Apple iPhone review roundup

With just a few days to go before launch, Apple has apparently lifted its embargo on the lucky few journos to get their hands on an iPhone a couple weeks early, and David Pogue, Walt Mossberg and USA Today's Edward C. Baig are doing the first honors. And honors abound: three out of three reviewers agree that the iPhone is pretty much the sexiest phone to ever hit the market, and there was no small amount of praise for the high resolution screen, svelte form factor and sturdy construction -- nano scratchers rejoice, nobody managed to make a mark on this thing. The iPhone turns out to be a bit of conundrum, excelling and even revolutionizing certain phone functions, while utterly failing at others. First the bad: call quality is only average, and AT&T's weak sauce signal wasn't doing the iPhone any favors. It also can be a rather multi-step affair to even make a call, since there's no home screen speed dial or voice recognition, and the phonebook can't be searched, only scrolled through. Other failings like the lack of MMS, IM chat and video recording are even more mysterious. And that EDGE data? Pogue found himself longing for the days of dial-up, while waiting 1-2 minutes for popular sites to load, and while WiFi was quick to save the day in many instances, that's hardly an excuse in the year 2007. Luckily, there's plenty to love about this new approach to phoning, like an excellent web browser, mail client, visual voicemail and Cover Flow-enhanced iPod functions -- they're what Apple has been tooting its horn about, and they all seem to work as advertised. The keyboard more or less requires "faith" in the word auto-correction -- an Apple rep likened it to using The Force -- and while all three reviewers were able to get up to speed sooner or later, it's most certainly agreed that this is no BlackBerry-killer. Battery life was a non-issue, outstripping most smartphones, and nearly meeting Apple's claims.

Read - David Pogue "The iPhone matches most of its hype"
Read - Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret "Despite its network limitations, the iPhone is a whole new experience and a pleasure to use" (Check out Walt's video review after the break)
Read - Edward C. Baig "Apple's iPhone isn't perfect, but it's worthy of the hype"
Read - Steven Levy "one of the most hyped consumer products ever comes pretty close to justifying the bombast."
Read - Phil Baker "The iPhone's ability to perform so many capabilities in a single device and still be intuitive to use is a remarkable achievement."

[AG @ Jun 26th 2007 7:55PM]

I would hardly call the iphone sexy.

[Phil Perman @ Jun 26th 2007 7:56PM]

So in essence, Apple have spent most of their time concentrating on the "smart" part, and forgotten about the "phone"?

[andi @ Jun 27th 2007 5:53AM]

it is not a smartphone...

[humpty @ Jun 26th 2007 7:56PM]

Doesnt sound like the homerun Apple was looking for.. even their biggest fanboy, Pogue, found issues with it.

Whats the world coming to?

[Kimberly @ Jun 26th 2007 8:11PM]

This is how the iPhone will change our lives X:)))))))
http://www.fashreport.com/fash_report/2007/06/the-iphone-is-r.html

[Justin @ Jun 26th 2007 8:17PM]

Considering the hype, saying that it lives up to that hype is about as big a thumbs up as possible. you wanted him to say that it is the first and only perfectly perfect consumer product?

[Tonicboy @ Jun 26th 2007 8:25PM]

Many you guys are brutal. Look, this thing is not the Jesus phone for me either, but what reality are you living in when three reviews saying that a product is pretty damn good equates to failure?

[John @ Jun 26th 2007 7:58PM]

Wow, it's like everyone loses. It's not the best thing ever, and it doesn't suck ass. I guess all the fanboys and haters alike can go home now.

[ChristopherJohn Blair @ Jun 26th 2007 8:00PM]

Iphone = too much hype
too much money

How many weeks before the price drops?

I bet 3 months!

[Kit @ Jun 27th 2007 12:55PM]

Well let's see if that is true

[Patrick @ Jun 26th 2007 8:00PM]

Man, are you going to get roasted by the fanboys for mentioning the negatives in your roundup!

[Malcolm @ Jun 26th 2007 8:01PM]

The wall street journal article hints at apple offering free software updates.. maybe a true IM app maybe in the works...

Also where will i get my ringtones if you cant use the mp3's you've loaded on??

[Tonicboy @ Jun 26th 2007 8:01PM]

To be fair about calls taking many steps, it takes almost as many steps with my Treo 650:

1) Wake phone
2) Unlock
3) Go to Phone app
4) Hold speed dial #

or

4) Push call button to summon recently dialed list
5) Select number

or

4) Select contacts
5) Scroll or push letter
6) Select name

[tcc3 @ Jun 26th 2007 8:10PM]

If you're smart with your Treo, waking and activating the phone app are the same action.

So its more like phone button, unlock, dial / contact list.

[L. M. Lloyd @ Jun 26th 2007 8:15PM]

Yeah, but if you look at BlackBerry you get:

1: Push call button
2: Select recently dialed
3: Push call button

or

1: Start typing number
2: Push call button

or

1: Select address book
2: Select or start typing name
3: Press call button

On a phone with voice dialing and a headset you could even get that down to just pressing a button and saying a name.

My point is it just depends on what you are comparing it to. Plus, on a Palm or Windows Mobile device, you could always download software to make calling more efficient if you wanted to. From what I have heard so far, the iPhone has the most steps I of any phone I have come across to make a call.

[Tonicboy @ Jun 26th 2007 8:37PM]

@Lloyd

Yes, it does depend on what you are comparing it to, and in this case I'm comparing it with one of the most popular smartphones in history.

@tcc3

Ok you've boiled it down to 4 steps. So it's not a gigantic difference between the iPhone. Thanks for demonstrating my point perfectly.

[L. M. Lloyd @ Jun 26th 2007 8:59PM]

Yes, but that's my point, "in history." How popular is the Treo these days? I wasn't trying to say a Treo or BB was better than each other or the iPhone, I was trying to point out that if you want to beat the competition, you have to do better than them. Part of the reason the BB is so popular, is precisely because they looked at how the Treo did things and improved them. Easier to make a call, better email, smaller size, better keyboard, all improvements over the Treo that contributed to the sucess of the BB in recent years. Apple on the other hand, is coming into this market going the other way. Larger size, more steps to make a call, no keyboard, worse email than their competitors. Sure, it has advances in other areas. I have no doubt at all that it is a better media player than a Windows Mobile, Palm, or BlackBerry device. I have no doubt that given a fast Wi-Fi connection it does a better job rendering full web pages than the BlackBerry browser, Pocket IE, or Blazer. There is no denying that it has one of the nicest case designs I have ever seen in a smartphone.

However, it IS a phone! One would think that on the list of important features for a phone, dialing would have to be pretty high up there, and in this regard it is clearly a step backwards. Now for some people that won't be any kind of issue at all, because they will just do what people have been doing for years with smartphones, and still keep a small backup phone in their pocket. However, part of the success of the recent crop of smartphones, like the Pearl, is that they have been good enough phones that you could actually use it all by itself without needing the backup.

[Jeff Lewis @ Jun 27th 2007 12:11AM]

[sorry if this is doubled - Engadget is acting goofy again]

Ok, on my HTC Wizard making a call is this:

- Wake up phone
- press the 'voice' key
- say the person's name (or the phrase you recorded for the person)

Done.

[Matt @ Jun 27th 2007 1:53PM]

On my Blackberry 8700:

1. Pull Blackberry out of holster
2. Hold down a speed dial letter.

Two steps. (And step 1 isn't even a step!)

[Seanross @ Jun 29th 2007 4:12AM]

Um... that's darn near with any phone minus goin to the phone app...

[Christopher @ Jun 26th 2007 8:02PM]

Next they will be pumping them out with out the phone option...had to throw that out there.

[G Raph @ Jun 26th 2007 8:03PM]

I almost stopped reading the first one after he praised it as a status symbol. But I continued only to lmao when I saw that yahoo takes 2 minutes to appear!

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Jun 26th 2007 8:53PM]

Yah, the phone plan is what bothers me here.
If that 2 year contract could just be for normal phone calls, with no "unlimited data" bother, I would be really interested in this!
It would be cheaper, and it would not give me those unnecessary features which have bloated cell phone plans of late.

WiFi access points are getting easier and easier to find (and with clever software, idling devices and GPS, they are simple to find!), and judging by how slow the service otherwise is, they are going to be completely preferable in this case. Being powerful, attractive and accompanied with smooth software, the iPhone could work as a fantastic handheld computer, but with the plan here, regardless of its potential, it is stuck being nothing other than a phone :(

Can use it for whatever I want? Well, that is true, but that doesn't help the fact that through the plan I would be paying for countless services I, (a person who could / would use WiFi in almost all cases), do not need.

Ah well, come to think of it, this will only be a problem for a few months. Apple tends to release the slightly imperfect thing first, then fix all the superficial problems a few months later.

[Kaush @ Jun 26th 2007 8:09PM]

hmm.. Edward Baig says: "Apple points out that iPhone's features — unlike other cellphones — can be upgraded in the future through software. The phone is built on top of the same OS X operating system that is on its Macintosh computers. You sync up the device to a PC or Mac through iTunes just like an iPod. A USB dock is supplied for this purpose."

Someone's got it majorly wrong there. I just upgraded my Dash from WM5 to WM6 (pretty significant changes). It was free, and Apple hasn't mentioned whether they're going to charge for the upgrade, have they? I'm presuming they will. If you're putting down $500 for your phone, you're putting down another $50 for an upgrade.

[Justin @ Jun 26th 2007 8:15PM]

Must be nice to assume something just to fit you bias.

However, Apple has already announced that it has revised its accounting practices just so that it can offer free upgrades.

[John @ Jun 26th 2007 8:20PM]

He meant in terms of actual software. If you want an IM app, you can download it and add it to your iPhone. It's basically the same concept as a widget. I'm a PC user and even I'm aware that Windows Mobile is incredibly limited in terms of customization in comparison to a full-functioning operating system. In this aspect, the iPhone is more like a UMPC as opposed to a smartphone.

[L. M. Lloyd @ Jun 26th 2007 8:21PM]

I don't agree that Apple will necessarily charge for it, but you are correct that they have it wrong when they say "unlike other cellphones." BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm and Sidekick have all had fairly major OS revisions released after the phone. In fact, in some of those cases the updates can even be pushed out Over-The-Air to the device. For that matter, even normal mobile phones sometimes have features pushed to them OTA. It is just another case of Apple saying they can do something no one else can, and lazy journalists falling for it.

[rp @ Jun 26th 2007 10:24PM]

I think it's somewhat foolhardy to suggest that Apple will be charging for additional functionalities for the iPhone. Look at the iPod for an example. Yes, Apple charges for some things, such as games created by 3rd party developers. However, functionality has been added to every generation of iPod via firmware updates. These are, of course, free of charge. I suspect that, after a month or two of beta testing and consensus by users, Apple will both fix outstanding problems and add features. This is OS X after all, it's much more flexible than the iPod, and it's in Apple's best interest to provide these services to up it's credibility and make the iPhone a complete smash hit (at which point Apple can stop all that).

[craig @ Jun 27th 2007 12:16AM]

John, what fantasy world do you live in? There is no IM app for the iPhone, none is available for download, Apple hasn't promised one, and 3rd party development is specifically prohibited. Just where do you think the user is going to go to download that magic app?

There is, in fact, no place that an iPhone user can go to download ANY iPhone app. None exist and there is no SDK made available to create them. IF you think that is somehow more extensible than other smartphones you are crazy.

[anonymous @ Jun 26th 2007 8:17PM]

ummmm why in the engadget picture is the notes app missing and there is some mysterious new app that seems to say "entourage" underneath it. where exactly did that pic come from?

[hobbeszero @ Jun 26th 2007 8:24PM]

It's called Photoshop, and it makes their stock photos interesting.

[El Loco @ Jun 26th 2007 8:17PM]

It is a great product.

[gian @ Jun 26th 2007 8:20PM]

Sounds to me like the issues are not with the phone itself, but the network. I'm not sure you can ding Apple on the network. I would be willing to bet the upgrade for the next-gen cell data network will be free and within the next 18 months. I really think the crying is over nothing.

[Peter @ Jun 26th 2007 8:45PM]

Then you'd lose that bet. One of the reviews, Pogue's or Mossberg's, not sure which, says explicitly that this iPhone model will never get 3G. It's a hardware thing, the phone doesn't have the receiver to pick up a 3G frequency and no software of firmware upgrade can add it. Apple chose not to support 3G - maybe with very good reasons, who knows - but it was Apple's decision so I think it's fair to hold Apple responsible for the limited cell network support.

[Backlin @ Jun 27th 2007 10:39AM]

DUDE! They said the same thing about high-speed internet about 5 years ago! Now, I'm stuck here paying $50 a month for DSL because cable's not available in my area. People are STILL trying to charge $20 a month for dial-up! Data networks will probably NEVER be free.

[gian @ Jun 27th 2007 10:46AM]

GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA run over the same frequencies in the U.S. and both use QAM and PSK modulation schemes. The difference is mostly in protocol and spectral bandwidth per channel, basically different frequency plans, but both in the same frequency bands. I would not be surprised in the least if a software upgrade would address the 2.75G vs 3G issue.

[aaronlh @ Jun 26th 2007 8:22PM]

I don't understand these ridiculously overstated comments about EDGE being terrible. I mean, unless AT&T EDGE is INFINITELY worse than T-Mobile EDGE, I just don't get how these long load times are being substantiated.

[Matt @ Jun 26th 2007 8:25PM]

The problem is not EDGE or compared to any others.
It is that AT&T has a 3G network fully working, and most (not all) current PDA phones use it.
Even my year old phone that is "just a phone" takes advantage of the 3G network for AT&T.

[aaronlh @ Jun 26th 2007 8:27PM]

No, that's not the point at all with my comment. EDGE on T-Mobile to my k790a (Opera Mini 4 Beta, does the same whole page load that Safari does) is much much faster than the reports people are making about EDGE on the iPhone. I just don't quite get the disparity.

[CharlieX @ Jun 26th 2007 8:30PM]

Yeah, I don't have load times that bad with EDGE/Opera.... unless there's something seriously wrong with the safari browser, they must be connected to some exceptionally bad AT&T towers.

but still, no MMS? My crappy razr did MMS....

Speed of touchscreen/interface looks great though

[aaronlh @ Jun 26th 2007 8:39PM]

Understood about MMS, definitely. That said, I never use it. Crappy quality - an email would be far superior in my book.

[Peter @ Jun 26th 2007 8:56PM]

aaronlh,

Newsweek has a review of the iPhone up as well and the reviewer Steve Levy points out there are actually 2 versions of EDGE, one faster than the other. So maybe your T-Mobile EDGE is the faster kind? Here's the newsweek piece:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19444948/site/newsweek/page/0/

[aaronlh @ Jun 26th 2007 9:29PM]

I suppose that's possible. Though, it's not like $4.99 for T-Zones for EDGE is some premium service >.

[jude @ Jun 26th 2007 8:31PM]

can't wait to get mine. won't be standing in any silly lines though....

[AKA_Ben (BenInkEntertainment) @ Jun 26th 2007 8:39PM]

I don't really see how everyone is claiming the iPhone hasn't lived up to its expectations. The iPhone seems to be performing like they all expected: slow but elegantly. It's like being able to carry around a svelt, digital sea tortoise in your pocket which - in my opinion - is awesome.

[ashmist @ Jun 26th 2007 10:05PM]

@Ben

Not to be pedantic but your sea tortoise would drown, as they only live on land. Sea turtle maybe

[AKA_Ben (BenInkEntertainment) @ Jun 26th 2007 10:17PM]

Yugh, ya got me! Well, sea turtles move about more gracefully anyway - not unlike the iPhone's interface :P

[Swu @ Jun 26th 2007 8:46PM]

Aggghhhh! Why do I always have to look!?

[Michael @ Jun 26th 2007 9:00PM]

The lack of MMS really isn't a big deal, given the unlimited data. If you really need to send a photo to someone's phone, just email it to their phone's MMS address. Usually @vzwpix.com or something like that.

[John @ Jun 26th 2007 9:02PM]

Wi-Max will be here soon and will make Edge irrelevant. Most major cities will have 100% Wi-Fi coverage with Wi-Max and Edge will never be used by iPhone owners.