Thanks to Uncle Rix, I was able to get an iPhone for a good discount. To tell you the truth, I wasn't planning in buying the iPhone (boy, I'm such a sucker for Apple products)... I was impressed the first time I played around with one at the AT&T store here in Philly, but since purchasing it 2 weeks ago I have to say that the experience of using it as a part of daily life is absolutely amazing.
First, it is very well engineered, both in terms of hardware and software. I don't expect anything less from Apple but this product is definitely the epitome of this integration that Apple sports and excels in. I have experienced a few "bugs", especially with Safari, for instance, if I try to load multiple (say 4) pages full of graphics at the same time with the iPod function running, the browser is likely to crash (Like in OS X style, this means that Safari quits). The menus, buttons, and Quartz graphics however are hands-down stunning in such a small form factor, and such a high pixel-pitched screen. Like in all Apple products, the interface is very easy to use. Even knowing of the much publicised "pinch" functions on photos, webpages, and maps, I am still very impressed and wish that it can be brought to more products (say, a tablet?). I think the iPhone is so well integrated that even my techno-phobic mom would really enjoy using it-- to bad it's locked into AT&T.
Talking about the screen: It is very impressive. I can't recall anytime in my life that I've looked at a computer screen and said to myself "Gee, this is comparable if not even better than looking at physical photographs". Flipping through photos on my iPhone is now one of my favorite passtimes. Because the screen has such a great pixel density, reading webpages was a lot easier than I thought. With my youthful eyes I can read The New York Times quite comfortably in landscape mode --and without zoom. Text renditions in East Asian languages (esp Chinese) is really good, and it has been the top choice to read online newspapers.
The battery life is also better than I thought. Granted, I'm not a chatter-box and I don't use the phone that often. I do do a lot of web surfing, and on initial tests, with a single charge I have been able to make a few short calls, texting SMS, IM-ming, look for directions, take notes, surf the web for about 2 to 3 hours, use the iPod, and watch a 30-minute TV episode.
A lot of people, myself included, have been very skeptical of the usability of the keyboard, which is not a physical keyboard but uses the touchscreen interface. I've used touch screen keyboards on large-format LCDs before and have never been impressed. But I think Apple has gotten it right this time. The software works with the hardware, giving auto-correcting capabilities as you type. Although I've never used a Blackberry before, I have been able to type almost as fast as the average Blackberry users I've seen. Typing while sitting or standing still is definately not a problem, including when you're using the keyboard in portrait format. The only trouble I've had typing was when I was on AIM chatting while walking home from work. Still I was able to hold a constructive converation (say, about 30-40 lines/sentences of text) on my 25 minute walk home. The only thing I think Apple should do is allow the user to customize the dictionary, and allow horizontal format typing in all apps, not just websurfing. These are mere software issues and are possible with a software update.
The other only problem I've had with the iPhone has been the camera. I understand that the camera was designed to take photos of people in your contacts, thus, being a fixed-focus camera, you can only take photos of things 3 feet away. Photos of scenery, city scapes, etc are slightly blurry, and it definately isn't the device for your week-long vacation to the Rockies. Being a spoiled pro-sumer of digicams though, I have to say that the iPhone's camera, focus put aside, is not bad. The color correction is really good and renders images with vibrant and convincing colors. The pictures aren't perfect, but you can read, say, a roadsign pretty easily from the photo. By the way, the camera's resolution is 1600 x 1200 pixels.
Here are some samples taken from the iPhone:
Penn campus on a cloudy day
Philly from my apartment
Night shot
Ship at Philly
The camera works really well if you are upclose - but it's no Cybershot.
Fairmount Park
Valley Green Inn at Wissahickon Park
All in all, the iPhone was, even as hyped a product as it was, a very impressive device. It marks itself one of the flagship products that Apple has introduced in the past few decades, and I do believe that it will do very well as it is introduced into more markets around the world.
Labels: iphone review, photo tests
