Kludgeless » Design

The iPhone Unveiled

July 2nd, 2007

I got my hands on an iPhone this Friday and tested it over the weekend, giving me a chance to see close up if it was really worth the $2000+ you would pay for it over 2 years with the cheapest contract. Overall I was pretty impressed with this sleek little device, but some major shortcomings with the browser and the glaring lack of certain features may leave many people wanting more. Following are my review notes, broken down app-by-app.

Phone

The iPhone really shines as a portable phone. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Pros: The sound quality on the iPhone is actually better than the quality on my cordless phone at home. (Note to self: Buy a better cordless phone.) Making a call is really easy — just tap a name in your favorites, recents or contacts. Entering a new number on the enormous on-screen keypad is a piece of cake, and you can easily add that number to your list of contacts by tapping the contact icon. You can end calls by pressing the sleep button on top of the device, no need to look back at the screen. Visual Voicemail is really convenient, allowing you to skip or rewind to any point in the message, and callback with the touch of a button. You can also easily associate photos and ring tones with contacts.

Cons: The iPhone has no option to call a contact by speaking their name. Both the microphone and speaker phone seemed to pick up a good deal of background noise. Only 25 ring tones to choose from so far, and you can’t yet use your own songs as ring tones. In noisy environments, the maximum volume without the headphones isn’t nearly loud enough.

Web Browser

Although the version of the Safari browser included with the iPhone is indeed better than any ever before seen on a cellphone, it may leave many disappointed. It’s not exactly the full web browser that had been anticipated. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Ability to reasonably surf full web pages instead of mobile web pages. Pages rendered just like they would on a desktop browser. Double tap or pinch to zoom both work pretty well.

Cons: Pages are often either too small to read or too zoomed in to read the text without scrolling left and right, even in widescreen format. It’s too easy to accidentally tap the wrong button/link in web pages. You can’t save pictures or video found on the web, because the iPhone doesn’t support downloads, period. When you don’t have access to nearby Wi-Fi, page load time over AT&T’s Edge network may cause flashbacks to days on dial-up. The browser doesn’t work with many popular applications like Google Documents and Spreadsheets and lacks Flash support, part of why YouTube and Google Maps were included as a native applications. Any pages with JavaScript that require click dragging won’t work, because the iPhone always moves the page itself around when attempting to drag.

Mail

If you’re not already addicted to CrackBerry, getting new mail alerts every 15 minutes on your new iPhone may be quite satisfying. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Support for multiple accounts. Good rendering of HTML email and inline images. Yahoo, GMail, AOL, and .mac accounts are all supported, with additional support for IMAP and POP enabled email addresses. Phone vibrates and/or plays a sound very briefly when new mail arrives. You can view up to a 5 line preview of each message. Delete messages with the swipe of your finger. You can tap phone numbers found in email you receive to make a call.

Cons: No push support, so you won’t get email the instant it is sent to you. Shortest interval for automatically checking mail is every 15 minutes. It would be nice if you could mark messages as read without opening the message. Addresses in email don’t currently appear as convenient links like phone numbers do, and you can’t just copy and paste them into the maps application.

iPod

It’s the most beautiful iPod ever, but some important features from previous models are conspicuously absent. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Coverflow looks great, and flipping albums to see tracks is a nice touch. Flick to scroll and the alphabet scrollbar on the right side of the screen make navigating to the desired track quick and enjoyable. Video looks great in widescreen. Speaker on iPhone allows you to listen without headphones.

Cons: The iPhone can’t be used as a portable hard drive; there’s no preferences checkbox to enable disk use as there was with previous iPods. Games are not supported either. The headphone jack is recessed now so you won’t be able to connect any audio-out cable with an average sized base near the connector, so your favorite headphones probably won’t fit; the adapters I use to hook up my iPod in both my cars could not be connected. You can’t control music volume separate from call volume if you decide to play a song while taking a call. There is no button to skip tracks when the screen is off and you’re playing from the speaker. Also, the new headphones are just as uncomfortable to wear as they ever were, and they lack the size adjuster of previous editions.

SMS

SMS just got a little better. No web chat or MMS though. Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Really nice interface that looks a lot like iChat. Good integration for calling and browsing, just tap the links. Easily add contact numbers from incoming SMS messages. Keyboard learns words you use often and suggests/auto corrects for you.

Cons: You may miss having physical keys to press while you’re adjusting to the on-screen keyboard. The 200 text messages per month included with the basic plan will probably be too low for a lot of people, and web based chat programs from AOL, Google, and Yahoo don’t work in the browser, so you can’t yet use them as a substitute. (Hopefully this can be corrected soon.) And without MMS support you can forget about sending audio, video or pictures with your text messages.

Calendar

Basic calendar, no frills. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Display as a list of upcoming events, a single day, or month. Convenient button in the upper left for jumping back to today. You can add up to 2 alerts per calendar entry. Hold down arrow buttons to quickly move through days or months.

Cons: No week view option. No option to repeat an event every week on certain days of the week. Can’t just swipe your finger to delete an entry. No integration with Google Calendar, so you have to export your calendar and then import it if that’s what you’re using.

Photos

Good for showing off photos to friends and family. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Slide show looks nice. Zoom using a two finger pinch out. Rotate back and forth to view pictures of different orientations. Flicking through pictures is fun. Easy to email a photo, use it as your wallpaper, or assign to a contact.

Cons: Animated GIFs won’t play.

Camera

Basic two megapixel phone camera. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: It’s easy to look at all the photos you’ve taken, and delete ones you don’t want. Nice picture shot effect.

Cons: No flash so pictures without good lighting can turn out grainy. No video. Pictures aren’t auto-synced to a folder on your computer. Pictures emailed from the iPhone are sent at only 640×480 resolution, no option to send at original size. Can’t send a group of pictures all at once.

YouTube

A native YouTube application added for convenience and to overcome browser limitations. Categories include Featured, Most Viewed, Most Recent, and Top Rated, plus a search feature. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Native interface is nice, just as fast as on the desktop when used with Wi-Fi. Keeps a history of videos for you, that can be cleared when desired. Can easily bookmark or email video links.

Cons: Doesn’t keep a persistent cache of videos, so you’ll have to wait for them to download again when sharing with friends later.

Stocks

Basic stock widget that shows current price and the change for the day, as well as a graph of price over time. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Easy to search for and add stocks. Flick to scroll through list.

Cons: Not much information compared to online stock applications. The Yahoo link takes you to a mobile page with no additional info.

Maps

A native implementation of the Google Maps application. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Easy to zoom in and out using pinch. List view makes it easy to see info on every place located in your search. Step by step navigation is nice if you have a sidekick in the car with you, use list view otherwise. Good integration with contacts list. And you can bookmark locations or use recent searches.

Cons: No GPS, so it does not pinpoint your current location, and it doesn’t even try to approximate it based on cell tower locations. No voice directions.

Weather

Basic weather widget that displays the high/low/current temperature and weather conditions for the next 6 days. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Flick right or left to check weather for different locations. Snazzy icons for weather type.

Cons: No detailed weather information, and the direct link to Yahoo mobile weather provides even less information.

Clock

More than your average clock application. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Includes a world clock, alarm, stopwatch, and timer. Easy to use dial interface for setting alarms and timers. You can set alarms to repeat on any combination of days of the week, and easily disable individual alarms with a quick flick. And you can add as many alarms as you want.

Cons: A graphic showing daylight coverage for individual world clocks would be a nice addition.

Calculator

Reminds me of the calculator in Windows that everyone likes to make fun of, only this one has round buttons. Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Round buttons, big display.

Cons: Could use a feature to flip to more advanced functions. No tip calculator.

Notes

Simple note taking application. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Pros: Good for jotting down quick notes and lists. Auto-records time/day of last edit. Nice transition when flipping between notes. You can easily email notes.

Cons: No voice notes, and no ToDo features.

Other Issues

Some other issues I noticed included interface inconsistencies and touch sensitivity problems, as well as a lack of certain useful features. Items in a few applications are deleted by swiping a finger across them, while in other apps you have to go to the edit menu, then press the minus icon, and then confirm delete. If you try to phone or email a contact that doesn’t have a phone number or email address entered yet, you get a screen indicating the contact doesn’t have a phone or email address, but no option to edit the contact to add it. Small buttons near edges don’t seem to register touches very well, and you always have to use finger tips because finger nails and other objects don’t tend to register. Web Clips would be a really nice addition to the iPhone, in addition to other obvious ones like GPS and Flash support. So far I haven’t had any battery issues even after playing lots of video and using the speaker a lot, but I’ll keep a close watch on that as the weeks role on…

Final Score: 3 out of 5 Stars

While the iPhone is undoubtedly a beautiful device that’s sure to wow many of your friends, some of its core features could still use a good bit of polishing. Potential buyers should think twice before diving into a 2 year, $2000+ commitment to a device that doesn’t really fill the full promise of the internet in your pocket. If you’ve got money to burn though, Apple still has plenty of iPhones left to replace that cash in your wallet.

Updates: Have something to add? Post your comment and I’ll do my best to keep this review updated with the most noteworthy suggestions, pictures, and video. Thanks for your input!