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Review: Apple iPhone 3G
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14-Jan-2009
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The iPhone is, by all accounts, a tremendous, ridiculously insane success story. The entire iPod/iPhone line could reasonably be the claim to fame of modern Apple software/hardware, and very likely the success and survivability of the company overall. And, of course, the flagship product is the latest edition of its ultra popular line; the iPhone 3G.
The Good:
There are, obviously, a lot of good things about the iPhone 3G. For starters, price. At $200 for an 8GB model – can anyone really complain? I mean, come on; iPods used to cost more than that – for significantly less. Phones of much less quality, in my opinion, come with far higher price tags.
Brace yourselves - this is going to shock anyone who has listened excessively to my praise of Windows and loathing of other operating systems; the iPhone OS is...in many ways exactly what an OS should be. Instead of creating a semi-clunky navigation pane that requires adaptation; we instead get a desktop. More of the Windows 3.0 style desktop, but a desktop nonetheless. Easy load/exit commands are a welcome change to those of us used to waiting for application loads; although it does freeze up on occasion. Although I miss having superior settings control, which admittedly is not present in the iPhone OS, this in part ensures the smooth operation so I will have to offer that one up.
By far, the absolute best feature of the iPhone series has to be the Applications. By buying an iPhone, you instantly buy hundreds of free applications of all sorts, and free access to thousands of very cheaply priced, superior quality applications. There isn't a device on the planet that offers so many applications with so many varieties, for so little price, so easily. This is beyond reproach.
The Bad:
As always, there is a bad list. First things first, the browser. The iPhone has always made the claim of the 'real' Internet...on a phone. Well, that's not true. You have the ability to access pages as though you were on a desktop/laptop, but you don't have all the features. For instance, a favorite site of mine is hulu.com; as of my last attempt, I can't watch TV shows over the Internet on my iPhone (and as an Office addict, this is a problem). This was surprisingly the first test I ran in terms of 'real' Internet. And it failed. Couldn't have been a worse start in terms of the browser. And although the browser is fun with the zoom in/out and moveability, it is somewhat clunky and if your finger positions are only slightly askew you will find yourself clicking on everything and not side scrolling and God knows what else.
I don't know if this was an oversight or a marketing ploy for a future application...but it doesn't make videos. It takes pictures, great pictures. No video. What the...? There's simply nothing more to say here.
And, although battery life on most devices is abhorred, it really isn't good on the iPhone. If you genuinely use it throughout the day, expect to charge in the evening as a must. As well, the salesman is not trying to screw you when telling you to get a car adapter, he means it.
Another oversight/marketing ploy is lack of expansion. I am a major, major, proponent of SD and Micro SD cards; Apple is not. And they had better be or the next iPhone is getting automatic bad ratings.
The Verdict:
My verdict is in, and so is the iPhone. Although it has great features that are beyond compare, and a price that just is beyond reproach, there are enough setbacks that deny it the title of 'must have phone'. If you are looking for a good, fun phone that you can play around with and be mesmerized (and, yeah, even I can do that for hours on end...), the iPhone is for you. If you are a serious business man, then, I'm sorry to say, go with an HTC device (although...not the Fuze, I'm changing my vote, and I will explain that...) |
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