My Apple iPhone 3G 8GB Review Part One
I finally jumped into the bandwagon and and bought an Apple iPhone 3G 8GB at Greenhills. My main reason for buying the unit, was that my boss owned one, and everytime I saw it on his desk, I couldn’t help but start drooling. Each and every time.
‘First Impressions’
The first thing I noticed about the phone, was how good it feels on your hands. It is wide and long, but very thin, and with all the edges rounded, and all the surfaces shiny and slippery, it all results in a very nice tactile feel.
The second thing I noticed, was the ingenius way of unlocking the keypad. To unlock the keypad, you need to press either the “Home” or top button, and then slide a bar on the screen to the right. It is a nice touch, as it will be almost impossible to accidentally unlock the unit. It also maximizes the use of the touchscreen, and at the same time is a “cool” way of unlocking the keypads.
The menu structure is different from the usual celphone menu structure. Most celphone menus tend to be similar regardless of brand, in that you enter a function, than you have a back button to bring you to the previous menu. This one is different in that it gives you the impression that you are scrolling horizontally as you go deeper into the menus. It is also not a very “deep” menu, probably going thru only three or four submenus deep. Instead of a “Back” button, you have an icon that points you to the left, named after the previous menu name. I find it very refreshing, something new and different than usual, but just as effective.
One of the things that impressed me the most of the unit, was how fast the user interface generally is. Its like everything happens so fast: You click on one button, and a blink of an eye later, its done. It is lightning quick, you get none of the delays I found on my previous units like the Nokia 5800 or Samsung SGH-F480.
‘Gold Standard Touchscreen Interface’
But the best thing about the unit, is definitely the touchscreen interface. Compared to the 5800 or F480, there is simply no comparison: The iPhone’s touchscreen interface is way, way better. No wonder Nokia didn’t even bother to try to compete the iPhone in terms of price, simply because in the aspect of the touchscreen interface, there is simply no comparison.
Even the F480’s capacitive touchscreen is no match for the iPhone: The iPhone is simply a class of its own when it comes to that aspect.
What makes the iPhone’s touchcreen so good is a combination of speed (as I had detailed a couple of paragraphs above), and smart user interface. The touchscreen is smart, because it seems to know when you are trying to scroll thru a menu, or when you are trying to activate a button. I almost never accidentally activate a button even when I was new to it.
Another good aspect, are things like, when you scroll up or down, and reach the limit of your scroll, the menu actually stretches a bit to let you know you are at the end of menu. Also, when you flick thru the menus up or down fast enough, the screen actually slides up or down, making it very intuitive.
The best description I can think of for the iPhone’s touchscreen interface, would be like having the unit’s screen glued to your thumb instinctively. You put your thumb on the screen (on your “Contacts” screen, for example), and move it any which way you want, and the screen will follow instantaneously. Flick your thumb quickly up or down on the screen, and the screen rolls or slides up or down.
It is that good. And having tried other touchscreen phones, I think that is a very, very strong statement. I think that outstanding aspect alone makes it worth its price.
‘SMS Sorting’
Messages are sorted per contact, and the preview screen shows the first two lines of the message for that particular contact. It even shows the time that latest message arrived or was sent out.
When you click on that particular contact, it shows you all the messages between you and that contact, with the messages in color-coded balloons to indicate which is yours, and which ones are from the contact.
The only thing I didn’t like about this setup, is that you cannot delete individual messages. You can only delete entire conversations. You can’t save individual messages, only entire conversations. Maybe there’s a way around this when I finally Jailbreak the phone and get better apps, but as of now, this is the default setting.
‘Text Input’
We now come to the first major problem of the phone, and that is inputting text. There is only one way to do this, and that is thru a QWERTY screen. The problem is that each button is relatively small, about half the size of the alpha numeric keypads found on the 5800 and F480, so you have a small target to hit when inputting text.
My most common mistake, is hitting the key to the right of the intended target, so I have adjusted my aim to be towards the left side of the key I am trying to hit. Despite this adjustment, though, I can’t type as fast as I can.
Then again, since the unit’s interface is so fast, I feel that I just sort of type as fast as I can with the 5800 or F480, even with the corrections, since those two are a little bit slower than the iPhone in terms of response.
The lack of a haptic feedback didn’t really bother me that much, mainly because there is an aural and visual feedback. When you press a key, for example, the key enlarges to twice its size, and enlarges upwards, so you can easily see which key you have activated.
‘Battery Life’
The biggest turn off for me, would be its battery life. I initially thought it would last only about a day of heavy use, but it turns out it will last for about slightly more than a day and a half. Like when you charge it in the morning, trust that it will likely last well into the evening of the second day.
I guess that is the price the unit has to pay for having a fast processor, and a large, bright screen.
(To be continued)
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