I live in the UK and have been waiting for the iPhone 3g since the first iPhone was released. I waited well over a year, hoping that Apple would get the Basics right
Unfortunately, I am sorry to say they have not. This is not a comment to Bash the iPhone, it is merely my experience and I offer it as some way of guidance for anyone who is thinking of buying one.
I write this coming from a Mac background. I have used Macintosh since the very start and always supported their products regardless of what other platform users have said or thought. That is why I am really disappointed with Apples 2nd attempt at the iPhone. Remember, this has always been sold as and promoted as a phone and it just does not do that job very well.
The BAD;
You cannot set user profiles and timed profiles like most phones have been able to do since the mid 90s. At night I like to set my phone to a pleasant low ring which returns to my normal ringtone at 6am.
Battery life is very poor considering my type of usage Occasional emails, minimal web browsing, 4-5 sms messages mainly phone calls. I have location services off, screen brightness very low, I always remember to put the phone into stand-by and barely get a days use. I have been to the Genius Bar but they could not improve the performance.
Random freezes which require a full restart, these are very annoying and becoming more common.
The ring volume is not loud enough in todays noisy city environments.
The hands free speaker is not loud enough to conduct a conversation, unless you are in a room on your own.
Email should mirror the SMS notification system and display a message on the blank stand-by screen when new mail arrives just like when a new SMS is received. At the moment I have to keep waking the phone, unlocking the device, and checking the email icon on the dock. This is very annoying when you are in a meeting, for me and other people around me. I know you are all going to say it vibrates but even that is not very strong and can easily be missed. Even when the phone is not in Silent mode the New Mail is not obvious enough, why cant I choose the sound that suits me?
Also, if you have more than One email account you cannot view them all as One inbox as you can within Mail on OS X. You have to keep going into each inbox and then returning to the main email menu and doing it all over again. A real pain in the backside if you have Six email accounts you have to check!
There is no way to attach attachments in Mail? You can only send photos from Photos and then you can only do it One at a time! Come on, how time consuming is that when you have a lot of pictures to share.
I cannot find a way to set the time before diverting calls to answerphone. At the moment it only rings for about 20 seconds and then diverts. I live in a 3 storey house, by the time I have run downstairs I have missed the call! (dont tell me I should have the phone on me)
The ability to hang on to a signal is a basic premises of any phone and my iPhone fails terribly. On a test this morning heading into London on the train I pitted the iPhone against a colleagues Blackberry. The Blackberry won hands down. For almost all of the journey the iPhone could not connect to the network and Safari kept telling me there was no signal The Blackberry was on the same O2 network as my iPhone and did not miss a single opportunity to access email or the web.
Have you tried to customize the home screen? If you hold down the screen for more than 2 secs all the icons start to wobble and you can drag them to your desired position which is cool Except you cant, because every time you move one all the others all reposition themselves in what I can only describe as Random I am sure there is a knack to this but I cannot figure it out.
You cannot change the bottom Four keys. Why should Apple decide what I want there. How hard could it be to allow users the choice.
The camera is rubbish My old Nokia has a better quality camera and its Two years old.
There is more but I dont want to sound negative and I am tired.
The GOOD;
SMS is great - I love the threaded conversations.
Movies look great but really zap the power.
iPod is nicely laid out but mine always seems to start up at maximum volume which does annoy me a lot.
iPlayer works well, when you can get a strong 3g signal or on Wi-Fi.
Set-up is really easy and great if you are a technophobe.
CONCLUSION;
If you want a device that does it all in one, then I guess the iPhone is for you but you must be prepared for the shortcomings I have listed above. Dont get me wrong, it is a marvel of modern technology, but so was the the first Motorolas which came with their own built in car battery! It was great at the time but we have all moved on so why has the iPhone in todays modern and demanding World not addressed all the basics? I think that Apple will address some of these issues through Firmware Updates, but most should have been corrected with the launch of the iPhone 3g. I loved the UI and the feel of the phone and I really wanted it to work for me but is just falls way to short. Having said that I will be buying an iPod Touch so that I can have the vast majority of what I loved about the iPhone without the stuff I hated. In my opinion, buy the iPod Touch and get a Blackberry or other device to check your email.
I write this coming from a Mac background. I have used Macintosh since the very start and always supported their products regardless of what other platform users have said or thought. That is why I am really disappointed with Apples 2nd attempt at the iPhone. Remember, this has always been sold as and promoted as a phone and it just does not do that job very well.
The BAD;
You cannot set user profiles and timed profiles like most phones have been able to do since the mid 90s. At night I like to set my phone to a pleasant low ring which returns to my normal ringtone at 6am.
Battery life is very poor considering my type of usage Occasional emails, minimal web browsing, 4-5 sms messages mainly phone calls. I have location services off, screen brightness very low, I always remember to put the phone into stand-by and barely get a days use. I have been to the Genius Bar but they could not improve the performance.
Random freezes which require a full restart, these are very annoying and becoming more common.
The ring volume is not loud enough in todays noisy city environments.
The hands free speaker is not loud enough to conduct a conversation, unless you are in a room on your own.
Email should mirror the SMS notification system and display a message on the blank stand-by screen when new mail arrives just like when a new SMS is received. At the moment I have to keep waking the phone, unlocking the device, and checking the email icon on the dock. This is very annoying when you are in a meeting, for me and other people around me. I know you are all going to say it vibrates but even that is not very strong and can easily be missed. Even when the phone is not in Silent mode the New Mail is not obvious enough, why cant I choose the sound that suits me?
Also, if you have more than One email account you cannot view them all as One inbox as you can within Mail on OS X. You have to keep going into each inbox and then returning to the main email menu and doing it all over again. A real pain in the backside if you have Six email accounts you have to check!
There is no way to attach attachments in Mail? You can only send photos from Photos and then you can only do it One at a time! Come on, how time consuming is that when you have a lot of pictures to share.
I cannot find a way to set the time before diverting calls to answerphone. At the moment it only rings for about 20 seconds and then diverts. I live in a 3 storey house, by the time I have run downstairs I have missed the call! (dont tell me I should have the phone on me)
The ability to hang on to a signal is a basic premises of any phone and my iPhone fails terribly. On a test this morning heading into London on the train I pitted the iPhone against a colleagues Blackberry. The Blackberry won hands down. For almost all of the journey the iPhone could not connect to the network and Safari kept telling me there was no signal The Blackberry was on the same O2 network as my iPhone and did not miss a single opportunity to access email or the web.
Have you tried to customize the home screen? If you hold down the screen for more than 2 secs all the icons start to wobble and you can drag them to your desired position which is cool Except you cant, because every time you move one all the others all reposition themselves in what I can only describe as Random I am sure there is a knack to this but I cannot figure it out.
You cannot change the bottom Four keys. Why should Apple decide what I want there. How hard could it be to allow users the choice.
The camera is rubbish My old Nokia has a better quality camera and its Two years old.
There is more but I dont want to sound negative and I am tired.
The GOOD;
SMS is great - I love the threaded conversations.
Movies look great but really zap the power.
iPod is nicely laid out but mine always seems to start up at maximum volume which does annoy me a lot.
iPlayer works well, when you can get a strong 3g signal or on Wi-Fi.
Set-up is really easy and great if you are a technophobe.
CONCLUSION;
If you want a device that does it all in one, then I guess the iPhone is for you but you must be prepared for the shortcomings I have listed above. Dont get me wrong, it is a marvel of modern technology, but so was the the first Motorolas which came with their own built in car battery! It was great at the time but we have all moved on so why has the iPhone in todays modern and demanding World not addressed all the basics? I think that Apple will address some of these issues through Firmware Updates, but most should have been corrected with the launch of the iPhone 3g. I loved the UI and the feel of the phone and I really wanted it to work for me but is just falls way to short. Having said that I will be buying an iPod Touch so that I can have the vast majority of what I loved about the iPhone without the stuff I hated. In my opinion, buy the iPod Touch and get a Blackberry or other device to check your email.
