Apple - iPhone (8 GB) Cell Phone Review

So I finally made the plunge!  After several years of being a happy Verizon and Windows Smartphone (Motorola Q most recently) customer, I switched to the Apple iPhone. I used it for several days before I ported my number from Verizon to make sure there were no fatal flaws.  Ultimately I decided that the iPhone's strengths outweighed its weaknesses .

Top 4 iPhone Weaknesses

1. Contacts and Calendar do not synch "over the air" like they do with Active Sync on the Smartphone.  If/when Apple and Microsoft get together to implement the "direct push" software for Exchange server that should enable this over the air syncing, I will be a very happy camper.  For now, I have to dock the iPhone, sync my calendar and contacts with Apple's iCal and Address Book and then set Entourage to sync with those.  When I dock the iPhone, it syncs with iCal and Address Book.
   
2. The keyboard is still not as easy for me to use as the Motorola Q keyboard was. It is just slower, less usable, and takes more effort and focus to typing an e-mail.
   
3. Search is weak.  I wish I could easily search my address book or e-mails for a specific word or phrase.  As far as I can tell, there is no search except when you are dialing the phone and it looks up your contacts.  I will say however, it is faster than the Motorola Q for this purpose. I have 5,000+ contacts and it sorts through them with a few second delay.
   
4. Reception in Chicago is not as good with AT&T as it is with Verizon. We tested side by side and I would say that quality of the AT&T network is 30 to 50% lower than Verizon.  However, the other strengths helped offset this weakness.

Top 4 iPhone Strengths

1. The web browsing is amazing.  The ability for the iPhone to render web pages perfectly is light years ahead of the Motorola Q and Windows Smartphone.  I can now read HTML e-mails and surf the web in a way I was totally unable to with the Q.
   
2. The applications. Both mapping and photos are extremely well done.  The mapping bascially eliminates the need to print out directions from Google Maps like I used to.  For me, this is a major plus.
   
3. Having an iPod built into my phone and always with me is very nice. I will use it more and be grateful that it is always with me.
   
4. And of course, as everyone has said, Apple has designed an easy to use, beautiful interface that makes the phone simple yet sophisticated.

So net/net, so far, a few weeks into my experiment, I am very happy with the iPhone. It would have been perfect if Microsoft had worked with Apple on the over the air syncing and they have struck their exclusive deal with Verizon not AT&T.  I don't know how they could have solved the keyboard issue....