Review: Apple IPhone Rocks, Rolls, and Doesn't Disappoint
By Dylan Tweney July 01, 2007 | 6:01:35 PMCategories: Reviews, iPhone, iPhone Hands-On
You've got to hand it to Apple: Not only has the company orchestrated one of the most anticipated and overhyped product launches in gadget history, it has also delivered an instrument that, for the most part, lives up to its inflated expectations. The iPhone is a phone, a music and video player, a web browser, an email device, a portable photo album, and more. All of these functions are packaged in a device whose hardware and software are remarkably elegant, easy to use, and even fun to play with.
As a device, it's a genre-bender. Never before have American consumers had access to a phone that is simultaneously so powerful, so elegant, and that performs so many functions. Since the iPhone lacks fast, 3G wireless data connectivity, we'll still have to endure the derision of our European and Japanese friends, but at least we're getting closer to convergence device nirvana.
The iPhone is a lifestyle phone, not a business phone. Its onscreen keyboard is surprisingly workable, but still can't hold a candle to a true QWERTY (even a small one) if you have lots of words to hash out. You can view, but not edit Office documents. And while additional applications are available to extend the iPhone's capabilities, developers can't directly access the underlying operating system, which means the full range of potential is still subject to Apple's omnipresent control. In other words, it's far more open and customizable than the typical phone, but far less so than the typical computer.
At the end of the day, though, the iPhone is a delight to use and to play with. Is $600 too much to spend on a phone? Probably, but I haven't had this much fun with a new product since the Palm Pilot debuted, and that was about $500 too. The iPhone's not perfect, but it is amazing, and the whole consumer electronics and wireless industries will be scrambling to catch up with it for years. And that will be good for all of us.
WIRED Elegant yet sturdy design. Innovative interface is not only functional, it's a blast to use. More features than you know what to do with. Excellent calendar and contact management. Seamless integration with your computer. Full-fledged browser and email client.
TIRED AT&T's EDGE network is laughably slow. Limited music volume. Won't work with standard headphones. Text-entry is slow compared with two-thumb QWERTY phones. Browser lacks Flash and Java support. Camera doesn't work well in low light. Limited extensibility—where's my Unix command line?
$599 (8GB model), apple.com
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