So I finally sold out and bought an iPhone. I've had it less than a week, and I really like it so far. However, there are certain things I'm not happy about which I will get to later in this post.
First of all, I want it to be known that I do not like touch screens. Other than my Garmin GPS, I don't have any other electronic device which requires a touch screen to work, and I'd like to keep it that way. I got the iPhone because I was sick of Verizon having a poor selection of phones to choose from and I wanted the ability to use my main cell phone anywhere in the world, not just within the United States. Verizon may be the biggest 3g network in the US, but once you're outside the country, it won't work for shit. Ask me how I know! And they've also discontinued their global phone rental program too, probably because that didn't work as well as they'd hoped. But my hatred of Verizon is for another post...
First Impressions
My first impressions so far is that other than porn apps, Apple is indeed right in that there's an app for just about anything you could possibly want (Doctor Who and a theme creator notwithstanding). Most are reasonably priced at 99c but some cost upwards to around $4.99. There are some, such as IM+, which cost $9.99 for the full version (ie, no ads) but I don't feel like paying that much just to be able to use MSN Messenger on my phone when I can use it all I want on my laptop for free.
The verdict right now is, I love the apps. I love the ability to surf the web wherever and whenever I want, without paying for it (hence the $30 monthly data plan). This is the first phone I've had that I am able to get access to email, internet, etc so I'm super-stoked about it. In fact, I am now more addicted to my iPhone than I am to my laptop, which is saying something! It's also the main reason I've been staying up so late (2, 3, 4, even 5am!) b/c I'm just messing around searching for apps in the apps store. Which is the main reason I'm still not over my cold yet, and it's been 2 weeks now!
Pros
The Apps
I love the Apps, love the Wi-fi, internet, maps, etc, email, stuff like that, love the ability to surf the net whenever, wherever, love the rotating feature that gives a bigger keyboard (although my C510 had that feature too and it's a few years old), love the auto-correct spell checker and capitalization, actually don't mind the touch keyboard as much as I thought I'd like.
Cons
Camera
I don't like the camera. The 3.2mp with flash one on my Sony Ericsson C510 is a whole lot better, and takes much better, more crisp and detailed pictures. The iPhone's camera is slow, cumbersome, and it's hard to get a good picture due to the size of the iPhone itself--in other words, your pics end up blurry b/c you can't hold the iPhone steady enough to get anything half-decent to turn out.
Phone Function
I also am not impressed with the actual phone itself. For instance, my boyfriend, who lives in England, called me on it twice and he said that my voice sounded tinny, it kept cutting out every other word I said, so he couldn't hear me clearly, and it also sounded muffled. This was when I was talking in a variety of places: in my bed, in my car, and in my local supermarket. How very odd! He said the reception on my Verizon MotoRizr was much better and clearer than the iPhone.
And that is a major gripe in my book.
I also am not happy with the placement of the earpiece when the other person is talking. I have to hold the iPhone in a very particular place against my ear or else I won't hear them or it will be very low. I tried to adjust the speaker volume, but this did not fix the issue. With my Verizon phone, I guess the earpiece is bigger or something b/c I don't have to move it around to find the right or best spot for it when talking on it.
Battery Life
I guess I shouldn't complain too much about the battery life, but I am upgrading from a phone whose battery needed charging every day, sometimes more than once a day even, as it was 2 years old. I was hoping to get a phone that needed charging maybe every 3-5 days or even once a week. My other phones have been that good. But not the iPhone. I have to charge it every night, and I'm not even using it as a phone!
I guess the data (web surfing, etc) drains the battery by quite a bit, but I have all the settings turned off that should save the battery, or at least make it last a bit longer, such as the push notifications, email check set to manual, screen brightness lowered to 50% from the first time it was ever set up at the Apple store.
Lately it's lasted about 1.5 to 2 days the last few days, but that's only b/c I haven't used it that much, at least not as much as when I first got it.
They need to come up with a clever name for it like they have for the Blackberry aka the Crackberry.
I will say that using the phone (talking on it) doesn't drain the battery as much as some people have reported. I've done a lot of reading up online (another reason for my recent late bedtimes) and people are complaining that talking on it uses more battery than the apps, but I talked for a good hour and my battery was still at 22% when I was done, which I thought was pretty good.
Conclusion
I haven't cancelled my Verizon service yet because I want to wait and see how I like the phone and how well it functions as a phone. I also want to compare the signal coverage between the 2 networks and see if there is much of a difference.
Another setback is the whole no-untethered-JB-and-unlock issue with the latest 5.11.07 and 3.1.2 firmware on the 3GS, which fixes a vulnerability in the software to exploit it and add 3rd party apps, etc.
I want to JB and unlock my iPhone b/c I want to be able to use it in England and Europe with a Vodafone sim and not have to worry about expensive roaming charges. However, from the extensive online research I've been doing, there is no way to unlock or JB it successfully without having to connect it to my laptop and run blackra1n everytime I turn it on or let the battery die. This is unacceptable to me, so for now, I will simply leave it alone and wait until GeoHot or the Dev team comes out with a fix or workaround for this latest Apple firmware issue.
Anyway, that's about it right now. I will update this if and when needed as I've owned the phone longer.
