Average of 26 Reviews
All User Reviews
I'm going to focus on the bad. There are tons of iPhone reviews out there where the fanboy who bought it, tries to verbally hump it in his/her review.
The basic rules of thumb for the G1 iPhone are as follows:
1) If you love to email on your blackberry, wait for the G2. The G1 mail client is for children.
2) If you want to be able to navigate to/from someplace using your phone, wait for the G2. The G1's triangulation feature is no substitute for real GPS.
3) If epically slow data transfer (read: web browser) really bother you, wait for the G2. G1 is slower than death.
So basically wait for the G2 iPhone unless you want to save money by buying a used G1 and dont care about the items on the list above.
Being a Waterloo native it has always been a unwritten rule of some sort that everyone around here must carry a BlackBerry, but when the iPhone was first announced, way back in January 2007. I had second thoughts. The beautiful form factor and the revolutionary combination of multi-touch and motion sensing technology had me sold.
The Apple iPhone has been a long awaited device. With years of rumors and speculation the iPhone had to be something revolutionary. A regular mobile phone with a standard set of features and an Apple logo would simply not feed the need for thousands of Apple fanboys and fangirls.
Switching from a Blackberry 8800 to the iPhone was scary at first due to the lack of a physical and tactile keyboard. After all these years of solid QWERTY goodness, was typing on a piece of glass going to work? With practice and patience it took me a month to get used to the virtual keyboard on the iPhone. It was challenging but not as difficult as originally imagined.
The battery life is very mediocre for a mobile phone, but exceptional for a smartphone. If your phone spends most of the time glued to your face as you yap away, you might consider a car lighter adapter or an additional source of power, same applies for heavy Wi-Fi use, as the additional chipset takes away lots of battery juice.
The integrated applications are designed for the urban lifestyle, with Google Maps find your favorite restaurant and make the reservation with a few taps of the finger. Watch YouTube videos while on the go on the gorgeous 3.5" display. Check your Stocks, Mail and even Weather wherever you are. Snap and share your photo memories as they happen or browse the full internet on a miniaturized device. At the moment there is no support for third party internet plug-ins such as Adobe Flash Player and Java, but Apple is hinting towards possible availability via free software updates.
The iPhone is an outstanding smart phone that has revolutionized the smart phone industry or at the least encouraged other manufacturers to step their game up. The use of innovative technologies and the simplicity as well as the ease of use jam packed into such a compact yet accommodating device will have you wanting a slice of this Apple pie.
I bought the first generation iPhone the weekend it went on sale and carried it as my only mobile phone until I upgraded to the iPhone 3G this year. The iPhone was the world-changer.
This original iPhone still has the majority of the characteristics of the new iPhone 3G with the exception of GPS (and 3G cellular data, of course). The human interface is still the best that is available, and for people willing to adjust to using the software keyboard, the environment is unbeatable.
I got this phone when my husband got the new one! It is very easy to use and I love it! I had an old Samsung phone on Sprint - now that I have the iphone, I realize what a dinosaur phone I had! When I was on Spring, we didn't get service in our house but now that we are on AT&T, we have excellent service in our house; however, my son in California doesn't have service in his house and has to go outside to talk on his iphone. He also has a lot of dropped calls that he didn't have before.
I was fortunate enough to have my parents gift me an IPhone for Christmas. To be honest, I wasn't that excited to receive one as I felt my razr was sufficient for what I needed, but I wasn't going to complain.
After having one for several months, It probably comes as no surprise that I think the phone is awesome. I'm constantly plugged into "the grid" and love the fact that I am always up to speed on email. Living in San Fran, Its quite nice to be able to check when the next bus (www.nextmuni.com) is coming or yelping (www.yelp.com) a good restaurant based on my current location. If I'm bored and stuck somewhere, I'll pull out my phone and check the blogs for the latest posts. I've dropped the phone a few times and its still working fine, so the durability seems to be good. I just find the phone to be surprisingly very useful and fun to use.
There are a few cons though. Pandora (www.pandora.com) + IPhone would be a killer app for me, so it is a bit annoying that flash isn't supported. I turn off the wi-fi detector at work because i can't log on to the networks and I find that the edge network is alright, but still somewhat frustrating speed wise. I use the camera a fair amount and the quality of the pictures isn't great. I wish email was pushed out to my phone...i have it set to check for new mail every 15 which I'm sure is not helping my battery situation, which, although is decent, could probably be better.
Whats not to love about this wonderful little device? While being 1st generation, I believe Apple had fulfilled almost all the requirement of what a mobile communication device should be. It is very sturdy, sleek, and user friendly. Typing is a breeze with either one or two digits, and the built in learning dictionary is not obnoxiously overbearing. Apple had put a lot o thoughts into the email system, while it's not perfect compared to a full fledge client it is pretty darn close. It will handle obscure imap settings, along with self signing encryption certificates when other devices would simply throw panic error.
Keep in mind, the watered down SMS and the lack of MMS philosophy was taken from Japanese mobile phone standards as SMS/MMS are more or less been phased out in favor of direct email.
I have had my iphone for 9 months and I love it. I probably like it most for email anywhere anytime and it's so user friendly. It was a lifesaver when I was in the hospital, it kept me connected. I use the camera often and the picture quality is amazing. I use the Google maps feature and it has gotten me out of some tight situations when driving out of state in rental cars. Love the weather, You tube, and text features. I thought I didn't need it but it was one of the best gifts ever!
This is the best phone ever. I love being able to go online, check email, and use Google maps at all times. If they fix the cons above and make it even faster with the 3G technology...it will be even more amazing. Plus, Apple is just so sexy...
I bought the iPhone as a replacement to the Blackberry Curve. I love the user interface and overall appearance of the iPhone, however, it does not measure up to the blackberry when it comes to the features that are most important to me: battery life and call quality. The battery dies about 15 minutes after the phone give me the '20% Battery Life Left' warning. As far as call quality goes, the iPhone has been a large step back from the blackberry. When on the road, the iPhone drops calls frequently.
I got the original iPhone for Christmas in 2008 and have been extremely pleased. Having had a blackberry before, I found the iPhone to be significantly more user friendly (important if you are technologically-challenged like me). Text messaging became much quicker and the keyboard's ability to correct words is phenomenal (able to edit some of my most incoherent drunken text messages). I also just find it hugely convenient for day-to-day tasks. I use the maps function to locate restaurants and businesses all the time. Although it is not complete GPS, you can use the "current location" function and then identify particular stores or restaurants near you, and get directions to them. Its also nice to have when you have a friend who overconfidently insists things are true (i.e chris paul shoots 37% from the field... uhh no he doesn't, look at my iphone, he shoots 49%). I have also dropped the hell out of my phone and it has more than held up. There are some very tiny scratches, but I am told I can go to an Apple Store and have them fixed for free. I tried using a case for the phone, but it made it a lot more bulky and killed the sleek build of the phone. The two hangups I have about the phone are that the phone is only compatible with apple headphones (you can get an adapter for this if you want, but its just an annoyance) and that the internet is painfully slow.
It's everything i ever wanted and more. As soon as i bought it i knew i'd never be without an iPhone again. Now I just need Gen2!
I absolutely love my iPhone. The battery life isn't great, but that's mostly because I spend way too much time diddling on it, whether I'm checking my mail, surfing the web, or listening to music. It's certainly good enough though. Obviously it was pricey, but I think it was well worth it. Not sure I could live without it now that I have it.
I didn't ever think I would own a phone like this, but now that I have it I love it. The internet is really easy to use, and the touch screen is very reponsive. This is also the best IPod out there. One feature I love is the voice messaging. You can listen to any one you want and can start at any point during the message, rather than having to listen to all your messages like on a regular cell. It is also an incredible design and fits comfortably in my pocket. The lack of multi-media messaging is surprising and the camera is not the highest quality. Overall, though this is the best phone I have ever had.
This phone was an amazing easy to use all purpose tool in a phone. It was fun to have the power of where you could go on that phone with such ease.+User friendly on many pages specifically adapted for the iphone.-Could actually have GPS navigation and integrated programs into the actual software of the phone.
reviewed July 17, 2008 at 3:45 pm The Apple iPhone is a great phone as long as you know about Jailbraking it. Stock and straight out of the box the phone is ok, but definitely is missing something. With the addition of the installer application, you can add things such as MMS, Video recording, Custom themes, and games. Once you have a grip on modifying this phone, it's almost unbeatable.
The iPhone is marvelous but the Edge data network kills me (slowly). The fact that the latest iPhones access the 3G network and sell for half the price just six months later just proves that anyone who buys a first-generation tech product is a sucker. The sad thing is, we knew we were going to get played and we did it anyways.
The pros and cons I listed pretty much summarize my feelings. Most of the cons are a big deal but I still recommend the iPhone over anything else I've used or played with. Since people tend to care more about the cons and accept the pros as a given, here are some details.
The Edge network sucks - get 3G: The web browsing experience when I'm connected to decent WiFi is fabulous. I zoom in and out of Google Maps to my heart's content; I double-tap on headlines and columns and, voila, the text is perfectly clear and just the right size. When I'm on the Edge data network, it's really hit or miss. In a good area, I'm never bored; however, about 25% of the time, I'm left alone with my thoughts - and, believe me, my thoughts are inferior to espn.com.
Surface is not as scratch/shatter proof as advertised: Yeah, I broke my first iPhone. I dropped it from about 3 feet and it just so happened to land on an especially hard part of my chairleg which shattered the screen. A case might not have made a difference since the point of contact was the screen itself. Plus, I carry my phone in my pocket and cases make that a nearly impossible feat.
Camera is pretty lame: No zoom! How is that possible? The megapixelage is decent but not special. Definitely room for improvement.
Software is so-so: Maybe it's because I'm not an Apple pc user, but I think the email client and calendar app are just ok. I use my Google calendar religiously, so I have to sync my Google calendar to Outlook, which I then sync to my iPhone. Lame.
Storage is limited: So I used Napster when it was free and not explicitly illegal; ergo, I have lots of music and need a place to put it. I don't want to choose!
Here's a huge pet peeve of mine: why the hell is there a little nook for the headphone jack? That little bastard nook means that I can only use my Apple-provided earbuds. I'm sure Apple is thrilled that everyone and their mom in San Francisco flosses little white earbuds everywhere they go, but sometimes I want to play music in my car. Sometimes I want to use fancy headphones on a long airplane trip. Do I seriously need to buy an adapter? Super lame.
BUT SERIOUSLY, the iPhone is rad and you should get one.
Do we need a Second Gen iPhone that is the same as the first one except it has a plastic casing and A-GPS? Disappointing, yes but I still love my first gen. I have no major complaints except the camera, which is poor at range shots but great for close ups. No GPS or the supposed google maps version is horrible but no worries since I have a portable GPS. I wish the phone was a bit lighter but it's not going to break my arm. As you can see very minor complaints but it looks like Apple didn't pay attention to the complaints-typical. On the plus side, we all can download the 2.0 software, which is pretty nice. Overall, great phone that revolutionizes the industry but not phones, in general-maybe the 3rd gen iPhone will the one to.
I love the iphone. The main draw was to have the full version of the internet but so many more features came to light that made me go "WOW!".
It can support a full VNC client to connect to your computer at home.
It can find you on a Google map and tell you what is in your area and what the freeway traffic is.
It can play games in full color and action.
It can hold and play all your mp3's via the ipod functionality and connect seamlessly into the itunes store.
It gives you infinite content for free via itunes podcasts.
Sure it has a few drawbacks with the hardware, even with the new version of the phone you can't get ipod on your bluetooth without a workaround in your voice mail system, but what it gives is amazing.
Curious to see if openmoca and android can compete.
Apple's iPhone is one of the best phones ever developed. It features almost everything that you might need from a phone. Music player, video player, wi-fi, Google Maps, YouTube, email, web browser, calculator, notes, weather, world time, timer, stop watch, unlimited possibilty of applications, camera, photos, and calendar.
However, there are some very basic features missing that are standard in most phones today such as copy/paste feature, MMS, voice dialing, not-so-great speakers, and enclosed battery that needs to be sent back to Apple for replacement. In addition the iphone demands utmost care and handling otherwise you'll end up with an ugly scratched up phone.
5 years ago, I carried an mp3 player, a palm pilot/electronic address-book, a blackberry (mandatory for work) and my cell phone.
Quite simply, the iphone solved that. Sure other phones had some of these functions listed above, but the iphone allows a person to use utilize them seamlessly.
One con that I heard from other iPhone users was about the poor battery life. I solved this problem by always keeping my iPhone at the lowest brightness setting; I can still see the screen and Apple icons with this brightness setting in low-light situations. I've used this setting for 6 months now. The battery life still last 48-hours before having to recharge.
I love it.
-Erik
