Well, I waited a while to do this post because I really don’t feel you can write a good review after only using something for 3 days. So I have had an iPhone since they were first released June 29th, 2007. The phone was amazing then, and is still amazing now. It did of course have its shortcomings. It had little functionality in the beginning, with no third party apps and a dismal selection of included apps. It had no MMS, no cut and paste, slow EDGE data speeds, and so on. They slowly added to the phone making it better and better. Skip ahead 6 months or so and all of the sudden it is no longer a phone but a “platform.” Things were beginning to get interesting, all of the sudden it wasn’t just a $600 phone, but a $600 pocket computer. It still wasn’t quite there, but we held on and hoped for Apple to do the right thing with our new platform. Right around the 1 year anniversary of the iPhone there was talk of third party applications finally coming to the iPhone, as well as a new model. This model dubbed “iPhone 3G” because of it’s new 3G capabilities, also had one other interesting feature to add to the mix, real GPS. Gone were the days of the somewhat inadequate cell tower based location. At first, to be quite honest, this seemed a little gimmicky, and I really didn’t see any use for it. To go one step further, I wasn’t even going to get an iPhone 3G. This was because the new 2.0 Firmware on the 3G was also available on the first generation phone at no cost, so it was 90% the same phone, so why upgrade? The new phone had a different design, plastic back instead of metal, 3G data speeds and GPS. Is that really enough of an upgrade? At first I was glad I didn’t decide to upgrade after seeing the launch day come and go and see that the lines for the 3G were even more insane that the lines for the first iPhone.
My girlfriend did not have a first generation iPhone, but always wanted one after watching me day after day fondling my iPhone. With the launch of the 3G and the price drop, she decided it was her time to have some iPhone action. We attempted to get her one 4-5 times, every time failing. Finally we woke up really early one saturday to go sit in line. Mind you this was about 3 weeks AFTER the launch, and still with the waiting in lines. Anyway, we waited and got a ticket to get a phone, in fact 2 tickets, because why not, we were both there. I won’t bore you with the waiting in line details, but it went fairly smoothly. After completing her transaction, she was the proud owner of a 16GB White iPhone 3G!!
But wait…I though you got an iPhone 3G also? Well, I did. I really didn’t want to upgrade and spend the money on the 3G, but my girlfriend convinced me. How did she convince me? Well, she bought me an iPhone 3G! I know, she is the BEST G/F ever!! :)
So out we walked from the apple store with 2 new shiny White iPhone 3G’s!
Ok, now for the “1 month of solid use” portion of the review. Beware, it might get grim. :(
I will preface this by saying, that yes I am a hardcore Apple user, and not even that will skew this portion.
After first receiving the 2.0 firmware a couple days earlier than launch, all seemed to be well in the land of iPhone. But that was truly just the beginning. I have had more than my fair share of problems with the new software. Let me start with the syncing. This should be an easy task. Plug phone in, clock sync, unplug phone, done. Well that has not been the case. Throughout my use of the phone, the sync times have gotten progressively longer and longer, with the longest sync time to date being almost 4 hours!! Let me clarify, this is not the sync portion, just the backup portion of the sync that takes place before EVERY sync.
Next we have application crashing. Applications seems to crash A LOT on the phone. This has been alleviated somewhat with the 2 firmware updates that have been released. 2.0.1 and 2.0.2, but it is still pretty relevant. I understand that a lot of this could be due to bad coding practices on behalf of the developers, but since apple keeps talking how they are going to fix this “issue” in future updates, I imagine Apple is somewhat to blame.
To date I have done 5 full restores on the phone, and re-insalled iTunes 6 times attempting to fix issues I have had with the phone. To be honest I think it may have had something to do with the number of apps you have installed. I had as many as 62 third party applications installed on my iPhone, and since deleting a good number of them, the phone does seem to run a little smoother. I have to say though, 2-3 days ago I was so fed up with the phone I wanted to chuck it and get something else, because I had had enough! Alas, I still have my iPhone 3G though. why? Because despite the things that piss me off about it, THERE IS NO PHONE THAT EVEN COMES CLOSE TO THE IPHONE! PERIOD! Don’t even try to throw your crappy Nokia N95, or any of that other nonsense at me, because face it, it’s not as good. If it was, I would be using it! The only phone right now (that isn’t even out yet) that might come close is one of the Android iterations, but I will believe those when I actually see them.
So there you have it, the iPhone 3G has some problems, but it still the best phone on the market. That statement alone should really open up the eyes of other handset makers, because they are doing a piss poor job of competition (if you can even call it that).
Starbucks
Cisco Building 3
Sonoma Chicken Coop
Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt
Target