Apple iPhone sized up and compared to Treo 750, Moto Q, and BB Pearl
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted January 9th 2007 4:32PM
posted January 9th 2007 4:32PM
Thanks to the ever-convenient sizeasy.com, we've been able to get an idea of how big Apple's new iPhone is in comparison to other smartphones in a similar class to Apple's first cellular device. As you can see, it's pretty much in the middle of the pack: it's practically equally as thin as the Motorola Q, but ain't quite as high; it's nowhere near as thick as the Treo 750, but it is slightly wider and taller; and it bests the Pearl in terms of thinness, but loses out on width and height. Hopefully this gives you a better idea of how the iPhone sizes up against its competitors. Check out some more size comparisons from different angles after the break. 
From the side.
From the top.
From the front.
Whoops, looking at the wrong number. It's .1 cm thicker.
apparently not
We need not quibble over millimeters ... the substance is the interface (touch, wide-screen, no sylus, no buttons)and for the first time, phone, music, video and web browsing on a single device that is actually usable.
Jobs exaggerated a products features in a speech?
OMG?!
Why?
First the backdated stock options!
Now this...
Why Jobs why!?
Show me that one of those others have a 3.5", 480x240, touchscreen LCD and you can keep on keeping on with that size comparison.
The Q's "official" dimensions probably don't take the chiclet keys or bumpout at the bottom rear into account. Verizon sez it's .47" thick, Moto sez .45", so who's got the right measurements?
I wonder what the battery life will be on this the iphone
5 hours for regular usage.
16 hours for music.
Read your specs. Apple says using the phone and Internet Communicator functions was 5 hours. You get 16 hours if all you're doing is listening to music.
Whatever the size, that's the mobile phone I'm getting!
It has unique features the other ones don't and that, in and of itself, is more than enough for me to switch to... Apple.
iPhone it's just a LITTLE bigger than iPod 30GB
ok, i have the Q right here and the keys do add about 2 millimeters to the product. I measured the thickness by placing the phone down on its face keys down then measuring.
Who cares!! For us Mac heads it's just what we need.
We have been the at the butt of jokes all through our Mac lives so it's a great time to be a Mac user.
Seems like the jokes going to be on the windows sheep before long, that's if most of them have not already jumped over the fence already.
I dont care if its bigger than the bible. :-D Goodbye Sidekick.
I'm still not sold on this. We'll see once the reviews come in. But, $500 for a phone that only has 4Gig's of music doesn't make it a music player that I want. $600 for 8GB doesn't sweeten the deal either.
I'm not one to go with the free phone deals at all. I have a Verizon XV6700, which I think I paid about $300 for when it first came out. I like the phone, I don't mind using the stylus all that much but I do enjoy the loads of programs that are out there for it, as well as the games that keep me occupied when waiting for something. The keyboard on my phone slides out, and is actually a nice keyboard. I can comfortably thumb type quickly and still have the whole screen to review what I've typed.
My biggest reason that I liked this particular phone is the choices I had of carrier. Verizon and a few other local carriers offered this phone. This let me choose the service that was right for me. I use ActiveSync, which is really easy to Sync all of my email, contacts, etc. from work and from home.
I think the real market for these more expensive phones that have these capabilities is the business user. And I don't see a business wanting to spend the money so save 1mm here or there or because it has iTunes on it... Right now the big phone to have is the RAZR and all the other spin-offs of that. They're big because they have a decent design, they're extremely small, and they're cheap.
Lastly, I think you'll have your hard core Mac fans pick these up immediately, but once the general masses have the oppurtunity a lot of them will pass. Spending $500/$600 AND having to sign a 2 Year Contract is pretty big. Especially when you consider Apple's penchant for releasing an "update" every year. If they bring this out in 6/07, and then 6/08 release another one, you're going to have a lot of pissed off people that want to have the latest and greatest but now have to wait another year for their contract to renew. Then, they'll be dealing with Cingular/AT&T about why they don't get the same discount as New Subscribers on the next iPhone.
This is something that we'll have to wait and see what arises. I just don't see myself or any of my bleeding-edge-of-technology friends picking this up, even though I have 2 iPods (4GB 1stGen Nano ordered the day of release & 60GB Video iPod 5G) and have been prepping to get either a Mac Book Pro 17" or the new Alienware m9750. So, I'm definitely not Anti-Mac, I just don't think the key to simplicity is combining devices, but rather communication between devices and less restrictive DRM's.
The RAZR isn't quite small. It's very thin, but that's all. I have some sort of generic Sanyo flip phone through Sprint from 2004. When compared to a RAZR though, my phone is a bit thicker, but it's also about half as tall and not quite as wide. It's a nice phone, but I still find that mine is functionally smaller.
Why are we comparing the size of this phone to current phones and phones that have been out for a while? It's not coming out until June. Let's see what Motorola, Samsung, et al can come up with in the next six months.
Also, I know everyone is very excited over the iPhone (the apple one, not the cisco one) but have any of you every tried to dial a phone number on a touchscreen while driving? Not fun.
Actually no, I have never tried dialig an iPhone while driving. :)
@Chris:
I don't use a phone while driving. Quite frankly, nobody should...
However I do understand your point in that there is no tactility to a touch screen which makes it difficult to type without looking.
That's a non-issue in California at least...dialing/talking without a headset on a cell will be illegal in a couple of months here.
Two things that would keep me from buying this phone:
1) Price. If I could get the 4 GB for $299, I might go for it. But $499 is too expensive for this gadget.
2) Cingular. Cingular gets poor coverage in my area, plus there's no 3G on the phone. If they brought out an EVDO version for Sprint or Verizon, I might be in.
No keyboard is a bit worrisome, but I'd like to try it out in person before making a final judgement.
I also wonder about the software stability. They are not letting people touch them at MacWorld, rather you can only see it in a glass case. This leads me to believe they have alot of kinks to work out in the software, which makes me question their June schedule.
This thing will not really take off until it comes down in price and is available for CDMA carriers in the US. And those things won't happen for about 12-18 months after the initial release.
Interesting point on the size - the only reason it's this thin is because it doesn't have the 3G internals which would have increased it's thickness. This in my opinion may be it's down fall. In the EU & APAC where 3G not edge dominates it's a pointless device as what's good about having great internet data features if all you can get is a ~47k/sec connection...
In the keynote, Mr Jobs specifically addressed that this iPhone would be the first of many in the coming months, to include 3G in future versions. I would not really expect it to make the device any larger though -- you're talking about a different phone chip or chipset at worst. It may even be as simple as enabling it in software.
audioeric - I don't think is going to be a big business phone at all. We have about 150 Treos using Goodlink and there's no way we're opening our firewall to allow IMAP access to our exchange servers. IMAP is unencrypted and it would have to be open to the entire internet because you don't know what IP address these things will get.
Chris - I agree, I don't see Businesses going to this at all. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear. I was kind of typing free thought..
I also agree with others about dialing with a touchscreen while driving.. With my XV6700 I use the joystick to navigate through my contacts and select, but to dial I wait until I'm stopped.. It's just impossible to try and dial safely while driving...
Something else I thought about is that a big market for iPods is Christmas gifts/Birthday Gifts/etc. I gave my sister one for her Graduation/Birthday Gift last year. I know countless other people that have received iPods as gifts. The market for the iPhone for Gifts will be very small.
I don't think is going to be a big business phone at all. We have about 150 Treos using Goodlink and there's no way we're opening our firewall to allow IMAP access to our exchange servers. IMAP is unencrypted and it would have to be open to the entire internet because you don't know what IP address these things will get.
1. VPN is your friend.
2. IMAP is only "unencrypted" if you don't encrypt it.
No offense, but people running real operations know this stuff.
I don't get what some people complain about.
The smaller are thick, and the iPhone is just smaller in all dimensions but thickness than the Q which is the other one with a thin form factor. Just use the one you like stop complaining about the rest
It sucks that is a cingular exclusive, I want it unlocked, but it's size isn't a big problem, but I guess haters will always find something about the object of their woe
aap: There was a recent copyright law passed in the US that required that cell phones be made available to work on any compatible network and cannot be "locked" into a carrier.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/23/business/NA_TEC_US_Digital_Copyright.php
That said, I'd expect to pay at least $300 more if you could even buy an Apple iPhone without signing a Cingular service contract.
Is there going to be a new stand alone ipod? Ive been looking for info on if and when its going to be released.
Wow, the Treo is a brick compared to the others. It's nearly twice as thick. Palm better wake the hell up; they had ample warning, and in the time they had, they underestimated Apple and did nothing. (Remember these famous last words?: http://daringfireball.net/2006/11/colligan_head_stuck )
Why did it take so long for someone to put gigabytes of storage in a phone? At least the 700w and some others have an SD card slot, but too bad the Windows Mobile OS is so bad.
This doesn't feel like the best place to really discuss the phone, but the main thread is huge to the point where I see no chance of a reasonable discussion.
So here goes.
I'm really excited about the device. It's incredibly small for what it offers, 8gb of music is a reasonable amount, and the full fledged browser plus simply slick design are really enticing.
I'm a bit of an MS fan though, and generally not pro apple.... and one of the main reasons is simply price. Apple exists because their fanboy followers are willing to pay Apple a higher margin of profit on their devices. It's all common knowledge and a great business model for them. But $600 every 2 years for a device just feels expensive.
But that's not the real problem in my eyes. I'm a HUGE fan of the htc windows mobile candybar phones. It's been the best balance of size, price and features for me so far in the last 3 years. One of the biggest issues I've had with Cingular is their product segmenting when it comes to discounts. 2 things that have not been mentioned anywhere I've seen that need to be considered.
1) This will be equated to a pocket pc (even though apple compares it to a smartphone). As such, to get the discounted price with a 2 year contract, you will most likely need to subscribe to their $40 a month data plan (it would only be $20 if it was a smartphone). Now it's possible Apple isn't letting vendors offer any rebates (which is what you need the data plan to qualify for) but just doing straight softer prices, in which case this would be a non-issue, but we'll see what happens. Cingular is quite money hungry when it comes to business phones simply because they know they can fleece the market (there isn't really any shame in this all of the mobile providers do it).
2) Smartphones don't qualify for phone insurance on Cingular. I assume this means Apple will be offering extended warranties, and I hope Cingular will be selling Apple's extended warranty too.
My main concern is price... what can I say that's a lot of money ::shrug::
I also don't like the idea of sync'ing with iTunes. And what's the point of a business deal with yahoo for email, what business user gets yahoo mail? This needs to sync with exchange server on the phone, not imap, as mentioned above. That's going to be the deal breaker.
This is an absolutely gorgeous device, and the software looks hot too, but I don't see the market they are pitching it too. I'd say it's too expensive for the average user, but then I said that about the $400 iPods so what do I know. I feel like iTunes would be a deal breaker in the business world as well as the lack of exchange server support. It's got business features, or attempts at them, yet it looks like a consumer device. But how many average consumer college kids or what not have the unlimited data plans on their phone?
I'm not sure what to think in the end, a big part of me wants it, a big part of me fears how it would fit in with the rest of my microsoft products (what's the coding language for it anyway so I can write apps for it), I guess it comes to wait and see.
Jonathan-
I think one of the biggest differentiators of this phone is the software UI, and how it ties in all the various features (phone, web, Google Maps, photos, etc.) together into what seems like a pretty seamless interface.
Apple totally designed the UI from ground up to take advantage of the hardware interface, unlike Microsoft with the PocketPC phones (or whatever the full screen model is called.) And Apple didn't stop there- they tweaked the hardware to allow for multiple touch inputs and added stuff like the proximity and motion sensors as well.
We won't know until we get the unit in our hands, but I have a feeling Apple is not going to mess up usabilitiy, and we are looking at the future of handheld device UI right here (similar to what the iPod did for digital music.)
I think we're also just scratching the surface of potential applications too. The iPhone is probably going to be a better platform for widgets than the Mac OS X Dashboard ever was. Myspace, EBay, Skype, blah blah blah...all within a month or 2 after it's released.
That little 1% market share exercise Jobs did shows that their sales expectations are probably realistic. For at least the first few months, they're going to sell every single one they make.
Then at the next MacWorld, they are gonna double the storage capacity and add 3G, and probably chop $100 off the price.
By the time 3-4 years pass, this is going to be an awfully compelling buy for a LOT of people.
1 final point- Jobs mentioned at one point that he could play with this phone all day (and I completely believe him.)
Cell phones are the new substitute for twiddling your thumbs these days. If anyone is alone waiting in line or something like that, chances are they are probably playing around with their cell phone.
Bottom line is people are going to want this phone. Not everyone at the same time, but this UI is just too slick to pass up. It's going to take awhile too for other companies to catch up, as Apple's computer GUI expertise clearly is put to good use here. Sure companies can ape the features, but look how long it has taken Microsoft to copy OS X?
I don't think Apple is trying to woo the business market. Businesses are more interested in keeping costs down than continually investing in cutting edge technology, which is a big part of why Apple has never (and may never) really make a dent in that market. My feeling is that Apple's market is and always will be consumers. And though I agree that there's probably not a well-defined exisitng market out there for the iPhone, catering to exisiting markets isn't what Apple excels at -- they're interested in vision, innovation and creating a market for their products in the process. Of course, whether Jobs' vision is accurate or not is a matter of opinion (remember the Cube?), but he's generally been right on the money right from the day the first Apple II came out. As for the iPhone, any first release of any product can and will be improved on over time, but I think the iPhone will have a significant impact on a market which, from a creative aspect, has been stagnant for a while now.
To answer your question about who they are marketing to, its not to big business. MS has that locked up without a doubt. its to people like my friends and I, who all use blackberries right now. we are "stylish techno nerds." None of us work in the corporate world. We all work in the entertainment industry, and bought the blackberry. We have all already vowed to buy the iPhone as soon as it comes out.
My main reason that i love this phone is that, for all of my computing life I have had problems syncing with my mac. I download all the different programs that are supposed to allow me to function, and they never work out. No worry of that now.
Jonathan--
No offense, but you like a lot of people are, I feel, slightly blindered by the circle you're currently used to dealing with.
1. Exchange Server -> Blackberry isn't, in the wider world, anywhere near the level of commonplace that certain business users who are used to it think it is. There are many huge corporations and most of the largest universities in the world that will not use Exchange for the same reason that no real ISP uses it for their users' email--it takes absurd amounts of expenditure and work to make it scalable, and their users demand a wider range of options (ie, standards compliance, although that phrase would mean nothing to the users). If you look at all businesses, not just small samples of consulting companies or some such, there are orders of magnitude more users on IMAP than Exchange. Orders of magnitude.
2. Price--the price is comparable to other top-of-the-line 'smartphone' releases, which isn't even really a fair comparison. We'll have to wait and see, but from the demo it looks to be, both in ability, integration, and ease-of-use, much closer to a pocket-sized tablet PC than the clunky suicide-inducers that most "smartphones" are.
3. "What college kids or whatnot have unlimited data plans?" That's the huge point that everyone seems to be overlooking. Who needs it? Every mildly respectable college campus has near-pervasive wireless. Every coffeeshop, restaurant, and even bar not only around campuses but in any area of any mid-sized city where younger people gather, has an intentional open wi-fi network on every corner and eight unintentional ones in every apartment building. You won't *need* data plans if you're those users. If you're that very small subset of business user who seriously depends on checking your email in the airport or in the back of your hired car, you'll still want that plan, but you'd have it anyway. Everyone else will be *ecstastic* at a capable computer/media/comunication device that lets them take advantage of ubiquitous wi-fi with something that they can carry in a pocket instead of a briefcase.
Additional height and width in this case is a *good* thing since it means a bigger screen. It's not wider or taller because of buttons or wasted space, it almost all screen real estate. The unnecessary dimension is thickness and it's the thinnest of them all.
EDGE isn't the greatest/fastest standard out there, but at least the iPhone has wifi also. With wifi available all over the place, hopeful you won't have to use EDGE that much.
That's way smaller than I thought. I'll get one when someone figures out how to unlock it.
Of course, the Sony Ericsson w950i already has a touchscreen and 4GB of onboard memory, net access (via Opera), push email and longer battery life too.
And it has real buttons to press. :)
Here are a few more comparisons, including screen size overlay:
http://slavior.wordpress.com/2007/01/09/iphone-screen-dimensions-and-comparisons/
Just a thought to the people that mention it being hard to use while driving.
Please don't use a cell phone while driving. No matter the phone it takes attention away from the 3000lb metallic monster you are driving. It's illegal in the UK and several cities around the US. It's also just dumb and unsafe and im glad the touchscreen makes it harder for you to do it.
This is a great phone. There is no denying that. It has a great design, apple software, a 2 mp camera, and its an iPod. There are only two problems i have with this phone.
1.)If I was to get one, i would want to try texting on the touchscreen, eventhough it looks cool and seems to work,
2.)Cingular is the worst network there is. Give it to Verizon. Everyone who believes cingular is the best should pick up consumer reports. In the 20 cities the carriers were tested, Cingular came in last 7 times, second to last 11 times, and never came in first. Verizon came in First 14 times and came in second the other 6 times. Also, they won the test comming in first not only for service, but also for costomer service. Cingular only beat Sprint/Nextel, and complaints included low levels of costomer satisfaction, static and busy curcuits A LOT, and for not listing who this "Leading independent research compacny" in their commercials is. Hmm, this is not good! At my house, Verizon gets all bars, while cingular struggles to get service.
IF YOU ARE GOING TO PAY 500-600 FOR A PHONE, YOU WANT A CARRIER THAT GIVES YOU SERVICE!
Hello. It's a phone that handles music and video too. Not an iPod with a phone in it.
Does anyone know if there will be an "inflight" mode for this phone? Something that would allow all wireless features to be disconnected so we can appease the idiots at the FAA that lie to us and say that our wifi, bluetooth, EDGE, and GSM will bring down the 777 we're flying cross country on? One of my main uses of my iPod is music/video while flying. It would be a deal-breaker if I couldn't use the iPod features of my iPhone on an airplane...
Well I watched Jobs presentation live. After the initial excitement (Jobs is one good snake oil salesman) the reality hit me square in the face. Now I think that this iPhone is the new Segway. Anybody remember the hype surrounding that revolutionary product?
Fact is, Jobs tweaked the touch screen and put nice shell on the iPhone, but the device is still a basic phone. It is not a Pocket PC (or Pocket Mac for you fanboys) or a Smart phone. Just a regular 2G GSM phone with EDGE. Rich HTML capability? Great, but did you think of the load times for the HTML pages? Guess not, I see the frustration now.
Well, the interface is nice, but I don't see people shelling out the money Apple wants for it. Not with 2 years contract. This is not 80GB iPod with phone function. After all the hard core Apple fanboys switch to Cingular and get one the device will quietly fade away into obscurity. Remember the Newton?
PS. Do you think that Apple will exchange your 18 - 24 months old iPhone for refurbished one when the non-replaceable battery dies on you? I wonder.
Forget about the iphone that graph in the blog article comparing the sizes was hot!
It's just a matter of time before we get all the internet, on all the networks all the time, plus syncing, PIM software in a small gadget. I for one am ecstatic that Apple is now in the mix. So i'm holding out for a laptop + cellphone + Palm replacement that fits in my pocket and runs OSX. Unstoppable, unbeatable.
Verizon would be a lousy choice for a carrier considering that they load their own crappy software and cripple features which dumbs down half of the phones they offer and would do the same with the iPhone. Cingular and T-mobile both have the ability for international service, too. If they had chosen Sprint or Verizon, then users would only be able to use the phone in the US and that's it. Without 3G it will still be limited, but at least there's the potential to use it overseas.
Can everyone take notice of this comment, and engadget look into the following;
The iPhone, no matter how much I love it, looks and has the same features as the new iRiver W10, it has been released just this month with the iPhone.
qwertying
Re: qwertying
Um, one feature the iPhone has that the W10 doesn't is...the "cell phone" feature.
Maybe a minor point, but I thought I'd point it out. :-)