Full Review

A new generation of cell phones is upon us. Long gone are the days of bulky, green screen, black text, one-ringtone cell phones. Here are the days of a cell phone that is light weight (4.8 ounces to be exact), fits nicely into the palm of your hand, plays music, has GPS, gives directions, has a completely touch screen interface, and of course, has its own operating system. Yes, I’m talking about Apple’s iPhone. Since its release on June 29, 2007, the iPhone has been the topic of many news stories and articles featured in computer and business magazines. The first version of the iPhone was a little rough, and got questionable reviews. But I can assure you, a few software updates later, and its flaws are hard to find. I recently purchased an iPhone, and have been very impressed. Here are some things to know before you make the purchase.

The Pros:
Size and Design: According to Apple’s website, the iPhone is 4.5 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, and .46 inches deep, making it the perfect size to snuggle in the palm of your hand. It is moderately light weight, however it may seem slightly heavier than your average $20 Go Phone. The iPhone only comes in one color, but its sleek design makes up for that (besides, you can always put a colorful cover on it). With the microphone hidden on the bottom of the phone, and the speaker disguised so cleverly on the front, it hardly looks like a phone on first glance. There are only four buttons on the whole thing, eliminating all unnecessary parts. The screen is 3.5 inches, when in widescreen mode, which it changes to by simply changing the orientation of the phone. Using the phone in widescreen mode is nice, especially when surfing the internet, because the keyboard becomes wider, making it easier to hit the correct letter.

Touch Screen: Because the iPhone is completely touch based, it is very easy to use. You touch the screen to access the phone section, and then simply select from Favorites, Recents, Contacts, Keypad, or Voicemail from the icons at the bottom of the screen. One touch on the contact’s name and the phone is dialing. The only button on the front of the phone is the Home button, making it very easy to quit whatever you are doing, or back out of whatever you have yourself into. If you are familiar with Mac’s latest operating system, Leopard, the iPhone interface is exactly the same. It actually uses a version of Leopard as its operating system.

The World’s Smartest Keyboard: Now you may be asking yourself- how would I text message someone, if there is only 4 buttons on the whole phone? Have no fear, the keypad pops up when you touch the message icon. Named “The World’s Smartest Keyboard”, the iPhone has its own form of predictive text. When you begin typing a word, it guesses what you are trying to type, and the word appears in a bubble above the word. If the word is correct, you can simply hit the space bar and the word will fall into your message. If it is, simply ignore the suggestion, or touch the miniature X that appears in the corner of the bubble.

The iPod: Some people have said that the iPod included in the iPhone is better than any other iPod out there. While that may or may not be true, I can tell you that the organization of your music and the visual display are outstanding. You can sort your music the same way you can with your regular iPod- by artist, by album, by song title, by genre, by composer…and the iPhone flips back and forth through these sortings effortlessly.

The Phone: The iPhone is, after all, a phone, and while you may forget that when playing with all the other cool features, its basic function is to make calls. And it does just that, without even thinking twice. Your phone holds as much information on your contacts as an actual phone book does- up to eight phone numbers, customized ring tones ,email addresses, physical addresses, nickname, job title, department, birthday and individual notes for each person. There is a separate icon in each contact to text message, so you don’t have to exit out of your contacts, go into the message function, find their phone number, ect. And perhaps the best thing about the phone feature of the iPhone is the voicemail function. Your voicemails appear almost like a text message, with the name (or number) of the message, and the time. You simply have to touch the message, and it plays instantly without calling your mailbox. And if you don’t want to listen to the message at all, you can just hit “delete” and the message is gone forever (not quite- it is possible to retrieve them because the phone stores deleted messages for five days). How awesome is that? No more listening to the entire message just to erase it later, no more having to listen the whole message again just to hear the phone number that they repeated so fast (yes, there is a little timer at the bottom, and you can touch anywhere along the timer and the message will skip to that point).


The Cons:
The Service Plan and Price: Yes, the major downfall to the iPhone is that you have to use AT&T as a phone carrier. I am not opposed to AT&T at all, and in fact, it works great. However, if you are not already a member of AT&T, a switch must be made. And, of course nothing this cool would come with a small price tag. The 8GB iPhone will set you back $399 and the 16GB phone will cost you $499.

The Headphones: The iPhone comes with its own set of headphones, and they even have a little microphone on it so your headphones double as a hands-free device. However, if you try to plug anything else in (read- anything not Apple), they do not work. My old headphones from the first generation iPod I have worked, but not very well.

The Battery: The battery life of the iPhone is slightly lacking. According to Apple’s website, the phone will stay on standby for 250 hours, talk for 8 hours, surf the internet for 6 hours, and play music up to 24 hours. However, I do not do anything of these things for extended periods of time during the day, and I am left charging my phone at least every other night. Most of the time, on the second day, the battery display goes to red, signaling 20% battery life left. And in my experience, the last 20% will go very quickly, sometimes in a matter of 10 minutes, if on the phone. The phone will shut itself off, to save anything you may have been working on (like on the internet, for example), which is helpful, but it can be annoying if you are trying to talk with someone. Also, you cannot buy replacement batteries in the store; you must send the phone away to Apple for a small fee. Now, this may change after a few years, when people start needing batteries.

Comfort: As mentioned earlier, the phone fits well into your hand or pocket, and is very comfortable in general. However, this lacks truth when talking for long periods of time. The flat display of the screen squishes your ear, and you have to constantly adjust it. And, because it is so skinny, you can’t hold it up to your ear with just your shoulder (which turns out to be an annoyance when you are driving).

Sound Quality: When listening to music, especially without headphones, the music can sound timid and thin. While this is fine for listening for short periods of time, listening for long plane rides may get taxing on the ears. The headphones included (the only ones that really work with the phone) don’t really tune out background noise, so listening in a rowdy place like a full bus can be difficult.


All in all, the iPhone is definitely a revolutionary device. The combination of phone, music, internet, camera and note pad all in one is pretty crazy. While the screen may get smudged up from fingerprints, and sometimes the keyboard seems slightly too small, you can’t complain too much. The phone is incredibly easy to use, and is so flashy-sometimes you forget what you picked it up for. The graphics are crisp, and the colors are more vibrant than most old televisions. The sound quality may be lacking, and the internet can be slow, but what do you expect? First and foremost, it is a phone. And besides, there has to be room for improvement. On that note, Apple provides free software updates as soon as they are available. So if you want something that can double as a phone, camera, and music device, then the iPhone is your best bet.