[RKC]

I just bought my wife a new iPhone - she and I both had older iPhones (I kept mine).

Battery life is much less on the new iPhone, so I got her a car charger (she is a HEAVY user of talk time/email, not so much web). For the week it took to get the car charger, I turned off 3G and might just do that all the time as she doesn't use the web much.

I am actually happy with our iPhones.

These things I have no trouble with speedwise:
Email
Typing without "real" keys
Maps/traffic
Old iPhone: Triangulated location (accurate in cities/interstates, less so in the middle of nowhere)
New iPhone: GPS - quick, accurate.
Web sites when you really need them (sites take up to a minute - but I don't often need more than email/maps - and American Airlines, USA Today, Amazon, have iPhone sites now that load quickly)

These things are too slow:
Complicated real web sites (Wall Street Journal, etc.)

The new iPhone is much faster, but still too slow for my tastes on complicated sites unless I really need to access them. The drinking through a straw idea is valid. But, having said that, I don't think the WiFi is fast enough on a phone either compared to a computer.....I have a computer at work, another at home and a light laptop with a USB AirCard, so I am spoiled and don't much use the web on the phone for complicated websites. But when you really need it, it's there, even if it takes a minute (train schedules, airport delays, news stories, yelp). As I said, the easy/light stuff, like maps, email, is fine.

Things you might consider/want:
Car charger as iPhone 2.0 seems to discharge before a long day is over
Can't cut/paste
No Flash yet

The last two will likely be fixed soon. The first means buy a couple of kinds of chargers.