Should I Buy an iPhone?

[Campe]

but can you use it as a phone?

Oddly enough, no!

I love my iPhone, although I admit it does have some limitations. The camera is not great, can't do video, no zoom or flash, the battery life isn't all its cracked up to be and syncing it (assuming you want to do a backup) can take all night, but all that aside, its the best phone I've ever had and I use it every day.

As for some of the competitors, the Blackberry Bold seems to have pretty negative reviews going for it but I personally think its a pretty good looking phone. I have a friend with a G-1 and she swears by it. Maybe I'm spoiled with my iPhone, but I think the form factor on its own is a piece of garbage. Its ugly and bulky and I don't like the setup of the thing. I tried to warn my friend to wait for the "G-2" or whatever the next Android phone to come out for T-Mobile was going to be, but she didn't listen to me. I think Android's a solid mobile OS, but the G-1 itself doesn't work for me personally.

 

[Pegaritaville]

I'm on my 3rd iPhone (one went down an ice fishing hole and one I managed to run over with my own car). I have a kind of love/hate thing going with the iPhone. I love the versatility, but everything feels so watered down. And the touch screen keyboard is really difficult to use- especially if you have fingernails. But my main gripe is the lack of battery power: If you get one, make sure you have a charger on hand at all times.

 

[Brent]

The camera can't record video? WTF?

My 2 year old Cingular 3125 phone with Windows Mobile 5 can do video! And Zoom!

 

[Barbados Slim]

The phone works great. I drove home through the canyons to PCH and it never dropped the call, which happened on all my previous phones. The speaker phone works great and the interface is awesome, with giant buttons. I can play songs from the iPod and people can hear it clearly from the speakers. And the visual voicemail interface is amazing. I love that I can drag the bar and rewind because I hate when people rattle off their phone numbers on VM and I have to listen to the entire thing again to figure it out.

My only gripes so far is that the battery drains quickly under heavy use (but it charges quickly) and some functions like enabling Bluetooth are buried in the settings.

Overall, I love this phone. Thanks to everyone for recommending it!

 

[kimc]

I've been debating getting one myself. I got a GPS for Christmas and already own an iPod so I'm still debating...

 

[gh4chiefs]

I just got mine last week. My only real complaint was the price and I can't complain since I was the moron who coughed up the money for it. The phone itself is awesome.

 

[Bak_and_Blue]

I have one and it has a few glitches, but I love it all the same. I like watching videos on it.
I can't wait to get an upgraded one.
I'd say, if you have the money, get it. You'll like it.

One drawback, if you have big fingers you may not like how it types.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

One drawback, if you have big fingers you may not like how it types.

I have bony little girl fingers and even I have problems with typing. But I had more trouble with the Blackberry keyboard, so I went with the iPhone.

 

[judge alba]

just out of intreast is the iphone just a contract phone or can i use pay as you go?

 

[Holdfast]

One drawback, if you have big fingers you may not like how it types.

I have bony little girl fingers and even I have problems with typing. But I had more trouble with the Blackberry keyboard, so I went with the iPhone.

another reason I prefer using a PDA phone that has a stylus.

 

[Sheep]

One drawback, if you have big fingers you may not like how it types.

I have bony little girl fingers and even I have problems with typing. But I had more trouble with the Blackberry keyboard, so I went with the iPhone.

another reason I prefer using a PDA phone that has a stylus.

You have bony little girl fingers? That's an interesting thing to admit on a message board.

I have a Palm TX but I'm not fond at all of using the stylus to type things; IMO that's far worse in terms of usability than typing on the iPhone's on-screen keyboard.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

You have bony little girl fingers? That's an interesting thing to admit on a message board.

I'm all about full disclosure.

 

[Holdfast]

I have bony little girl fingers and even I have problems with typing. But I had more trouble with the Blackberry keyboard, so I went with the iPhone.

another reason I prefer using a PDA phone that has a stylus.

You have bony little girl fingers? That's an interesting thing to admit on a message board.

I have a Palm TX but I'm not fond at all of using the stylus to type things; IMO that's far worse in terms of usability than typing on the iPhone's on-screen keyboard.

Really? Why? A stylus is really fast, accurate & very convenient and when not in use slides invisibly out of the way. I find it very natural to use for typing out text messages, emails or on the internet. I don't use it for just flicking into Calendar or whatever, obviously. And the sat nav I use when driving has iPhone style "big buttons" so I can use those while driving.

It's all the right tool for the right job - sometimes you need fine, rapid control and sometimes you just need to hit a big target on the touchscreen. Having a stylus gives you options.

 

[Small White Car]

It's all the right tool for the right job - sometimes you need fine, rapid control and sometimes you just need to hit a big target on the touchscreen. Having a stylus gives you options.

But you only have 1.

I can't imagine that a single stylus can be faster than my 2 thumbs. Faster than 1 thumb, I'd believe, but not both.

 

[Holdfast]

It's all the right tool for the right job - sometimes you need fine, rapid control and sometimes you just need to hit a big target on the touchscreen. Having a stylus gives you options.

But you only have 1.

I can't imagine that a single stylus can be faster than my 2 thumbs. Faster than 1 thumb, I'd believe, but not both.

I'm strictly a one-thumb phone user, so I can't really compare to using two thumbs. Even before I had my PDA and had a regular cellphone and was texting on that, I could never manage to use both thumbs at the same time. Everything came out misspelled.

 

[Elwin Ransom]

I have one and would highly recommend it, especially if you have a Mac and MobileMe service. Just don't become an annoying cell-phone-addict.

 

[Sheep]

You have bony little girl fingers? That's an interesting thing to admit on a message board.

I'm all about full disclosure.

It's fine for a girl to have girl fingers, but I thought it was a bit odd for that to apply to Holdfast.

 

[Capn Flukie]

another reason I prefer using a PDA phone that has a stylus.

I have an older iPAQ and I love using the stylus.

 

[Holdfast]

You have bony little girl fingers? That's an interesting thing to admit on a message board.

I'm all about full disclosure.

It's fine for a girl to have girl fingers, but I thought it was a bit odd for that to apply to Holdfast.

Unfortunately I inherited slightly stubby fingers. That's the reason I can't play the piano.

(and nothing to do with never bothering to practice... )

 

[Hermiod]

Unfortunately I inherited slightly stubby fingers. That's the reason I can't play the piano.

(and nothing to do with never bothering to practice... )

"The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now."