I just came back from the Apple Store where I spent 30 mins trying out the demo models (I did not purchase one).
My initial reactions:
Touch screen: extremely responsive and accurate. Zooming in and out was very impressive. When zoomed in, you can place a finger on the screen and pan the picture, webpage, etc in any direction. I can't overstate the accuracy of this touchscreen. In one word, wow!
Browser: Using wifi, it was very fast in comparison to my wifi over broadband that I use at home with PB. Macrumors loaded almost instantly, as did other high-traffic sites. I didn't think the demo models were cellular enabled, so I can't evaluate the speed of the EDGE network. On further reflection, I bet the cellular service was enabled. Too bad I assumed otherwise.
Keyboard: Very easy to use. Errors were self-correcting as promsed. For example, I typed "cppl" and it accurately offered a correction of cool. I only used the keyboard for about 10 mins of the time I used the device and I had almost no difficulty with one finger. With two thumbs, I tapped the wrong keys a little more with my left thumb. I can see where I would become extremely fast, and accurate, after using it for a little longer.
Pictures and Video: Simply beautiful. Really- wow!
Google Maps: I should have spent more time on this. I was able to quickly type and locate my home address. Looks great, jsut like Google maps through my computer. Bookmarking locations will be awesome when I travel.
Mail: Beautiful inline graphics, as previously reported. Attachments (Word and PDF) opened quickly and were easy to view.
Phone: As I stated previously, I did not think that the cellular service would be activated on the demo models, so I never bothered to look at the phone parts (especially since everyone in the store was crushing in behind all of us toying with the phone and I was hearing grumbling that I was spending so much time with my demo- how sad is it that I have to refer to a demo phone as mine?! lol)
You Tube: Worked well, but I only tested it for a short clip. Not sure if it was streaming or cached.
Settings: I didn't get too far with the settings. I looked through them, but don't remember much about them. I looked to see if I saw anything about ActiveSync. Didn't see it, but I also did not expect to as of yet. I've read that this will potentially be added in the near future.
Overall Impressions: I wanted to find reasons not to fork over my hard-earned cash for this device, but I have to say that I am really, really impressed. It is beautiful in industrial design as well as the gui. It is highly responsive and accurate. Over wifi, it is fast. The only thing I have yet to see is how it works over EDGE and how the voice service sounds. Even still, I rate this as a buy.
Add to my original post:
Screen rotation: I noticed that I had to keep the phone more or less straight up and down when I rotated it in order for the screen to rotate to landscape mode. That took a moment to get used to, but after that it was no problem. After it rotated, I was able to hold it an angle and it remained in whichever orientation it had been changed to. Was very responsive after I realized this.
