Video: iPhone in person, behind glass

Today's coverage obviously was dominated by that little touch screen phone from señor Jobs and company. Now check out Ryan's crystal clear video of Apple's highly anticipated entry into the cellphone game. Download the MPEG-4 below, or watch it above.

[MP4] Download the video

[KhurramA @ Jan 9th 2007 10:20PM]

that's some serious sweetness

[Mike @ Jan 9th 2007 10:25PM]

zoolander? seriously, lmao!!!

[Nat @ Jan 9th 2007 10:30PM]

ooo shiny. Now just six months and $600 to go. The wait begins

[Brian @ Jan 10th 2007 2:01AM]

Is it me or does it look a little big?

[Nate @ Jan 9th 2007 10:46PM]

Looking at the width specs it should be thinner than the razor, otherwize it looks normal size for a smart phone, look at the earlier post on engadget.

[theowlcompany @ Jan 15th 2007 11:48AM]

The download link doesn't work

[codywatson @ Jan 9th 2007 10:33PM]

I heard the guy say 5 hours of any activity (video, audio, or talk time). While that might be good for talk time, if you listen to your music player a decent amount, the 5 hours is going to get you frustrated very quickly as you soon realize you are charging every night.

[Nate @ Jan 9th 2007 10:45PM]

Its 16 hours of audio time, 5 hours of everything else.

[Falkenad @ Jan 9th 2007 11:52PM]

I swear I heard someone belt out the first few chords of Also Sprach Zarathustra in falsetto.. the song from 2001: A Space Odyssey...
Monolithic indeed.

[Aaron Rooney @ Jan 9th 2007 11:37PM]

Meh...I'm already over it. Let me know when it can do more for me than my Dash. Plus, I like the fact that I can swap batteries if needed. It's pretty looking, but not revolutionary.

[Aaron @ Jan 10th 2007 12:59AM]

"It's pretty looking, but not revolutionary."

That's the philosophy behind EVERY Apple product. Beauty before brains. This is nothing new...

And come on, why not put a hard drive in this thing? The 30 gig iPod is pretty slim, so seriously, why not? $600 for 8 GB? Ugh.

[Roger Sperberg @ Jan 9th 2007 11:56PM]

What are the specs on the screen? Size, resolution?

RogerS

[Farris @ Jan 10th 2007 12:03AM]

Yes, but how easily does it scratch? My 5 month old video iPod is in (from what I can tell is in pretty good shape, all things considered) looks a bit like it's been attacked with sandpaper on the backside.

[Tim @ Jan 10th 2007 2:33PM]

The video says Engadget @ CES 2007....but this is from Macworld.

[dyligan @ Jan 10th 2007 11:49AM]

"Not Revolutionary?" Name one product out there that uses this technology. In a couple years you will get it, just like the late iPod adopters. Quit Hating.

[ross @ Jan 10th 2007 1:32AM]

its like waiting for the ps3 all over again.. save your 600... and get it.. hopefully we wont have to camp out for this though.. and if we do.. at least we dont have to wait in the cold.. lol

[Aaron @ Jan 11th 2007 12:20PM]

Exactly what technology are we talking about here? The outdated CDMA capability? The, uh, "huge" 8 gigs of memory? The touch screen? Come on, man.

Face it, it's shiny, it has an Apple logo on it, and it cost 3 times more than it should, that's why you like it. Me, I want something useful for a reasonable price, not just something pretty, so I'm not a big Apple fan.

And no, I'm not going to get one in a couple years. Or ever.

[Kiel @ Jan 10th 2007 12:14PM]

"That's the philosophy behind EVERY Apple product. Beauty before brains. This is nothing new..."

Try usability. You could have the greatest most advanced phone ever but if you have to memorize how to get into everything and expend effort and learn the product, it won't sell. People are lazy and want cool, new, tech that they can use right away. Instant gratification > all for most people these days.

[Michael Proch @ Jan 10th 2007 2:34AM]

Brian thats exactly what i was thinking now that I look at the pictures a little more....at first it seemed small but for some reason it looks bigger now lol

[jeff @ Jan 10th 2007 2:48AM]

How do you change the battery? I love the phone, but I've carried a spare battery for my cellie for years. Surely such a beautiful object can't have a single, fixed and non-replaceable battery?

[Alexander @ Jan 10th 2007 9:54AM]

It's from Apple. So, no it won't be replacable.

[Ragnobash @ Jan 10th 2007 3:01AM]

My main question has to do more with the OS.. I'm wondering just how Lite they made the OS, and what type of software could be loaded on it. I would be jumping for joy if you could load up PDF files on this, and i would do backflips if you could edge in the newton handwritting recongtion that all OS X has... I woudl be a sight to behold !!!

[Legodude522 @ Jan 10th 2007 3:53AM]

The screen res is HVGA. 320x480 for those who don't know ;-)

[raphael.cohen @ Jan 10th 2007 4:44AM]

My Qtek already does all this and more, and it's more than two years old. Furthemore, the iphone seems kind of big for a smartphone.

[priit.hansen @ Jan 10th 2007 4:47AM]

What i want to know is what processor it has?

[David @ Jan 10th 2007 5:10AM]

Phones and smartphones are just pathetic with complexity and poor design. Sure everything the iPhone does already exists on paper, but the iPhone looks like a terrific phone, a great movie and music player, powered with a superb OS. There's NOTHING even close to the iPhone today.

I'm not telling the iPhone is perfect, I'm just saying that it's truly innovative while remaining simple and usable.

[riggs @ Jan 10th 2007 5:38PM]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-iphone-is-not-a-smartphone/#comments

not really.

[PeteC @ Jan 10th 2007 5:26AM]

Yep this looks like a nice easy to operate phone, more important than having 3G which I rarely use on my n73. I've not come across it yet but does anyone know if this thing has a replaceable battery finally so you can carry a spare and replace it easily once it starts deteriorating as if not that's going to be very annoying as the battery starts to degrade, reducing your talktime and it's not easy to replace. Does it still have 2 batteries as was prophesised?

[PEZ @ Jan 10th 2007 6:58AM]

I really think Engadget should set up a poll at the top of the site for people who will either switch to the iphone and cinglar in June, and those who will not (because they are already with CIng :-P)

Anyway, it should be interesting what other phone OEMs release/announce for phone in the next year to compete. Because as of now, there isnt any competition. This will be my first Apple product.

[joe @ Jan 10th 2007 8:03AM]

basically iphone is a LG rip off. poor LG, people would think exact opposite

[Ryan @ Jan 10th 2007 3:22PM]

I'm thinking that the LG touch phone (unreleased, with only a few unofficial shots of it) is more of a competing product to the iPhone than a "ripoff". And I haven't seen a working UI of the LG one yet, so...

[Alex @ Jan 10th 2007 8:49AM]

I am waiting for a memory card slot, 3G wifi, and maybe solid-state internal storage (instead of a hard drive).

[Mattso @ Jan 10th 2007 9:33AM]

Everyone saying things like "there is a keyboard because of the touch screen" must not have much experience with touch screens, and I dont care about multi-touch. I have an 8125 and my girlfriend hates it because it doesn't have a keypad on the front to dial. Whenever she needs to use my phone she gets so annoyed by it, and thats just for dialing phone numbers. She doesn't even want to slide open the keyboard because it's not quick and easy enough. That's her... and she's not the tech junky that I am obviously, but she certainly isn't a tech dumby either. She respresents more of the general public that I do, I'd say, so there's one type of attitude that is going to hurt this thing. People are more comfortable having keypads because they make things more simple.

Then there's me... and at first glance, this thing was making me pretty excited. It definitely is sexy, and that is enough to sway some people. I mean, from what I hear, the razr's form factor is pretty much the only good thing about it and we all know how well that did. The iPhone isn't all form factor. There's obviously more to it, but it is mostly, I think, the "sexy" factor that this thing has going for it.

I can tell you that after using the 8125, I would never want to have a device with only a touch screen. I love having a touch screen on my pocket pc, and I would never want to go back to a device without it, but there is no way you can get the same kind of feel for typing with it. There's going to be no physical feedback of any kind, and that is very important to input. There's a possibility apple could pull of some decent usability, but the screen (while big for a phone) isn't likely to be big enough to pull it off. Thumbs are just kinda too big and clumsy by nature.

These are the things that my ideal convergence phone would be right now compared to the iphone:
-Very thin (check)
-Touch screen (check)
-Bluetooth 2.0 (check, but with A2DP?)
-Good music and video capability (check)
-Good OS (I like WinMo compared to the others out there, but this one seems more refined, so check)
-WiFi (check)
-Reasonable memory (check)
-Fast processor (I don't know if we got any official specs on that, but check, I suppose)
-Good battery life (meh)
-Good, usable QWERTY keyboard on face, a la treo (no)
-3G Data (no)

There are other things but I think those are the main points, and this thing comes close, but those two things that are lacking are sort of a big deal. The 8125 has edge, and it is way too slow. I actually cancelled my data plan because I was too annoyed by it to use it enough, and I have WiFi. And the keyboard thing is a big turn off to me. I am waiting for either some kind of next-gen treo or finally someone else who can make a good, thin pocket pc with all those features. This just doesn't quite make it, so I won't be getting one, but I still love the thing, because I think it will push other companies to raise the bar.

[mkwilson @ Jan 12th 2007 4:41AM]

Am I the only person wondering when they will take the phone elements away, add a hard disk and larger battery and introduce the next-gen iPods? An 80Gb device with that interface would be incredible.