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iPhone 3G First Impressions and Reviews

agreed...

MustBeAMoron said:
Coverage area within the US is obviously a function of ATT. I live in a major metropolitan area in the US and literally everyone I know who has an iPhone unanimously agrees that they frequently experience dropped calls and poor call quality. That notwithstanding, even if you use your phone in an area with good coverage for voice or 3G, the rest of the features and functionality fall short of the competition. Battery life, for example. Better yet, don't you think it's absurd that the GPS fails to provide audible directions? Why no keyboard?

It's interesting to see the lengths to which Apple disciples will go to defend yet another inferior product. They're cute toys if you find it important to be noticed at Starbucks, but they're pretty much useless in the real world.
Click to expand...

I agree and living in the NYC area coming from T-mobile the dropped calls was a new thing. In addition I could tell right away from the first calls that the sound quality was definitely worse. But I got over it and the other little quirks with the first iPhone.

Having gotten the 2nd 3G model, I'm thrilled. Sound quality is better and discernibly so just on limited use to this point. The apps are just great and well this is just the first releases. It's a brave new world. Pandora, AOL/CBS, language translators, etc., it's just beginning.

And MLB is also absolutely great. Fans will being going nuts for it. Seeing beautiful clear crisp of important plays right from your phone for any game the same day. Nice.

The only negative I see is that if 3G will use more battery than you'd like.
I'l cope. :D

Oh and it not only feels good in your hand, but in your pocket.
 
MustBeAMoron said:
I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would want an iPhoney. The first generation was interesting as there were no similar phones at the time, and it's hard to dispute that the form factor was and remains very cool, but why would anyone want to buy one today? We now know how bad AT&T's service is. We also have much better phones to choose from (the LG Voyager, for example). The 3G network is valuable in Europe and elsewhere, but 3G coverage in the US is weak, at best. The iPhone doesn't even have a keyboard! The new version finally offers a GPS (a feature that has been offered on other phones for years), but the iPhone doesn't even offer audible turn by turn directions! Early reviews on the iPhone state that battery life is very poor. Why would anyone want one? It's not THAT cool!
Click to expand...

I know people like you really really want an iPhone deep down inside. Just as people who complaint about Ferrari having no backseats, Porsches having no trunk space, Rolexes having no battery backup, big houses taking too much energy to heat, thin women having small boobs, California is prone to earthquakes, etc., etc., etc..

But since you don’t have one, you try to convince yourself that you better off nothing having one by coming here trying to get approval from people that the iPhone isn’t all that.
 
MustBeAMoron said:
Coverage area within the US is obviously a function of ATT. I live in a major metropolitan area in the US and literally everyone I know who has an iPhone unanimously agrees that they frequently experience dropped calls and poor call quality. That notwithstanding, even if you use your phone in an area with good coverage for voice or 3G, the rest of the features and functionality fall short of the competition. Battery life, for example. Better yet, don't you think it's absurd that the GPS fails to provide audible directions? Why no keyboard?

It's interesting to see the lengths to which Apple disciples will go to defend yet another inferior product. They're cute toys if you find it important to be noticed at Starbucks, but they're pretty much useless in the real world.
Click to expand...

Wow, really? Did it ever occur to you that people feel confident to defend this device because it really is actually nice to use and do have a rich feature set? Have you ever listened to or read reviews about all of the other iPhone "clones" on the market? They all fall short. The LG Voyager, by the way, is hardly something special either.

I had the first generation phone from launch and used just about every feature on the phone as compared to the minimal features I'd find myself using when I was on Verizon using Samsung flip phones and LG ENV phones because the interfaces were so clumsy and unintuitive. I actually prefer no physical keyboard because if it was included it would just make the phone either thicker for a slide-out keyboard or give you a smaller screen size if it was on the front like a Blackberry. I suppose it just really depends on how much you text or e-mail doesn't it? Does that make the iPhone inferior? I don't think so. It makes it different. If features don't suit your needs, that's fine. Get something that does. But to call something completely inferior because it lacks a couple of minor things, but does so many other things much better than other phones just seems crazy to me. Yes, it would've been nice to have voice support and turn-by-turn instructions with the GPS, but having a disembodied female voice giving me driving instructions wasn't really my motivation for getting the new phone anyway.

The iPhone also has had many compliments from users and reviewers alike about the sound quality of the 1.0 and 3G phones and most say it's better than the competition within the AT&T network and otherwise. What about your friends with the horrible experiences... are they in the same general metropolitan area as you? The same area where you said AT&T doesn't have the greatest reception? How can you fault a phone for a carries signal strength in a given area? That's like being upset that your Honda Civic is only getting 20mpg on the highway instead of 30mpg even though you're stuck in gridlock traffic in LA to and from work five days a week. Not exactly the car's fault is it?

What I want to know is, if the iPhone is just a toy and "useless in the real world", what about all of the other non-smart phones? Are they useless as well? Serve no purpose? I understand plenty well that the iPhone isn't perfect, but it does do a lot right and does it well and that's why people like their iPhones.

I'll admit, I'm a fan of Apple hardware, but not a Fanboy. I not as over-the-top as some, but I do think they generally make good software and clean hardware. I won't just buy a product because it has an Apple logo on it or because Steve Jobs says so. I've only been using Apple products for just over a year (other than an iPod) and previous to that was always a Windows and PC builder/modder for years.

/rant
 
I've been a windows mobile guy for years. Mpx220, HTC Wizard and now I have an HTC Hermes heading for Ebay. I bashed the gen 1 iPhone last year, but this year with the addition of 3G and GPS, I was a bit intrigued. So much so that in Macon Georgia, I shamelessly showed up at the Presidential Pkwy ATT store at 4am on the 11th. I was first in line and picked up the 8GB black. I must say that i am completely blown away by the workmanship of the device. This is by far the tightest, sleekest electronic device i have ever owned. It makes a geek like me happy just to hold it and look at it.

As I got out of my truck today at church, I forgot I MiPhone in my lap. I have a dodge Ram 1500 that sits off the ground a bit. As the phone fell the 4 feet or so from my lap, my heart skipped a number of beats. I watched in horror as my brand new toy hit the ground FLAT, glass side down. I said a prayer as I picked it up and to my amazement, there is not a single scratch/crack/blemish/dent on the entire device. I cant say the same about my hermes the first few times i dropped it.

Now for the cons, while i love the physical device, i am a little less impressed with the UI. I find that the device is not nearly as customizable out of the box as i would like. I am used to being able to directly access the file system natively without having to bring in a third party app. I don't care for not being able to easily manipulate my desktop/today screen/ homescreen, and the hassle i have to go through to put a custom ringtone on MY phone is patently ridiculous. Not being able to cut and past and the whole onscreen keyboard deal are aggravating as is the lack of MMS support. Add to that the fact that iPhone's email client can't process .ics files so I am unable to process outlook meeting requests, something that i live my life by. Also a number of my current appts won't sync from my outlook calendar, BUT, even with all of this, i am still intrigued!!!

I have been reading this forum and others in prep for purchasing this device and have learned a great deal. I am sure that answers to the vast majority of my issues above are available. I just need to invest the time and effort to learn this device and OS the same way i did with Win Mo.

I am not an :apple: or Mac Head as of yet (not sure what the proper terminology is yet). I still have deep win mobile roots and it will be hard to part with my hermes, but I plan to pick me up a refurbed MacBook pro in the next week or so, learn objective C and see what is what inside this phone and with the Mac world in general.

Take it from a die hard windows guy, no matter what anyone says, this phone is SEXY with a capital S-E-X-Y and like it or not it was the 1st Gen iPhone that jump started Win Mobile modding and steered it in the direction it has gone in the last year or so.

And yes, pflau i think ...moron has a case of iPhone envy as well :D

Sorry for the LONG post, but I am just glad to be here right now:)

Long live MiPhone!!! :cool:
 
One major gripe of mine with the original iPhone is the very low earpiece volume. Even at the maximum setting I could barely hear callers when I was anywhere remotely noisy (outside, coffee shops, the car). I don't think I was the only one with this problem because more times than not when I see someone using an iphone outside, the person has his free hand pressed against his other ear to block out as much noise as possible.

Well, the iphone 3g has a louder earpiece...about 2 clicks louder than the original iphone. Still, it's not as loud as I would like, as I think max should really be MAX but definitely an improvement.

Also, the ringer seems to be much louder...another pet peeve was missing phone calls because the ringer was just too low.
 
pflau said:
I know people like you really really want an iPhone deep down inside. Just as people who complaint about Ferrari having no backseats, Porsches having no trunk space, Rolexes having no battery backup, big houses taking too much energy to heat, thin women having small boobs, California is prone to earthquakes, etc., etc., etc..

But since you don’t have one, you try to convince yourself that you better off nothing having one by coming here trying to get approval from people that the iPhone isn’t all that.
Click to expand...

like how you think
 
I got the phone on Friday. I was pretty thrilled with the function of much of it at first, but now after playing with it for two whole days, I'm a little wary.

First, the battery life is an issue. I've never used any other 3G phones before, so I'm willing to cut Apple slack that this is just the norm. However I must say I find it funny that in order to fully enjoy the phone, I have to turn off virtually every feature advertised as making the upgrade worth it. If I wanted a non-GPS, EDGE capable iPhone, I would have stuck with the original model.

Second, it does seem to have a decent amount of lag. It's nowhere near as snappy and responsive as version 1. Perhaps this is something they can fix with an update, or perhaps this is a sign of things to come as we load more apps onto our devices.

Third, I have noticed a difference in sound quality - for the worse. People I"m talking to say I cut in and out whereas previously I had no problems.

As far as the Apps go, I do have one complaint: why no trial periods? Some of the better, more expensive apps would be worth it to me if I could test drive them. I'm not dropping $10 on an app to find out that I don't like it.

All in all, I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. It has only been two days, so I'm going to take my time in accessing if it's worth the $200.
 
Amblinman said:
I got the phone on Friday. I was pretty thrilled with the function of much of it at first, but now after playing with it for two whole days, I'm a little wary.

First, the battery life is an issue. I've never used any other 3G phones before, so I'm willing to cut Apple slack that this is just the norm. However I must say I find it funny that in order to fully enjoy the phone, I have to turn off virtually every feature advertised as making the upgrade worth it. If I wanted a non-GPS, EDGE capable iPhone, I would have stuck with the original model.

Second, it does seem to have a decent amount of lag. It's nowhere near as snappy and responsive as version 1. Perhaps this is something they can fix with an update, or perhaps this is a sign of things to come as we load more apps onto our devices.

Third, I have noticed a difference in sound quality - for the worse. People I"m talking to say I cut in and out whereas previously I had no problems.

As far as the Apps go, I do have one complaint: why no trial periods? Some of the better, more expensive apps would be worth it to me if I could test drive them. I'm not dropping $10 on an app to find out that I don't like it.

All in all, I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. It has only been two days, so I'm going to take my time in accessing if it's worth the $200.
Click to expand...

You've hit my only real issue at this point...the UI is certainly less snappy than the 1st gen. Question for those of you that still own 1st gen iPhone that have upgraded to 2.0. Is it the software or the phone?
 
GNice said:
You've hit my only real issue at this point...the UI is certainly less snappy than the 1st gen. Question for those of you that still own 1st gen iPhone that have upgraded to 2.0. Is it the software or the phone?
Click to expand...

I have been using iPhone OS 2.0 for awhile not and I can say that there is a slightly performance degradation to the "snappiness".

The App Store is awesome. I just wish all the Apple store around me didn't sell out of the 16GB black iPhone. I can't wait to get one!!
 
i got mine

I got in line after work at about 11:30 pm. It was about 10 people in line. One guy had a generator, flat screen and an Xbox. WHen the store opened at 8. It only took about 30 or so minutes to get my phone.
I didn't get activated till about 3.
The app store is awesome. Especially remote. Coolness. I surf a lot at home so my home wi-fi is used a lot. The battery life sux for me. Kids movies, wife surfing. Eats it up.
 
bryng said:
A few quick impressions ...

I picked up the white. It is dead sexy.
Click to expand...


I had to order from ATT since the store was out. I went with white because I thought about a white vehicle. A white car will appear cleaner longer, and doesn't show fine scratches as easily. I wasn't trying to be sexy, but I guess I will be, now.:eek:
 
GNice said:
You've hit my only real issue at this point...the UI is certainly less snappy than the 1st gen. Question for those of you that still own 1st gen iPhone that have upgraded to 2.0. Is it the software or the phone?
Click to expand...

FWIW, guy I was waiting in line with said he noticed that there was a bit of a lag on 2.0 with his original iPhone.
 
Amblinman said:
Second, it does seem to have a decent amount of lag. It's nowhere near as snappy and responsive as version 1.
Click to expand...

Your choice of words, ie "decent amount" is somewhat misleading. I know what you mean, but I had to read onto the next sentence to make sure because as I read it, you were either saying that: 1) The lag is acceptable, as in, decent, or 2) the iPhone 3G is fugged.

Incidentally, which is it?
 
JoBroJr said:
I've been a windows mobile guy for years. Mpx220, HTC Wizard and now I have an HTC Hermes heading for Ebay. I bashed the gen 1 iPhone last year, but this year with the addition of 3G and GPS, I was a bit intrigued. So much so that in Macon Georgia, I shamelessly showed up at the Presidential Pkwy ATT store at 4am on the 11th. I was first in line and picked up the 8GB black. I must say that i am completely blown away by the workmanship of the device. This is by far the tightest, sleekest electronic device i have ever owned. It makes a geek like me happy just to hold it and look at it.


I am not an :apple: or Mac Head as of yet (not sure what the proper terminology is yet). I still have deep win mobile roots and it will be hard to part with my hermes, but I plan to pick me up a refurbed MacBook pro in the next week or so, learn objective C and see what is what inside this phone and with the Mac world in general.

Welcome to the club from Buford, GA !
As a former Windows Mobile user you will simply be AMAZED by the lack of running out of memory, freezing, crashing, etc. Just give it a chance and the simplicity of the UI will win you over. The customizing is coming from the soon to be largest APP store out there. Enjoy!
Click to expand...
 
SUCKS!! touch screen malfunctioning upon opening of the box. Apple won't exchange... got a dame iPhone that can't dial, type or play games. in fact... it can barely slide to unlock! :mad:
 
Demon said:
SUCKS!! touch screen malfunctioning upon opening of the box. Apple won't exchange... got a dame iPhone that can't dial, type or play games. in fact... it can barely slide to unlock! :mad:
Click to expand...

try installing the system. Use the "Restore" in itunes.

--Zed
 
I'm seeing some weird behavior on mine too... If anybody else has seen any of this and has a fix I'd really appreciate hearing about it.

* Exchange ActiveSync is hit-and-miss. It syncs automatically... sometimes. The rest of the time I have to initiate the sync.
* Exchange ActiveSync is only syncing my Inbox automatically. I have to manually check for changes in other folders (which is annoying because I have about 50 folders.) I don't see a place to select which folders to sync like I'm used to seeing on Windows Mobile phones.
* Exchange ActiveSync messages are only coming down in plain text, not in HTML. The same messages are showing up in HTML on my Glofiish (WM) phone.
* The facebook and NYTimes apps are crashing. The facebook app has forced a full reboot a couple of times too.

I've seen a few other weird things too, but those are the only ones that are coming to mind immediately.
 
Screen Flicker Prior to Powering Up

Does anyone notice that when they either push the home key or power button that the screen flickers a second before actually turning on? It only happens with the unit has been off for 10-15 seconds. Not immediately after turning it off and then turning it on. It's not actually lighting up when it happens, the backlight is off, but the entire screen sort of flashs without the backlight, and then turns on as usual. My wife's doesn't do it, but we noticed a similiar thing on both units when turning off, there's a little flicker following the backlight turning off, almost like there's some residual electricity in the screen discharging. However, not sure if its normal for my screen to be doing it on power up, that's essentially what I'm getting.

Thanks,
JB
 
iPhone 3G - I like it! 5hr line (Friday) not as fun

Hi All,

I love my new iPhone!

The GPS alone is worth it for me it saved me so much time this past weekend while I was traveling in unfamiliar territory. Learning curve was 0 minutes. The way it integrates with the rest of the apps adds huge value to this new component. I am excited by the potential of apps being built around this functionality.

It has taken me a bit of time to figure out the integration with mobile me but things seems to be syncing in a predictable way now.

I am worried about battery life. I wonder if it will be possible for a 3rd party to sell a larger battery upgrade with a new back cover I would definitely accept a thicker iPhone for better battery performance. The current battery is the Achilles heal as far as I am concerned.

AS for the long lines what a bummer it was to wait for 5hrs (my choice obviously). Seems like there is more to the story that we have not yet heard. I am curious. The apple staff were cool and helpful and helped to make the most of a tough situation. The way I look at it is. Yeah it could have gone a lot more smoothly but it didn't and the people in line with me and the staff did their best to make the most of it.

Anyway just another .02.

Peace,

-T
 
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