The iPhone has been with me for 2 weeks now and during that time I have had ample opportunity to get to know its good and bad sides. Murray recently wrote the following on Palm-Mac- “I don’t know why but this whole iPhone episode with Shaun just looks like it is doomed to fail, I don’t think you can go from needing a smartphone to be a business centric tool to one whose strengths lie in other departments without making some big sacrifices or virtually entirely changing your normal usage. I guess we will see though in the coming weeks…” I fully understand why someone would come to that conclusion because I have hardly been complimentary about the iPhone over the past year, and I still rate the Curve 8900 and Bold as better devices for my needs. The problem is that some of the ‘very’ good aspects of the iPhone have led me to make the effort to find ways to either deal with or accept the problems that are inherent in this device.
The Bad
Notes: There are few good notes applications for the iPhone that allows for synchronisation and even fewer that are fast in operation. In the end I went for Notespark which allows for synchronisation and is fairly quick. It could be better, but it is the best I have found at the moment.
Finance: PocketMoney is the solution I have been using, but it is a million miles away from the speed and clarity of Ascendo Money on a BlackBerry. It does the job quite well, but again could be better.
Calendar: Pocket Informant has promise, but the lack of Exchange support (Apple’s fault) hampers it for me. At this I am using the default calendar application, which is dreadful!
Email: Just how bad can an email application be? Setting up 2 accounts means jumping all over the place to check new emails and the amount of clicks required to see everything is ridiculous. It displays the emails well enough and seems to be quite stable, but MUCH work needs to be done here.
Battery: I have found a few ways to cope with the poor battery, but it is definitely in the ‘poor’ set when it comes to smartphones.
Voice quality: Dreadful speakerphone and below average signal quality. Normal ear speaker is OK though.
The Good
eBooks: eReader is close to perfect now and presents a reading experience like no other reader on any other smartphone.
Camera: Despite the low specification, the resultant photos are much better than I ever expected. A video camera is definitely needed though.
Music and Video: I don’t need to say a lot about this- fantastic quality for both.
Connectivity: Nothing connects as seamlessly to a Wi-Fi network as an iPhone does. BBC iPlayer works all of the time unlike the Nokia 5800 etc. which seems to require lots of buffering.
App Store: The big one. As addictive as cocaine, but does slightly less harm to your finances and shouldn’t affect your health too much. In a world where mobile software is now king there are just too many good quality titles, especially games, which are hard to leave behind. My daily attempts to break the 100 plane barrier in Flight Control have only been surpassed by my obsession with creeping up the WordPop! online leader board. Deep Green, Supercross and Let’s Golf! are just some of the extra games which mean I won’t be touching a PSP or Nintendo DS for a long time. Twitterrific, Gratitude! and WordPress are further titles which have started to get under my skin.
Usability: The icon driven interface is terrible and after a few applications have been installed you may as well be trying to find the ace of spades in a pack of cards. It can take a while to get used to, but every other aspect of the way it works is streets ahead. The Touch Diamond2 is a stunning device, but still not one of the pretenders has matched the iPhone in the touch area.
The Verdict
So many problems and so many plus points make this a difficult decision, but it is one which came quite easily in the end. The PIM side is poor and I still struggle with data entry, but the big kid in me is enthused by the App Store and the entertainment side. I also like the hassle free operation of the phone which is hard to emulate on the other platforms and so for the moment I will continue to use the iPhone as my main device. Somehow I suspect the Curve 8900 will not be used again when it is returned from repair.
Shaun,
I can’t believe it. I’d be tempted with the next version of the iPhone, but this version just isn’t powerful enough for me.
You said that the hassle free operation of the phone is hard to emulate on the other platforms. Could you expound on that a little?
Tom
Once you get used to the touch interface of the iPhone it is quite quick in use, but the main thing I mean by hassle free is for Wi-Fi etc. Tunr it on and it immediately connects and the same for airplane mode. Little things like that are super quick.
I think you’ve nailed the key issues on the head, and I’d agree 100% about the calendar, email (though with only 2 accounts one of which gets very little traffic it’s not such a big deal for me).
Similarly, battery life is OK for me – aven’t got close to draining it in a whole day in the 4 months I’ve had it, and I do charge it overnight, every night.
Voice quality for me is OK – better than my Palm devices, and I’ve never used a BB so couldn’t compare it.
Icon navigation doesn’t bother me – the new search screen in the coming v3.0 of the OS sounds very useful though.
You’ve pretty much confirmed my chosen upgrade path, as much as it pains me to leave Palm by the wayside. My Treo 650 has served me very well, but it’s time to have easier and meaningful web browsing capabilities. With my new job, and OS 3.0 and (presumably) upgraded hardware and Dataviz’s DocsToGo coming out this summer, I won’t have any excuses to hold out any longer. I’ve said before and I’ll say again that I understand why Sprint and Palm paired up, but that doesn’t make it any less sad for me. My current office is Mac-based, and my boss even suggested that the company will pay for a MobileMe account for when I do get the iPhone. I didn’t even ask!
Actually, the calendar app is quite good when you need to check on the appointments of a team or just more than one person! I use it for running my limousine service, each car has a different calendar. So I can identify busy times in a glance.
Email is ok, I think (I have 7 accounts), I hope Apple will give us a consolidated inbox in June!!!
OK folks – lets get this straight. The iPhone is not designed for business, PIM, or most things that a regular PDA is. It is about entertainment foremost. Adding a phone to either has complicated things in each case. If the Pre does not work out, I’ve decided to keep my TX until it burns out, and reduce my phone to just a phone. Yeah its 2 devices, but it works. I see an iTouch in my life because my oroginal iPod just died, but that will be for fun.
Thanks for the WordPop! mention. I love my iPod Touch and I am still looking for a phone. I have my eye on the Pre but might get another WM instead.