iPhone 3G Review

6 weeks ago, I got the new iPhone 3G 16Gb mobile phone from the Apple store. I tried to get one the Friday that they were released, but 2 AT&T and 1 Apple Store lines that I stood in ran out. So I decided to wait a couple of weeks and try again. I still had to stand in line at the Apple store, but after an hour, I got one. The activation took a few seconds and I was out the door. I also bought a case and Mobile Me (I will post a review a Mobile Me at another time).

The first thing that I noticed as I started navigating around the iPhone is that it is more than just a phone. The email works great, the apps are very useful, the GPS adds great features to many apps and the internet browsing is simple and fast. It uses the fastest connection that it can find depending upon what is available at your location. Edge is the slowest, 3G is the midrange (when you can reliably connect to it) and WiFi is the fastest.

I setup fetch email for my current address and setup push email for my new Mobile Me address. The email works fine in both fetch and push and allows me to reply to messages instantly. Is it as good as a Blackberry? Yes and no, It gets your messages just as quickly as the Blackberry thanks to Mobile Me push and Microsoft exchange server compatibility. The iPhone has built in viewers for MS Word and Excel and for Adobe Acrobat as well as picture viewers and movie/audio players. The Blackberry has the advantage of having a physical keyboard which makes thumb typing a breeze for most people. After 6 weeks of practice with the virtual keyboard, I have gotten very proficient with it, but that is a pretty long learning curve for a simple item like a keyboard.

The 3rd party apps are a great addition to the iPhone. Depending upon your interests, you can personalize your phone to make doing your daily tasks faster and simpler. There are blogging apps, ebay apps, games, etc. Currently there are approximately 3000 apps available on the iTunes store.

There have been 2 updates to the iPhone since I got it. Both were for "Bug Fixes". The phone is snappier since the updates.

So is the iPhone the best thing since sliced bread (and what was the best thing before slice bread?)? No, the battery life is horrendous. If you charge it all night and try to get through the day without plugging it in, it will die on you...and thats if you only use it for phone calls. If you check emails and browse the web and play movies or music and use a few apps, your iPhone will be dead in a couple of hours. So you have to plug it in in the car, at the office and when you get back home. The way to get better battery life is to turn off the GPS and the Wifi and the 3G and the push email and the iPhone (just kidding bout the last one). So all of the great features that your iPhone can do are useless for an ultra mobile person. Even the great Steve Jobs can't change the basic law of nature..."the light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long".

I like the phone and am happy with it.

Chas