Hands-on Review of the Apple Iphone
I got my iPhone in the small, unopened shrinkwrapped box (above, next to my Nokia e90) this past Sunday. My pal, Peter Lim has just returned from USA and got it at the published price of US$499 at the Apple Store at NorthPark Center, Dallas. No queues, no shortage, no fuss. So I'm wondering about people who paid over a thousand dollar for theirs in today's Digital Life.
Although I know that the iPhone will be locked,
I asked Peter to get it for me anyway, because Paddy (also featured in today's Digital Life) has agreed to help me unlock it.
However, Mac-lover, Ramesh found it quite easy to do so using the internet link -
http://www.pqdvd.com/blog/iphone/,
so didnt have to bother Paddy.
My first impression is that it is areally awesome device,
wasn't as big as I thought and really nice to hold. If it was released con-currently in Singapore, 10,000 units will not be sufficient.
As you can see, although the iphone is bigger than the Prada,
it is really ideal in size -
big enough to offer a large screen
and thin/small enough to hold in one hand.
very nice form factor.
Below is the default clock,
like all apple's stuff
elegant and simple.
I thought the Prada was elegant and so easy to use,
but Apple moved the benchmark and really give a lot of thought to every function
- even small utilities like the notepad is super.
The spell checker works great - just tap on space bar to select
and the big qwerty keypad sure makes things easy.
SMS is kind of funny,
because instead of using the writing space under the name
this little balloon just keep growing bigger
with more words you type.
SMS is pretty academic
as the phone is not working yet
but i am told that a total unlock will come any day now.
In the meantime, i have asked my pal, Keith Gant
to send me his old USA Cingular sim card if he has one
to try out this latest unlock scheme at -
http://www.hacktheiphone.com/iphone_using_cingular_sim.html.
BTW all pics taken by my trusty e90, a lot better than most pics i've posted
dont you agree?
Above is the fabulous menu on the iPhone. Like the Prada, easy to use. Do your believe that the entire manual for the iPhone is just 2 pages? Some day all phones will be that easy.
Here is the email menu. So easy - just a tap away. Will be testing out on some hot spots later this week.
When (not if) the phone is fully unlock, here's the dial pad - large and easy to use.
The 2mp camera is nothing to write home about, but pinching the screen is kind of cool to zoom in and out.
Right now, the iPhone is best used as an iPod. Really nicer than my Nano which I recently sold off as I am quite happy with the Samsung K5.
Finally, maps, stocks, news etc will be lots of fun when iPhone finally reaches our fair shores this time next year.
Summary
While the iPhone is very good, it lacks the power of 3g, taking videos and a good number of features that are all incorporated in the Nokia e90. The ideal is to have the e90 in the iPhone form factor, but in the real world, this may have to suffice:
1. A e90 with a iphone theme
Although the desk view looks good, the rest is rather a rojak bag of icons
2. So this may be the way to go - since the e90 has
lots of memory, I liked this ithemes by the good guys at splus so much better, available at handango, transforming the e90 into a working iPhone graphic user interface!
