Apple - iPhone 3G Review

I purchased my iPhone 3G last Saturday and have had several problems with it that you should be aware of before you run out and drop down $199 commit to a two year contract.

While I love the iPhone's web surfing, weather, maps etc, integration with Exchange has always been a sore spot for me so I was excited when Apple announced it would work seamlessly with ActiveSync....

Well it turns out that there are some limits for a "power user" of Exchange.

I have 7,500 contacts and simply put the iPhone is choking on them.  I also receive 150+ e-mails a day, which might be above average but is not off the charts.   These two facts are causing some serious battery and performance problems.

When I go to type an e-mail it takes about 15 seconds for the iPhone to make it through the first few letters of the e-mail recipients name.  That makes it almost unusable. The original iPhone was not great, but this version is attrocious.  

The battery is also running dry in less than five hours.  I left the office yesterday at 12:30 after fully charging it and by 5pm it was dead. I used the GPS and push e-mail on 3G, but come on!  Five hours of battry life with NO talk time? 

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

So this morning I turned off 3G, turned off location services and turned off push e-mail.   That just might help save the battery but guess what?  That sounds like iPhone 1.0.

I have not found a single review or any info on Apple.com that addresses the topic of how many contacts you can have before the iPhone cries uncle.  I am clearly testing those limits.

I want the iPhone to work but I need to address the performance issue of auto finding contacts when typing e-mails or phone numbers and  need to address the battery life issue.  Does anyone think I have a lemon or am I just pushing the iPhone beyond where it should go?

7/18/08  UPDATE - The battery power and heat issue seem to have been solved.  I have turned 3G back on but turned off the push feature of e-mail so now it checks every 30 minutes.  I also have kept the location services off.  However, the slowness in the address look up still exists and if I typed lots of e-mails directly from my iPhone it would be a real deal killer.   Fortunately I mostly respond to e-mails so it is workable for now.  I hope that Apple does something about this issue.

8/11/08 UPDATE - I ran Plaxo's deduper on my address book and got it down from 8500 to 4700 contacts.  That has changed things dramatically.  It still hesitates a bit, but not nearly as much as it did before.  The phone has not crashed on me since.  I have kept the 3G and GPS on and the battery basically lasts for a day. That is OK, but not optimal.    I have raised my initial rating from a 2 to a 4.   The 3G and push e-mail service does make the e-mail quite snappy.

Of and the apps are pretty cool.  Pandora is my favorite.