Hands-on with the O2 iPhone
O2 is the first network provider to get the iPhone outside of the US, so what's new on the UK's very own iPhone? Well, it turns out, not much. In simple terms, it's almost identical to the US version, albeit running the 1.1.1 firmware version, features of which we've already seen on the iPod Touch. You'll notice the iTunes WiFi Store icon, and an O2-UK network symbol up top. If you look carefully, you'll see that the E logo for EDGE is missing: we guess that 30% network coverage on O2 doesn't quite stretch inside the Apple Store. Along with the 1.1.1 firmware comes double tap quick access to currently playing songs, options for closed captioning on videos, and rather oddly, user selection options for carrier (we thought this was an exclusive?) There's also support for European language keyboards, and an option for turning off EDGE roaming. All in all, a rather predictable update for the UK.
%Gallery-7550%
O2 iPhone on the left, unlocked US iPhone on the right (running on T-Mobile's UK network). Note that the O2 iPhone doesn't show the EDGE logo, but the unlocked phone on T-Mobile does. You can probably guess at what we're getting at here: O2's EDGE coverage sucks.
UPDATE: Turns out the iPhone doesn't show the EDGE icon if WiFi is turned on. O2's EDGE coverage is still awful though.
Pop-up quick access to currently playing tunes.
European keyboard support.
Visual voicemail, on the O2 iPhone.
