iPhone - is it worth it?

 

Well, I finally gave in to the allure of its beauty and functionality and shelled out £340 on a 16gb iPhone last Tuesday.  So after a week’s use how is it working out?

To be honest I think it’s really good.  It is such a joy to use and so intuitive that I keep switching it on and opening and closing things just because I can.  I think I may have finished the Windows Mobile phase of my life.

The key highlights for me are:

• The touch interface - Wow, it works brilliantly.
• The clarity of the screen - it is just so sharp and everything looks good on it.
• Safari (web browser) - this is the way to browse the web on a handheld device.  It is almost the full internet in miniature and is so easy to navigate and zoom in on pages.
• BBC iPlayer - the BBC have just released a beta version of their iPlayer for use on iPhones.  You can now catch up on all your favourite BBC shows but only over a WiFi connection.
• SMS - this is displayed in conversation format so you can trace the whole conversation with individuals.  Important if you are a serial texter or are trying to piece together a drunken evening!
• Google Maps - yes, you can get this on most phones these days and a lot of phones have built in GPS, but do they look as good as this?  No, they do not.
• The keyboard - it does take some getting used to and it is very easy to hit the wrong keys BUT it guesses what you were trying to type and gets it right a surprising amount of the time.

On the downside (yes, there are some):

•  Copy & Paste - where is it?  This is my biggest issue with the phone, I think.  If I want to copy something from a web page into an email or an sms, I can’t.  I also can’t select a word or full block of text to delete things quickly.
• Email folders - you can’t create folders within POP3 accounts so everything sits in the inbox.  Not a problem if you have an IMAP email account.
• Saving web pics - there doesn’t appear to be a way to save a picture from a website.
  Camera - I don’t use a phone camera very often but when I do I want to get a decent quality picture.  That won’t happen with the poxy 2 meg camera on the iPhone (which also has no zoom and no flash).  Another real let down from an otherwise excellent device.

In summary, there are a few niggles but overall the plus points seriously outweigh the negatives and I am pleased I bought it.  With the recent release of the SDK we will see a software update at the end of June and the availability of 3rd party applications.  At that point I think the iPhone will become a serious player in the market.