iPhone 3G - Recommend?

jyl · jyl's Garage

Thinking about taking the plunge - switching my wife from VZ to ATT, from Blackberry to iPhone, and possibly myself from BB to iPhone if I can get corp IT support.

But want to do a check here first. Any comments on the iPhone 3G? Battery life, connection, reliability, bugs?

Pazuzu · 08-14-2008, 07:27 AM

Is there no hi-speed options for the BB? If I were to carry a smartphone, I'd be all over the BB before I even looked at an iPhone. Maybe times have changed, but one still seems "business" while the other seems "weekend fun".

jyl · jyl's Garage

The web browsing of the iPhone is a big draw for us. The BB's web browsing doesn't work for me.

onewhippedpuppy · 08-14-2008, 07:46 AM

John, it's still no iPhone, but have you tried downloading the Opera Mini browser? For browsing regular websites it's vastly superior to the BB browser. Plus, it's free!

http://www.operamini.com/

Can you get push email on a iPhone? That's one of my favorite BB features.

island911 · 08-14-2008, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyl

The web browsing of the iPhone is a big draw for us. The BB's web browsing doesn't work for me.

web browsing on a phone is viewing the web thru a straw. It works in a pinch, but really sucks.

The 3G burns more battery, and the iPhone battery is not user replaceable.

kstar · 08-14-2008, 07:54 AM

I do recommend the new iPhone; I've been using one for a few weeks now and previously had the original iPhone for about a year.

There are some minor, IMO, issues with the firmware which should be ironed out in the 2.1 release, FYI. There are also some reports of 3G speed issues, but they have yet to be quantified.

The iPhone never was and is certainly not now a "weekend toy". That's kind of funny, though.

HSBC is considering a 200k iPhone order and I think that Exchange support may be the tipping point for businesses.

Best thing to do is spend some time with the new iPhone and the other leading smart phone and see what you like best.

Good luck!

Best,

kstar · 08-14-2008, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by island911

web browsing on a phone is viewing the web thru a straw. It works in a pinch, but really sucks.

In your opinion, yes? My experience is that it is great and, as I have said before, I pick up my iPhone to hit the web many times when my MacBook Pro is right at my side. YMMV.

Quote:

The 3G burns more battery, and the iPhone battery is not user replaceable.

This is true, the new iPhone's battery performance is not so great and you cannot easily replace the battery. I'll be buying a car charger or auxiliary battery charger today!

Best,

Gogar · 08-14-2008, 08:01 AM

"With iPhone 2.0 software, iPhone supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, delivering push email, calendar, and contacts. And it gives mobile users secure access to corporate resources with Cisco IPSec VPN and wireless network services with WPA2 Enterprise and 802.1X authentication."

I have one and enjoy it, and I think it is a very powerful tool as long as you're in a great 3G coverage area. If you use the phone actively all day, the battery life will disappoint you.

jyl · jyl's Garage

For my wife, she's not a heavy phone user (maybe 5-8 calls/day), but is out of the house much of the day, ability to look up a web page will be very nice.

For me, I'm not a heavy phone user either (maybe 2 calls/day), am a heavy email user, and there are some web pages I use all the time at work, would be nice to be able to see them when mobile.

Looks like IT dept will not support the iPhone just yet, so for now it would be only for my wife.

island911 · 08-14-2008, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstarnes

In your opinion, yes? My experience is that it is great ..,

Great!? . .. HVGA is Great!? Hmmmm

I while back I stacked up the different devices, and posted. (the iPhone is the smallest and only 40% the pixel count of the second to smallest in the pix below)

Quote:

Originally Posted by island911

Yep! Tha's why I'm saying forget the phones for web ...other than in a real pinch.

Here are some comparisons for ya...

a 30" 2560x1600 and a bunch of portable devices

Close in on the portable devices; Nokia N800 (800x480) and in back is the Samsung Q1U (1024x600) and the bitty iPhone screen (320x480)

The Nokia has 2.5x more pixles than the iPhone and is (in my mind) the bare minimum for getting around on the web. ($200 and pocketable web, tunes, and all sorts of apps available . .Skype phone if that works for ya) The Q1U is a fully functional xp cmptr.

Note the special iPhone Google screen gives the appearance that the device is better than it really is.

btw, can the iPhone display the general Flash animations yet? --Lot's of websites use Flash in all or part.

onewhippedpuppy · 08-14-2008, 08:18 AM

island, aren't you comparing a smartphone to several tablet PCs? Somewhat apples to oranges, isn't it? Methinks there's only one of those that fits in your pocket and makes phone calls.

dd74 · 08-14-2008, 08:34 AM

How about iPhone 3G vs. Blackberry? I'm looking to get a new phone soon.

kstar · 08-14-2008, 08:40 AM

Yes, I think the the iPhone screen is "great". I'm just not hearing or reading about folks complaining about the iPhone display . . . except for some folks who appear to be wearing their bias on their sleeves.

I look at LCDs all day, and the iPhone display is excellent. Maybe it's because my eyes are getting old and you have especially sensitive eyes?

dad911 · 08-14-2008, 08:40 AM

I have had my iPhone for a week now. Love it so far. I tried typing on every phone verizon had to offer before deciding to switch.

Minor issues:
I turn off 3g & wi-fi most of the time to extend battery life.
No Insurance (other than applecare) if it breaks, is lost or destroyed before 2 years is up, It will cost full replacement.

onewhippedpuppy · 08-14-2008, 09:20 AM

The battery thing is just a deal breaker for me. It's pretty rare for a phone to last two years without needing a new battery. Replacing the expensive phone to replace the battery is a joke. Otherwise it's cool as hell. My brother-in-law has one, I was easily able to pick it up and use it. My BB Pearl required a few trips to the web to figure stuff out.

dtw · 08-14-2008, 09:45 AM

I bought one a couple weeks ago and it has had a huge impact. My IT director won't let me use Exchange but we've got a remote webmail client that works great on the iPhone, so I couldn't care less about being blocked from Exchange. I've still got my email, contacts, calendar, etc. on the https access. My personal email is setup on the iPhone mail client and works great.

Even my dad, who is even more Jobs-averse than island, was suitably impressed by the screen.

Complaints? It whips through the battery pretty fast. I keep mine plugged in a lot.

This is the first real iPod I've had other than a 4GB iPod mini that I've had for years, so I've finally gotten off my arse and started ripping my CD collection. I am worried that I am going toblow through the 16GB limit of the phone pretty fast, so I wish there were some larger-capacity models available. There probably will be by the time I break/lose this one.

The $299 price tag was pretty easy to swallow considering this thing is a GPS nav unit, phone, iPod, camera, and pocket PC all in one. And I still continue to maintain that Shazam is the greatest technological achievement of mankind, to date.

kstar · 08-14-2008, 09:52 AM

Matt:

AppleCare, for an added $69, covers the phone, including battery, for two years.

So far, I replace my mobile phone about once every 12 months. My Daughter is now using my original iPhone and it looks and works as new, IMO, and is running the same software with basically the same hardware as the 3G. This is my first experience with a mobile phone that has not become obsolete in one year, FWIW.

Again, the 3G battery situation is less than ideal. My concern is not with the battery failing, but with the faster draining of the battery while running 3G, GPS and WiFi and playing games!

I can live with it, but it is a problem for many folks. I think a car charger will fix the problem, though. I may even buy one of these:

slakjaw · 08-14-2008, 10:24 AM

Anyone here having any 3G connection issues or dropped calls? Looks like apple is going to push an update to fix this?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Infineon chip could be at the root of complaints from around the world that Apple Inc's new iPhone drops calls and has unpredictable Internet links, according to a research report from Nomura.

BusinessWeek also reported on its website on Thursday that the iPhone is suffering from faulty software on an Infineon chip, and that Apple plans to fix the problem with a software update.

Representatives for Apple and Infineon declined comment.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080814/apple_infineon.html?.v=3

Paul_Heery · Paul_Heery's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by slakjaw

Anyone here having any 3G connection issues or dropped calls?

We've been using some iPhones and this is our biggest complaint. We have been dropping a LOT of calls.

BTW, they work great with Exchange.

island911 · 08-14-2008, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

island, aren't you comparing a smartphone to several tablet PCs? Somewhat apples to oranges, isn't it? Methinks there's only one of those that fits in your pocket and makes phone calls.

My point was about the use as web-friendly tool. While the iPhone has useful panning, it is still like viewing the web thru a straw ...you have to pan all over the place . .it simply, physically, does not put up the information for an easy view.

As to what else is out there (pocketable phone with nice screen) there are a few. Glofiish has some VGA phones (that's 2x more pixels than the iPhone).

fwiw, the Nokia shown above is designed to work as an ip-phone (with video conf.) ..and has 2.5 more pix than the iPhone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstarnes

Yes, I think the the iPhone screen is "great". I'm just not hearing or reading about folks complaining about the iPhone display . . . except for some folks who appear to be wearing their bias on their sleeves.

I look at LCDs all day, and the iPhone display is excellent. Maybe it's because my eyes are getting old and you have especially sensitive eyes?

Yep, the iPhone screen is "great". . . for an HVGA display. It's bright, nice contrast, hard first surface... It's just that John wrote "The web browsing of the iPhone is a big draw for us. The BB's web browsing doesn't work for me. " --The BB has similar tools (I prefer them) for panning and zooming. So, if you expect to, say, browse all day and post long-winded replies on Pelican, well, the iPhone is going to suck . ..most any phone is going to suck ...except for some folks who appear to be wearing their bias on their sleeves. <---- I cut and pasted that last part. (try that simple move on an iPhone)