the iPhone will be a thing of loathing.
Email
I'm a gmail user, so Google's recent addition of IMAP functionality fits very well with mobile email use. It took a minute or so to set up, and then I had my inbox on screen. It also supports the gmail tags, as pseudo-folders, but other gmail specific features, such as 'mark as spam' are missing - due to it being a generic mail client rather than google specific. The regular gmail web client can also be used, and there those features are present, as you would expect.
Down on the tube, with no reception, I thought ahh, IMAP... I bet email is now out of the question. But, to my surprise, the inbox was not only all there, but I could open and read the messages too. Clearly there is cacheing going on, and it's seamless.
Again, the touch UI really adds some value here. Sifting through big inboxes is a snap. No click click click scrolling - just fly through to the message you want, if you don't want to do a typed search.
Physical Device
The iPhone certainly can't claim to be small - but it is slim. Not quite as slim as an iPod touch, but almost the exact same depth as the Nokia 6300, which is generally regarded to be one of the slimmer phones on the market.
Held in the hand, the iPhone feels a little too big - although this is inevitably the price to pay for the impressive 480 x 320 display. The Nokia's LCD, at 320 x 240, is one of better handsets for display capability, and yet - with half the screen space of the iPhone - it pales in comparison.
Like the iPod, the headphone socket is at the top - meaning that the device stays 'the right way up' when you put it in a pocket. But, as has been noted in most reviews, the socket recess is narrow - precluding the use of many existing 3rd party headphones. Adaptors are available, and it's likely the accessory manufacturers will re-engineer their plugs to fit the iPhone.
On the opposite side from the headphone socket, is a simple on/off switch. This combines with a slide-to-unlock UI on the screen, to prevent accidental use.
Although my use has been limited to just 24 hours it hasn't picked up any scratches - unlike the first iPod Nano, which could be scratched with a fingernail.
User Interface
Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that this is a key selling feature of the iPhone. But is it merely a novelty? The short answer: No. Scrolling and zooming is not only infinitely easier than using buttons, but also much much faster. Operations like diagonal scrolling, stop being a dull game of up a bit, side ways a bit. Zooming is not only intuitive, with the pinching movement, but also much more accurate - gone are the fixed zoom levels that are often either too close or too far, when one is navigating things like maps.
The touch user interface is a genuine time saver. You get to do more of what you are actually trying to do, much more quickly.
Typing! Ah, now that was something that raised a few eyebrows when first said there would be no keyboard. Surprisingly, it's better than one might imagine. Much of this is thanks to the auto-correct. Providing you hit the right number of letters for a word, the iPhone generally guesses the right thing, first time. Don't be fooled into thinking this is just like T9 - it is far better. No more "fancy a riot", when actually you mean "pint".
When it's things that aren't 'words', such a urls, typing speed slows down. It's still way superior to a numeric keypad, but more hit and miss, I suspect, than using a full keyboard like the one on the Blackberry.
Possibly the least fun thing is password entry. Although the letters still light up in the keyboard, the visible text entry is - not unreasonably - masked as blobs rather than actual characters, making it a careful game of hover-and-dab, to get the right key.
Other niggles, for me: Hitting return when I want delete - just adding to the mistake I've already made.
The Phone
There's not a lot to say here yet. It works. A giant on screen keyboard means that manual dialling is error free, and the contacts list is incredibly quick to navigate. If you get a lot of voicemail, the visual voicemail feature will come in handy - the ability to see your voicemails as a list to choose from.
And, as well as being able to cherry pick the message you actually want to hear, you can stop, rewind, replay, just by dragging a slider. This comes into it's own when someone has left a tediously long message, with one key bit of information right in the middle of it.
Also, there is call merge, making it very easy to set up three way calls. You can merge calls regardless of whether they are incoming or outbound. It's not something I'm likely to use myself mind.
Whilst a call is active, the rest of the iPhone functionality is still there. You won't risk dropping a call, as you try to fish something out that you need whilst staying on the line.
Texting
In common with the Nokia - but not all phones - messages can be sent as 'fire and forget'. You can immediately carry on doing other things, without waiting for the actual send to happen.
Also there's threaded text conversations. It certainly looks cute, although how much of productivity benefit it is questionable. This is probably more of a fun factor thing than anything else.
But it goes rapidly downhill from here. There's no MMS. It's not something either me or my friends ever use, but if you want it, sorry, it's not there. And there's more - or perhaps I mean less. You can't send messages to multiple recipients. And you can't work around it. Not only is there no cut and paste, there is no ability to forward messages - whether they are ones you have received or sent.
All in all, the text features are ridiculously basic. How Apple managed to get this so wrong, is hard to fathom when you see all the other things it does so well. And it's not even as if it's a niche feature like diary management. Current owners can only hope that Apple sorts this out in a future software update. Until then, there will be occasions when - for a given task - the iPhone will be a thing of loathing.
I'm a gmail user, so Google's recent addition of IMAP functionality fits very well with mobile email use. It took a minute or so to set up, and then I had my inbox on screen. It also supports the gmail tags, as pseudo-folders, but other gmail specific features, such as 'mark as spam' are missing - due to it being a generic mail client rather than google specific. The regular gmail web client can also be used, and there those features are present, as you would expect.
Down on the tube, with no reception, I thought ahh, IMAP... I bet email is now out of the question. But, to my surprise, the inbox was not only all there, but I could open and read the messages too. Clearly there is cacheing going on, and it's seamless.
Again, the touch UI really adds some value here. Sifting through big inboxes is a snap. No click click click scrolling - just fly through to the message you want, if you don't want to do a typed search.
