Recent years have seen a big rise in the number and frequency of new mobile phones on the market. Most recently, the emphasis on look and feel has increased, with the development of a whole segment of design and fashion phones more widely available. Mobile phones released over the years that have been popular for their design include the LG Chocolate, the PENCK phone (designed by Makoto Saito), the Motorola RAZR V3, the Serene (Bang & Olufsen together with Samsung), and the list goes on. We’ve even witnessed the birth of the ‘luxury’ mobile phone sector with the outrageously expensive Vertu phones and the limited edition Sony Ericsson Black Diamond concept phone (designed by Jaren Goh), as well as the cheaper Nokia 8800 series. Many of these have tended to be more focused on style than substance, or priced to exclude the vast majority of people.

 

We think that with the iPhone, Apple have struck a very good balance between design and functionality for what is after all, a mobile phone designed to appeal to the masses (rather than a wealthy elite). Granted, it remains an expensive alternative to your standard Nokia handset, but at $599 the demand was strong in the US. We think that the pricing should be satisfactory for a large number of people, especially those ‘early adopters’ of Apple products. We’ve spoken to many people about this and shown our own shiny new iPhone to everyone we know, and the reaction has been unanimous. Everyone loves the minimalist look and feel of the iPhone.

 

After all, what’s there not to like? Apple have stripped down the front of the iPhone to leave a beautiful optical-quality glass LCD and just one home button at the bottom instead of the usual clunky keyboards we’re used to, and a slot for an earpiece at the top. No clam-shell design to manipulate to access the screen, no unnecessary keys. The build quality feels very good and together with the weight of 4.8 ounces (which is evenly balanced), leaves you with the feeling that the iPhone is built to last – without being a brick (like some mobile phones carrying the Windows mobile interface!). You can tell the screen is very resistant to scratches and although we haven’t dropped ours yet, we sense it could probably take a few hard knocks and continue performing pretty well. In fact, thanks to the nicely curved edges of the iPhone and the size of the device (4.5 x 2.4 and 0.46 inches), most people can hold it quite comfortably in the palm of their hand to make a call or type a message. This goes for men and women as the iPhone is neither too big nor too small to hold with one hand (guys, have you ever tried to type an SMS on the Nokia 8800?). It is also comfortable to hold horizontally when you’re surfing the Internet or viewing a video, and just like the iPod, it is slim enough to fit comfortably in you shirt or trouser pocket.

 

Overall, the finish is very nice, with great attention to detail: you notice that edges fit well together as if the glass and steel components were moulded together, so you shouldn’t get the inevitable build-up of dust in those hard-to-reach places. One small issue seems to be the stainless steel rim however, which is susceptible to getting scratched. Now we understand why there’s such a big market for iPhone cases already!

The back of the iPhone also looks pretty good and remains minimalist in design. For the most part, it is made of aluminium and unlike the iPod, the finish is matte (meaning no fingerprints). It holds the 2 megapixel camera lens, the usual Apple logo (with a shiny metallic finish) and some technical blurb (serial, etc). The 1600 x 1200 camera is at the top left of the panel and features only the lens itself – no flash or mirror like you sometimes see on other mobiles. We look at the camera functionality in more detail later in the review. The bottom part is a strip of tough black plastic, which covers the iPhone’s radio antennas, a small speaker and a second grill for the mic. We guess that Apple placed it here, as far away as possible from the headphone socket, to minimise interference as much as possible. Inevitably, you will still notice interference however, but it could be worse, and more importantly the buzz doesn’t occur when you are using the standard headphones. This is also where you will find the connection with the iPhone dock, which resembles what Apple have used for iPods over the years.

Turning to the top of the iPhone, the key button is the wake/standby button. If you press on this one briefly, the iPhone will go to sleep. To turn it off completely, you need to keep it pressed for a bit longer. To turn it back on – you guessed it – just use the same button again. The button also has a couple of other uses: you can forward a call directly to voicemail with a couple of clicks, or turn off the ringer with a single click. You’ll also find the SIM tray here. You can change the SIM using a paperclip, which shouldn’t pose too much of a challenge for anyone. Last, but not least, you’ll find the headphone socket, but more on this below.

And finally on the left side of the iPhone, you’ll find the volume switch and a ringer on/off switch, which is pretty useful actually. If you turn off the ringer the iPhone will vibrate for confirmation. That said, this button doesn’t command all audio for the iPhone, just the ringer. You’ll still hear songs via the speaker if your headphones aren’t plugged in.

Now for the complaints. The main issue we have is shared by many others who have reviewed the iPhone before us. Frankly, we’re slightly surprised with Apple’s decision on this one given that they usually try to portray a ‘friendly’ image towards consumers. On the one side, Apple decided to include a standard 3.5mm jack for headphones, which is great. However on the flipside, they took the decision to design it in such a way that it is pretty much impossible to use anything else than the standard iPhone headphones without having to shell out something like $10 or more for a Belkin adapter . Given that we’re really not fans of the white iPhone headphones, our first instinct was to replace it with something better. And you’d be surprised how difficult it is to fit anything else into the iPhone.

 

 So the solution for anyone else who might have bought a decent set of headphones and the past and was hoping to upgrade from the pretty poor iPhone headphones (sound quality is fine, but we simply can’t make the fit properly in our ears) is to carry around with them an additional adaptor. The same goes for portable media players or even iPod cassette adaptors. Given the hefty price tag of the iPhone, not only is does this feel a bit unpleasant given that Apple did go to the trouble of making the headphone jack standard size (what was the point?), but it also defeats the purpose of having a minimalist design for the iPhone. After all, we thought that the whole idea with the iPhone is that less is more, and having to add an adaptor for the headphone is silly (assuming you don’t lose it along the way).

There have also been complaints about inevitable fingerprints left behind when you touch the screen of the iPhone. After all, unlike other mobile devices that come with a stylus, you have to use your fingers all the time with the iPhone. Well, it’s true, no doubt about that, we noticed this as well. A few points about this however. Firstly, we all know what happens when you touch glass or a mirror, don’t we? Secondly, the amount of fingerprints depends to some extent on the person using it (and how clean their hands are!). Thirdly, any fingerprints are hard to see unless you’re purposefully looking for them, given the brightness of the iPhone’s screen. Most importantly, a quick wipe with a cloth and your iPhone will be back to its shiny self, so this really shouldn’t be an issue in our view. Have a look at Apple's take on it in their 'Smudge Proof' ad.