Apple - iPhone (8 GB) Cell Phone Review

Unusual among early adopting gadget geeks, I am technically challenged. For example, I read the editing note beneath this box and I have no idea what Firefox or Camino are. Nevertheless, I purchased an 8GB iPhone on opening day, June 29, and now have a solid two weeks of daily experience. My initial impression was that it was a paradigm changing device. Nothing over the last two weeks has changed that impression. The touch screen is beautiful and works as advertised. It is simple to open the NY Times on line or use its Google Maps feature and zoom in or out by pinching in or out with your index finger and thumb. And flicking through albums or photos is fast and amazing.

There are four basic features: Phone, iPod, E-Mail and Web Browser. Each of these works pretty well. I have heard complaints about the lack of memory, as well as the speed of the web browser. Yes, the web browser is not as fast as it could be. But who uses a PDA for serious web surfing anyway? It's fine for occasional use. And it could use some more memory. But when I plugged into iTunes for the first time to download contacts, videos, photos, etc into the phone, I realized that Apple had a simple solution to this issue - there is an option to "manually sync" your iPhone. I wasn't sure how much 8GB would hold, but I checked on one full length movie, about six hundred songs, and 10 half hour TV shows and the 8GB memory easily handled that. Despite lessmemory, it's a fantastic as an iPod, especially with video, as the iPhone is nearly all screen.

The biggest question mark for me was the virtual keyboard, which takes some getting used to. An experienced blackberry user will not be able to immediately thumb type on the iPhone's keyboard. It does take practice, although I found the predictive typing feature to be a great help at the start. If you are a one finger typer, it works flawlessly.

It's not perfect, but the bottom line for me was that I used to carry both a TREO and a Motorola RAZR. But the bulk of the TREO meant I would often leave it in a briefcase. The iPhone replaces both and is easily light enough to carry around in a pocket, as I have for the last two weeks without scratching the screen.