|
They may call the UK the 51st State, but we have all come to accept that most technological consumer innovations coming out of the US take a while to reach our island these days. And so, as we heard with nervous anticipation that the Apple iPhone would finally be announced by Steve Jobs at the 2007 Macworld convention, a familiar sigh echoed around our room. Over the months, we watched with envy as hundreds of people queued outside Apple stores throughout the US to be the first to put their hands on the new phone. We read the first reviews in the major US journals and websites. And we looked at the beautiful photos and online demos of the little machine and wondered. We wondered what it would finally be like in our hands and if it could really meet our high expectations. After all, this is perhaps one of the most over-hyped multimedia devices to have been released in recent years – we’ve even seen it referred to as the ‘Jesus phone’ by some over-zealous Apple enthusiasts! Can this amount of hype for a mobile phone ever be justified? And importantly, we asked ourselves, how much would it cost in the UK?  Well, we’re pleased to say that after all the excitement and the long wait, the 8GB iPhone is about to be launched in the UK on 9th November 2007, via O2. You will need to splash out £269 to get your hands on it (that’s around $545 these days), and choose from tariffs ranging from £35 to £55 per month. We won’t go into the details of the packages offered by O2 here, but instead we’ll focus on reviewing the iPhone itself. By now, you will likely have read other reviews of the mobile phone / video iPod combo, but we think you’ll find plenty of interesting information and resources on our site. Enough information to feel you have a sufficiently informed view on the iPhone to decide whether or not you’re prepared to part with £269 of your savings in a few weeks. Suffice it to say, as in the US, the iPhone won’t support 3G in the UK. However, the good news is you will have access to a network of 7,500 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country, so if you’re lucky enough to be next to a big city, surfing the internet should be a bit smoother than what you’ve read in some reports. For those of you in Germany, you’ll be able to buy an iPhone via T-Mobile (also 9th November 2007), whilst you will have to go via Orange in France (release expected 29th November 2007). We expect it to become available in the rest of Europe by the end of the year, and in Asia during the course of 2008. As you’ve guessed by now, we couldn’t wait for the UK launch so we took advantage of a recent trip to the US to put the iPhone to the test ourselves. The following review summarises our own reactions to the different features of Apple’s latest “must have”, and an honest opinion to help you decide for yourself. It is intended to complement the reviews that are already available on the Net and elsewhere, some of which are excellent and very comprehensive already (and in some cases far more techie than ours). We’ve also included a number of links to the best ones we’ve found over recent months, to help you build a more complete picture. Our review is broken down into handy sections so you can quickly focus on whatever aspect you’re most interested in, but you can also read them in the order they are presented. A brief look at the history of the iPhone You could say that the iPhone is borne out of the experience Apple gained from the various successful generations of iPods, and in many ways, you’d be right. The iPod sits visibly in the belly of the iPhone and influences many aspects of how the device works. That said, the iPhone is much, much more than simply an iPod with a mobile phone feature, but we’ll go into that a bit later on. From what we’ve read, Steve Jobs was initially interested in developing touch-screens with the idea of one day perhaps launching a tablet-PC of some sort. However, Apple’s first foray into mobile phones was probably the ROKR E1 (released in Q3 2005), something they developed together with Motorola, sold as the first mobile phone to support iTunes. It’s fair to say that it didn’t really take off – or at least was not seen as a revolutionary device in its own right. It was, at best, a Motorola phone with iTunes pre-installed on it. However, Apple learned from the experience and continued to work in the background. After literally years of speculation, the iPhone was formally announced on 9th January 2007 and available in the US from the end of June 2007. Just before becoming available to the wider public in the US, at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference, Mr Jobs announced that the iPhone would eventually start supporting third party applications via the Safari platform (i.e. iPhone users could download the applications via the internet). These third party applications are not expected to be supported by Apple however – meaning that they could conflict with new software releases by Apple. So here we are today, a few months and many reviews later, holding the little device in our own hands, ready to give you our own opinion.
The bottom line: should you buy an iPhone right away?
We think it’s a bit unfair to summarise our review in a couple of lines or a list of Pros and Cons – after all, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at the iPhone and like everything, some things are great, others perhaps a bit disappointing. What we’ve written in this review is based on our own opinion and a lot of it is subject to discussion (you may very well disagree with us on many points!). But we also recognise that a lot of you may not read further than this page, so it’s only fair that you are left with some form of verdict at this stage. Those of you that are patient enough to read on however, will be rewarded with a much more balanced review with all the shades of grey that are justified in a proper in-depth review.
So, what do we think of the iPhone? Are the high price tag, the hours of queuing outside Apple stores, the months of hype justified, and more importantly, should you buy one yourself? The short answer is: probably, but not right away. Don’t get us wrong: there are a huge amount of features to love about the iPhone, and we took to it right away. In fact, we haven’t been able to put it down since we opened the box. You can spend hours playing with this little device. There is no doubt that the iPhone is an instant classic; that it will change the way people see their mobile phones (and even their iPods); and that it will create armies of devoted fans around the world. We even expect that some of the jargon associated with the iPhone (e.g. ‘pinching’) will become mainstream over time.
 As with other Apple products, the design, look and feel and user interface are second to none - for many people, these are sufficient reasons to buy one immediately. We love the multitouch screen and navigation, the bright colours, fantastic resolution and visual displays – you could spend hours playing with your iPhone. All that being said, some words of caution. Depending on what you look for in your mobile phone and if you go beyond purely the design elements, the iPhone has a number of limitations, especially if you already have an iPod (which many of us do) or are looking for certain types of functionality. In fact, there are some things that the iPhone does far less well than other devices out there (think email on Blackberry for example). More importantly, it is clear that Apple pushed to release this device quickly given the amount of hype surrounding the product. The software still needs a number of basic fixes and improvements before the iPhone can truly be appreciated for its full range of features. Our advice: ignore your instinct to buy the iPhone as soon as it hits the shops. Wait for version 1.5 (or whatever it will be called) to be released to flush out all of the issues people have found with the first iPhone. By then, you should also be able to benefit from faster connections, allowing you to fully enjoy the multimedia features of this little device. As they say, patience is a virtue – however tempting it may be to run out and get one immediately. Please bear in mind that Apple dropped the price in the US by 33% only 10 weeks after launching it (that's $400 instead of $600!). As you can imagine, this wasn't welcomed by the vast numbers of die-hard Apple fans that queued for hours to get one right away. Of course, if you are lucky enough to win an iPhone or be given one for Christmas or your birthday, enjoy! You won’t be disappointed. But if you’re thinking of paying yourself for this to upgrade from your current mobile phone plus iPod combo, don’t do so right away – after all, it remains an expensive little device if you’re not the type of person to use it to its full potential. Apple released the first update for the iPhone at the end of September 2007, so we’re hopeful you shouldn’t have to wait too long. Ten things we love about the iPhoneWe could easily list 50 things we love about the iPhone, but in the interest of giving you a brief overview, we’ve limited ourselves a bit. As you read further into our review, you’ll find that there are many features that make the iPhone stand out in a variety of ways. We expect that most people that start using an iPhone will find it very hard to switch back to another type of mobile phone, despite its limitations, unless they have very specific requirements (such as heavy use of emails). - The iPhone's design. Without a doubt, the iPhone’s minimalist design is beautiful and durable. As with the iPod, Apple have created an instant classic with the iPhone by eliminating completely the keyboard and practically all conventional keys. The shell of the iPhone is strong and difficult to scratch.
- User interface. We love the multitouch navigation feature. You will very quickly get used to ‘pinching’ the screen with your fingers, zooming in and out of pictures and searching through long lists of songs very quickly without even a second thought.
- LCD screen. The large (480 x 320 pixel), beautiful LCD screen is super sharp and brightly contrasted, making it a joy to navigate around the iPhone, zoom into photos and view videos.
- Internet. Surfing the internet on your mobile phone has never been this easy. We find that using Safari on the Apple iPhone is very clear and intuitive, thanks to the large screen and excellent rendering.
- iPod. Apple have taken the best features of the latest generation iPod and made them even better thanks to CoverFlow, multitouch navigation, its large LCD screen, and pretty good battery life. In our view, that makes the iPhone the best mobile multi-media device on the market at the moment.
- On-screen keyboard. Although not as intuitive as a physical one, most people should quickly get used to the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard, in large part thanks to the iPhone’s predictive text feature, which is very user-friendly. We don’t think the iPhone’s keyboard will ever be as user-friendly as a more traditional Blackberry-style one, but we think Apple have done a very good job all the same.
- Downloads. We found that downloading songs and videos on the go was generally very smooth, and even managed to play YouTube videos on our iPhone. There have been some complaints about the EDGE data connection, but we really didn’t come across any difficulties, particularly with Wi-Fi enabled. We’ll have to wait and see how the iPhone performs in Europe however.
- Sensors. The iPhone features similar motion sensors to those found on Nintendo’s Wii, which really helps enrich the user’s experience. Want to see your photo on portrait view rather than landscape? Just flip your iPhone sideways. Want to zoom in or out of your photos or the internet? Just press on the sides of your phone.
- Google Maps. We’re big fans of Google Maps and we’re delighted to see how well the application works on the iPhone. Whilst not a GPS, this is a great tool for getting around.
- Memory. We’ve focused on the 8GB model given that’s the first one to be released outside the US. We think that this gives you plenty of space to download a good amount of songs, photos and even videos. Of course, if you only focus on videos the iPhone isn’t your best bet over time, but remembering we’re talking about a mobile phone, we think it should be good enough for most people.
Ten things we don’t like about the iPhoneOK, it’s not hard to see why everyone raves about the iPhone, and we could easily leave it at that. As much as we love it however, there are a number of things we’re not entirely happy with – we really think Apple should have waited a bit longer before releasing it. Let’s face it, as much as we love the iPhone for its design and user interface, we can’t help but be disappointed at some of the features Apple settled with. The following are our top ten pet hates about the iPhone, the reasons why we think you should wait (yes, a bit longer!) before shelling out so much money for this beautiful little device. - Email. One of the top issues we have relates to the email functionality. A warning here: anyone who emails extensively on the road will be frustrated by the iPhone and should probably keep their current Blackberry. There is very little synchronisation with Apple’s own mail.app on OS X and we found it very hard to use Gmail on our iPhone. This could prove to be the biggest issue for many people in our view.
- 3G. There have been many complaints about the lack of 3G and the reliance on the EDGE data network. We didn’t come across too many issues using Wi-Fi but some reports of standard websites (e.g. MSN) taking over 2 minutes to load while surfing the Net are a real concern.
- SMS and voice dialing. Nowadays, you expect a high-end multimedia phone to allow you to do instant messaging, MMS or send multiple SMS at the same time. Also, where are the custom ringtones and voice dialling features? We are a bit surprised these are not set as standard on the iPhone.
- No office suite. Another gripe for those of you that are thinking of replacing their PDA or Blackberry with the iPhone. There is no office suite available on iPhone, with the closest thing to a Word application being the Notepad (or email), which is severely limited at best.
- Headphones. We never liked the iPod’s white headphones and always replaced them immediately with something that actually fits in our ears and doesn’t scream to anyone thinking of mugging you “I have an iPod in my right pocket if you’re interested”. Although the ones that come with the iPhone are adapted to allow you to use the phone feature, they are very similar. And here’s the bad news: because of the design of the headphone plug, most headphones simply won’t fit without shelling out more money for a cumbersome adapter. As you can imagine, we feel pretty lukewarm about this!
- Battery. It isn’t possible to replace the iPhone’s battery yourself. In theory that’s fine as long as it is still covered by a warranty, but after that you will have to pay Apple to change it. Given that there still appear to be some iPhones fitted with deficient batteries (with only 35-40% capacity available from the start), we suggest waiting a bit to make sure you’re not one of those unlucky few that ends up with one.
- Media applications. We mentioned that we like the way Safari is handled on the iPhone. Unfortunately, many sites use media applications such as Windows Media, Flash or Real instead of Apple QuickTime, none of which are supported by the iPhone. We expect Apple to address this with updates in the future, but it’s difficult to ignore this issue at present.
- Third party applications. This point is related to the one above. At present, Apple does not support any third party applications for the iPhone. Although many have been designed since it was launched, that means that any software upgrades from Apple will not be compatible with them.
- Camera. We don’t think much of the 2 megapixel camera on the iPhone and we’re surprised you can’t record videos, zoom, use a flash or control exposure given the emphasis on multimedia. At times, we ended up with blurred images due to the slow shutter speed of the camera.
- Interference. You will notice radio interference with a number of GSM devices, and the iPhone is no exception. We found that holding it next to a speaker or even our digital radio alarm clock generated a lot of interfering buzz. We don’t think Apple will do much to address this issue however, given that it is common with other mobile phones on the market.
|
|
|
