Apple iPhone 8GB Cell Phone

Like a Supercomputer on Dial-Up

By Geoffrey  Jul 2, 2007 | 1244 out of 1664 found this Apple iPhone 8GB review helpful

Pros: Styling, touch interface

Cons: No memory card slot, no replaceable battery, no wireless downloads, EDGE network, Price, Monthly Service plan too expensive, no voice recognition, no Enterprise E-mail, No spreadsheet, word processing, No applications can be added, 8GB only, keyboard quirky, No intfrared port, No instant messaging, no GPS, no streaming video, no video capture, should I continue?

Die hard Apple junkies will hate me I am sure, but if you want a true review of the facts, read on: I think the general public has gone crazy over this phone. I think mass-hysteria or the mass-marketing must be driving the frenzy for such an expen...sive under-equipped device. People seem to be paying a small fortune who are either techo-unsaavy, or light internet users or are blinding buying this phone based on the hype and the -keeping up with the Jones- mentality. I conceed that the device is sharp, cool, and flashy and has the potential to be a great device, but in its current iteration is fails miserably. The main area of weakness is the AT&T Edge network is horrible. I understand that Apple wanted to reach the broadest market possible at launch and since the EDGE network, but since the phone could have been manufactured quite simply to access BOTH their EDGE and their faster speed networks and just stepped down to EDGE when not in range I find the decision to limit the phone to EDGE a complete miss by Apple. The best analogy I can offer is using the iPhone on EDGE is like having a Way-Cool, supercharged computer but using Dial-up to access the Internet. I have literally had to wait for the iPhone to paint website screens, which is like watching a fax come in. It is unacceptable for a $600 device. On top of which the service plans START at $60 per month and can climb to $220 per month! Fot TWO YEARS! You could spend almost $6,000 for this thing in two years! You could get a full blown Mac laptop computer with Voice over IP and an Aircard running on Sprints EVDO network which is 5X faster than AT&T! Plus in August they (Sprint) is launching their EVDO Revision A network to DOUBLE that speed! That is 10X faster than AT&T. Network aside, I would expect that for $600 I would get at least as many functions as I currently get on my phone, GPS, video, unlimited storage via memory cards, wirless downloads, voice activated dialing, IM, Word, Powerpoint, Excel, access to my Corporate E-mail and a swappable battery, but amazingly I get NONE of those things! I purchsed the new PPC-6800 from Sprint that came out last week. I does virtually everything the iPhone does (yes it changes to landscape mode automatically when you open the slider keyboard, it has a touchscreen, 2 mega pixel camera (with video), 4GB SD card, full Mp3 and video player, wirless downloads, streaming movies, E-mail from upto 10 different accounts (including my coprorate account), IR port, WiFi, Bluetooth, stereo headset, Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel and thousands upon thousands of applications and games readily available on the fastest network available. No antennae, and as slim as the iPhone. Oh well no iTunes (which you can not even use wirelessly with the iPhone!) and no multi-touch (I will survive) but 1/2 the price and more feature rich. I did add a laser keyboard (wirelessly projects a keyboad on any surface) which is a great wow factor and WAY easier to use than iPhones quirkly touch screen keyboard. I am sure Apple with have COUNTLESS iterations of the iPhone (remember there are 6 generations of the iPod, not counting the Nano, Shuffle, and Mini - they like to revamp everything every 6-8 months and make you pay again and again)Bottom line: Wait for iPhone Generation 2 or 3 or better yet wait for a CDMA version that can run on a decent network! I sold my iPhone yesterday to some dreamy-eyed kid who could barely stop drooling over it and made a handsome profit! Thanks Apple! I suspect he, as most everyone else, did no real research on the phone before deciding they could not live without one! Poor slob. Read more Less