My review of my iPhone 3G

[viewfly]

Part I: The Quest

I’ve had the phone for less than two days, so I expect to update this ‘review’ as time passes. But I have explored most of the functions and performance enough to give what are strictly my opinions. I’d be happy to answer or try out any feature for someone just now shopping. I now have 2 3G iPhones.

I should start of by saying, that of course this is a little biased, because as anyone who just laid out $200 for a new phone would feel, they need to justify their purchase. I am guilty, but I’m also realistic, so I hope that comes through. Also, this is my first smartphone: except for the BB curve, I have only had Nokia’s and Motorola’s. See my profile to the left for the phones that I’ve had.

What is important to me? I want quality photos, email, web browsers, very good screen quality, solid construction, SMS and MMS. I can fudge on some of them, not needing them all of the same features with my previous phones. I also wanted ease of synching calendar, contacts, etc with Outlook.

But the following things are the most important to me:
RF signal quality,
Audio send and receive quality, and
Battery life.

It should get me through the day since I charge daily, but it would be great if I can get through 2 days or more, in a pinch, when that happens.

So why did I chose the iPhone at all? I wanted 3G, WiFi, the same quality screen as my Nokia 6131, and the GSM and 3G bands had to cover all USA and European frequencies, plus Japan. Also this time around I did not want to spend a fortune. I seriously looked at the Nokia E51, but it lacked the US 3G band and was too much money since it was not carried by ATT plus the screen smaller than my 6131.
And finally, I listen to audiobooks a lot (www.audible.com) on my ipod, garmin and mp3 player, plus some songs. I wanted to combine that into one device. The iphone does that for me.

vf

[viewfly]

Part II: IMO, the pro and cons, basic performance.

Let me cut to the quick and dirty. The phone is gorgeous. The 16 million color screen is very large and crisp. I can see it very easily in daylight, unlike my 6131. I’m amazed by that.

So in quick summary:

Some of the Pros: Basics

Screen is second to none, can be seen in daylight.
Call quality excellent: much better than my 6131, call and received.
RF signal based on bars will seem low, but this phone give quality calls regardless
Battery life: a little early to tell. Phone goes between 2 and 3G. First day, with partial charge went from 9am to 11pm, until it redlined. But that is with near constant use. Not too different from my experience with the Nokia. I’m giving it lots of use the second day, still about1/2 left after 15 hours of use. WiFi always on, and being used constantly. 3G too.

Let me explain. In my house I’m getting 1 or 2 bars, either 2 or 3G. I placed the phone in field test mode, and 3 bars was ~89dBm, 2 bars 93dBm, and 1bar ~ 97 to 101dBm. All numbers are negative of course. I made a call from the house phone to iPhone, iPhone to iPhone, and listened or talked at both end. The voice audio was crystal clear!!! And that was with 1 or 2 bars. Like a landline. Any concerns that I read about the 1st gen iPhone, seem to not apply here. Do not let the bars fool you. I found little or no difference between low or full bars here. This particular test was in 2G, plain old GSM.

Other:
Slim and fits nicely in pocket. Back plastic screen is a smudge magnet…get a back case if that drives you nuts. Also the Crystal clear screen protector takes nothing away from the looks or performance.

The synch with Outlook was flawless. Setting up gmail and earthlink mail was much easier than any Nokia I ever had. I was amazed. Camera is high quality, but there is no option to go BW, sepia, Crop, etc. I miss that, but it can be done later with photoshop, etc. No deal breaker here.

MMS, true there is no mms. Also, there is no way to reduce the 2megapixel size to 640 by 480 in the phone. I thought this would be a problem. I sent a iPhone photo to the old Moto Razr, didn’t go through (see note below). However I sent it to my 6131 and it arrived in the MMS mailbox fine. I did this by emailing from the iPhone to xxxxxxxxxx@mms.att.net. On the Razr, although it didn’t go to the phone, after a few hours, it showed up in my wife’s email address (@ full resolution) that was on file with cingular (I guess). She saw the photo on the home PC. Go figure that one.

SMS is fun on the phone.

One can turn off 3G or WiFi separately. Also it will fetch mail every 15min, minimum. It also auto fetches whenever the mail appl is opened. Work well enough, not to need push mail.

Audio volume is good for my very old ears. Even in the mall, it worked better than the 6131.

aGPS worked great. As you drive it shows you were you are on the map continuously. Accuracy is very, very good.

Camera quality is better than my 1.3 Mpixel Nokia. Very happy with this.

Definitely it lacks some of the options in some applications. I already mentioned about the less than useful options in the camera mode. But so far, these have been minor, and not a show stopper.

That is all for now, but Part III is next. However, since the software is not too different from the 1st gen., there are not too many surprises there.

Bluetooth. Haven't tried it yet, but it is limited for hands free from what I read. Not for transfering files. I guess that is because iTunes does not use bluetooth. So back to the cable. Don't like that , but it does charge the phone too. oh well.

Overall,it has the most of the same features regarding contacts, phone call usage, etc as the Nokia OS had. Just different. Very intuitive.

Vf

P.S. there are lots of free appls that do things like voice recorder, radio, etc.

[Ddeere2]

Wow, great review. How's the internet on it, browsing on 3G verus WiFi versus EDGE? (Sorry, I had to ask about EDGE) I saw you mentioned SMS, but is typing on it more accurate then the 1st iPhone. I've tried typing on the 1st gen and it was horrible. Thanks for your review. Its really tempting me now to go and get one for my self

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by Ddeere2

Wow, great review. How's the internet on it, browsing on 3G verus WiFi versus EDGE? (Sorry, I had to ask about EDGE) I saw you mentioned SMS, but is typing on it more accurate then the 1st iPhone. I've tried typing on the 1st gen and it was horrible. Thanks for your review. Its really tempting me now to go and get one for my self

Internet browsing is pretty fast. Mostly I am on WiFi at the home, for a few hours on the Apple Store WiFi (while waiting in line), and then a local coffee shop. It is pretty seamless, defaulting to WiFi first if it is available.

The trick with keyboard texting is this: When you place your finger on a key, and it is the wrong one, just slide your finger over to the correct one. As long as you don't pick your finger up, you haven't chosen a letter yet. Also, the magnifying glass (press and hold) help see where the cursor is.

I'm still not very good at it, but learning. But that brings up another point. Every phone that I've owned before, around the 2nd year, one key starts getting sticky. Like the end key, etc. I'm hoping that with the touch screen, that mechanical problem will disappear.
Will see

[Mobile Mike]

Viewfly, nice early review. Much of what you said, I would agree with (except for the GPS and 3G, which I don't have).

The screen quality of the iPhone is spectacular, along with the wonderfully simple UI. I use WiFi on mine for internet browsing, and it is fast (as it should be).

So enjoy your new baby, 'cause it's a beaut! I'm quite happy with my old EDGE iPhone (which makes buying the 3G version sort of redundant, right now, since I ain't paying for the data plan, plus my iPhone's unlocked).

Have fun with it and I look forward to your next review!

[Ddeere2]

Thanks a lot for the info...this is making it really hard to wait. Now I'm stuck between getting a Blackberry Bold or a iPhone. Can't wait for updates. Congrats on your new phone

[dmapr]

Viewfly, thanks for a very thorough review!

[walkguru]

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.1.11328/542; U; en))

thanks for sharing. nice review.

[Gamer03]

Agreed. Thanks for the good and thorough review viewfly. I didn't know about the finger sliding if you hit the wrong key. I might have to go into my AT&T store when I get back in a few days and see how the iPhone looks and possibly switch to from my Tilt. My Tilt is nice, but it has already frozen 3 times in the past 8 days (that is one of the reasons that I got rid of my Sprint Mogul).

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by Gamer03

Agreed. Thanks for the good and thorough review viewfly. I didn't know about the finger sliding if you hit the wrong key. I might have to go into my AT&T store when I get back in a few days and see how the iPhone looks and possibly switch to from my Tilt. My Tilt is nice, but it has already frozen 3 times in the past 8 days (that is one of the reasons that I got rid of my Sprint Mogul).

What ROM are you using, and what software do you have installed? I would assume you are using the new ROM issued back in February. I haven't had any issues to report on mine. My first Tilt did that a lot, would freeze at least once a day. After I exchanged (within 30 days) I had no further problems.

-Jay

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by Gamer03

Agreed. Thanks for the good and thorough review viewfly. I didn't know about the finger sliding if you hit the wrong key. I might have to go into my AT&T store when I get back in a few days and see how the iPhone looks and possibly switch to from my Tilt. My Tilt is nice, but it has already frozen 3 times in the past 8 days (that is one of the reasons that I got rid of my Sprint Mogul).

Thanks. Also, if you start learning not to look at your fingers too much,but just type and look at what the Apple software thinks the word should be, accept by hitting the space, texting goes much faster.

I've moved on to almost two hands now. I just discovered that in addition to the calendar, the apple os alarm function allows for multiple alarm times, and repeating. Good feature.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

What ROM are you using, and what software do you have installed? I would assume you are using the new ROM issued back in February. I haven't had any issues to report on mine. My first Tilt did that a lot, would freeze at least once a day. After I exchanged (within 30 days) I had no further problems.

-Jay

I am not sure. Where do you find this? It even froze during the initial process of first turning it on when the lady was registering the device and activating it. I have the following theme installed:

iPhone Theme for Pocket PC

So far, within the past day or so it hasn't frozen so I am crossing my fingers. I still would like to see what an iPhone looks like and then make a decision either way.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by viewfly

Thanks. Also, if you start learning not to look at your fingers too much,but just type and look at what the Apple software thinks the word should be, accept by hitting the space, texting goes much faster.

I've moved on to almost two hands now. I just discovered that in addition to the calendar, the apple os alarm function allows for multiple alarm times, and repeating. Good feature.

Thanks. That is good to hear.

Viewfly, have you run into the signal problem everyone is reporting?

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by Gamer03

Thanks. That is good to hear.

Viewfly, have you run into the signal problem everyone is reporting?

No, not at all Gamer03

Part III - Signal Stregth

To answer Gamer03’s question and after reading 9 pages of posts on Signal Quality or Strength on HoFo forums, I did some technical measurements.

First off, 9 pages of posts on HoFo and only ‘bars’ are used for comparison. This is garbage information.

Yes, my observations are that the signal level by bars is slightly lower than my ‘bars’ on previous Nokias. BUT the call quality is more than excellent, even with 1 bar. Better than my Nokia 6131. My kid mentions that she is getting calls through (with the iPhone) in rural areas that were not possible with the other phone (BB Curve).

Ok some real numbers. I learned how to place the iPhone in Field Test Mode. It then displays a calibrated signal strength in minus dBm or decibels below one milliwatt of received signal. This is a standard calibrated unit of measure to a bench top instrument.

I dusted off my Nokia 6340 and placed it in Field Test mode also.

2G

In my home, the iPhone and the Nokia gave the same number of dBMs and, they actually tracked each other quite well as I moved from room to room and ground floor to 2nd floor. The received signal ranged from -97 to -86 dBm.

So there is no difference in received signal strength between the two phones. Period. Their Bars are different, and that is the problems: bars are not calibrated to any standard.

The RF signal received on the iPhone is just fine.

3G

Most of the complaints hovered around 3G. So I have no 3G phone to compare the 3G iPhone to. However, I could do this.

In my home, I agree that the 3G signal is weaker than the 2G signal. So I leave it in 2G. But going downtown or in the Mall, etc, I get full ‘bar’s of 3G signal. No problem.

Therefore, I went to an area where I had good 3G signal. I placed the iPhone in Field Test Mode. The signal strength in dBm were identical for both 3G and 2G. No difference!

So I would conclude that there is nothing inferior with the 3G reception on the iPhone.

Judge more by whether or not your placed telephone calls go through and are clear, NOT bars. Imagine if our car or home FM radios had ‘bars’ on them? You would find the bars all over the place, but the FM signal quite clear.

vf

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by Gamer03

I am not sure. Where do you find this? It even froze during the initial process of first turning it on when the lady was registering the device and activating it. I have the following theme installed:

iPhone Theme for Pocket PC

So far, within the past day or so it hasn't frozen so I am crossing my fingers. I still would like to see what an iPhone looks like and then make a decision either way.

I'll have to check how to do this again... Its been a while, and I am not using my Tilt today... I got the parts in last night from Hong Kong to make my V3 bright red, so I am now playing with my Red V3... I'll check later tonight. I think you go to Start/Settings/ and I don't know what the last part is...

-Jay

[Steven2420]

Viewfly,

I was going to do a review, however, after your super professional job and phenominal review...there is NOTHING that I could add. I love mine and now I just listed my Curve.

Charlyee will be amazed...this iPhone is a KEEPER!

Thanks again Viewfly for a great job!

[viewfly]

Part IV – more thoughts pro and con

First I like to say something about cases. Get at least the silicone back cover. The 3G phone is curved at the edges and the smooth plastic back make this thing handle like a bar of soap. I ejected it from my hand once…onto my lap already.

The dermashot cases by incipio are really nice. Price includes a clear screen cover too. myIncipio.com | iPhone 3G Accessories

On key entry, I’m finding the Apple predictive dictionary much better than Nokia’asThe trick is to type with your fingers, look at the keyboard and also the guessed word. It is so good, it allows one to be sloppy. Trust it and just let the ‘Force’ guide you, and it works well. So says the jeteye. Movement of the cursor with the magnifying glass is cute, but it should also have a simple left/right arrow key too.

Some cool things. The proximity sensor knows when the phone is at your face. The screen goes dark, but when you move the phone to look at the screen, it brightens again. You can do the same thing by waving your hand over the phone (of course it only works in ‘call’ mode). That would annoy me with the Nokia, the screen would dim to save battery juice, but then I had to hit a key to ‘wake’ it up.

Multiple alarms. Besides the calendar, one can set many alarms, have them repeat daily, weekly, etc. Oh, and the volume is quite high, at least for me.

Nice switch on the side to quickly go from vibrate to ringer. But there are no profiles like Nokia. But one can set the ringing volume from the side, and that works for me.

Who needs 3G? the phone guides seamlessly from Edge or 3G to Wifi, and there is so much wifi around these days, who needs 3G? Most of the time, I’m not out on the street, but in an area where there is wifi. It just keeps finding them and lets me know new ones that it sets up easily into memory.

Push Mail. Forget Mobile Me. If you want free BB like push mail sign up for a yahoo or ymail account. It pushes mail to the phone in a snap. I have had problems getting it to work all the time. I just tried 4, only got 4. Inconsistent, but I’d keep my eye on this option. It pushes on the average about 1 to 3 seconds after sending from my PC. Maybe too many people are trying. But when it works, it’s great. If you need it, instead of just pull mail every 15min, 30 min or 1hour.

The speaker is quite loud and of good quality compared to the tinny things I’ve had before. Not stereo.

BT seems only for headsets. Paired with the Moto HS700 fine. My Dell saw the iphone but could not pair with it. So no IR, and no BT for file transfers. Cable only. Can charge via USB though.

Battery life. Still doing tests and playing But it seems that one should not expect more than 24- 35 hours out of the iPhone using the various features. Not like advertised, but it gets me through one day. So far I have not been able to turn everything off and just run 2G mode. I keep wanting to ‘play’. I feel that Apple figure you will have the phone docked a lot. Probably true.

Calculator. Standard one until you rotate the phone 90 degrees. Then it turns into a full scientific calculator - Charylee you will like this. RPN is also available as an app.

P.S. just got the 4th ymail.


No voice dialing at all. But it has a favorite list. Go to it or double hint the home button and it will take you there. You can edit the list.

I see a way to import SIM contacts but none to export. Unless it automatically keeps a back up for you. Of course one can use outlook. So in many ways the phone is feature rich, but no one to one with the Nokia OS. They do it 'their' way.

GAMES: this is cool. Download a game, like a driving one. control the car not with left/right buttons, just tilt the iphone like a steering wheel. The internal accelerometer does the work. Very fun!

[hf1khal]

Viwfly, a great review and I agree with your findings. The signal thing, well in my area I do have 3G and when i compare the V9, Tilt and the iphone (based on signal bars) the first 2 show full while the iphone shows 2 bars. Now even if it goes to 1 bar, teh call quality is even better than the other 2. I got to try the maps with the tracking, I found that to be a laging and it actualy shoed me being driving between homes instead of streets but when walking it was acurate. I read some where on the internet that this is normal and that if TomTom or other GPS sellers come out with a GPS solution it will be accurate and move right along not in bursts (only happenes when driving).

As to mobileme, well I took the 60 day free trial and I can say that (when working) it has kept every thing synched between the device, and 3 other PCs and any change I make (in any one) gets updated to the rest. It could be a keeper but will have to wait and see. One quirk, we can't get to hotmail from either me or the unit.

Browser, well I already ran into a few quirks, when in a selction moe on a page (pull down) the the screen shows the list in a pop up and it ends up freezzing on the screen and could not get out of it. On some forums (some private ones) I can seem to be able to log in and the biggest one that failed is teh WA wap site as I can not get to the loging screen at all and the only way to be here is the normal forum loging.

Battery life for me in the past day was not so good (I did a lot of usage) wifi is on, higher screen brightness and 15 minutes pull on 5 accounts) and lots of browsing to test.

Today I had a few PMs (in other forum) hwere an advise was given to me and the advie is as follows:
1: GPS if you exit the quick way, GPS stays active, one would need to realy turn it off and to that one would need to press and hold the button untill it shuts off and it goes to the home scree.
2: Lower the brightness to around 10 or 20%
3: Turn off the Auto light adjust.
4: when not in use turn WIFI off
5: if you don't need 3G, turn it off.
6: Battery needs about 4 or so re-charges to get