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EDGE was very usable, even in NYC (before everyone had a smartphone that is...)
 
My question was whether it was usable at all, since the iPhone was hailed as an excellent internet phone, yet I find EDGE totally unusable for anything.

The AT&T EDGE network was probably a lot better than it is now, mainly because in most areas, they're stripping the bandwidth for EDGE to the bare minimum. They're using all the bandwidth they can for HSPA+, leaving EDGE as an interface of last resort.

Some AT&T areas don't even have EDGE anymore. They're 3G/LTE only.

I do remember though, that EDGE was usable with my original iPhone. Slow, and definitely enough to make you want to use WiFi whenever possible, but still usable when you needed it.

I found the lack of simultaneous voice and data maddening though.
 
My question was whether it was usable at all, since the iPhone was hailed as an excellent internet phone, yet I find EDGE totally unusable for anything.

Short answer, yes, I found it more than usable. Longer answer, you're still comparing 5 year old tech to tech you're used to today. 56k was amazing in the 90's and I'm sure no one was complaining about it because that's what we had at the time. I also thought my college T3 line was the fastest thing I've ever seen in 1999 until I got my own broadband line....ad nauseam for the next 13 years (wow I'm getting old). The same comparison could be made about my 64MB RAM speed in college vs. the 8GB I currently have in my MBP.
 
I had one for 2 years (and still have it, as it's a classic!). Edge was very usable. I could stream pandora, search maps, get email, and use the web no problem. It was slow, but very usable. Today, it would be worse for two reasons. One, websites get ever more complex. And two, AT&T has seriously degraded its edge network in most places, turning those towers over to lte and 3G. But in 2007-09, it worked well enough.
 
I had a 3G Palm Treo 750 before buying an iPhone. The Original iPhone didn't seem all that slower in comparison. There are a few things that probably made the original iPhone more usable than it seems to be today.

Websites were not as graphic intense in 2007.
Networks were not overloaded with smartphone users back then. (Remember the price of the 1st iPhone? It wasn't subsidized)
Several parts of the country then were ONLY edge, so the network was maintained a bit better.

I still have my original iPhone & the data speed is usable. The limited processor power and RAM are more of a problem than it's antenna.
 
I loved my first iPhone.
It was slow as hell compared to re 5, but back then, nothing came close. There wasn't android. There was no touch screen phone as well made at all like the iPhone 1.
Edge was a pain, but it did have wifi. That helped a lot.
No App Store but were web apps. Haha. That was a joke.
There Weren't multiple home pages.
Very few mobile versions of sites, so everything was touch and zoom.

Oh how I remember.
One best part, the recessed headphone jack. Back then every headphone jack was huge and square, now they are all tiny and thin.
 
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