Early Reviews for iPhone Quite Positive

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We’ve known for months that the iPhone couldn’t possibly live up to its hype in all possible regards. The only question has been just how close Apple would come to living up to the device’s promise. The first reviews are in, and the answer is: Pretty darn close. See for yourself:

The iPhone is Breakthrough Handheld Computer (Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal)

The iPhone Matches Most of its Hype (David Pogue, NY Times)

At Last, the iPhone (Steven Levy, Newsweek)

Apple’s iPhone isn’t perfect, but it’s worthy of the hype (Ed Baig, USA Today)

I have to admit. I’m finally getting excited about it again. I’d gotten tired of all the hype (some of which I’ve fed) and was looking at a Helio Ocean. But now that it’s getting positive real-world reviews…I’m falling for it again.

Via Apple 2.0.

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14 responses to “Early Reviews for iPhone Quite Positive”

  1. Will Sheward says:

    Any indication if the e-mail client supports IMAP-IDLE? That’d solve the push e-mail issue for non Yahoo / Exchange users at a stroke.

  2. BdeRWest says:

    Coolest things I’ve read/seen so far (but not heard widely spread on forums) from my obsessive reading of reviews/watching of review videos:

    -The keyboard clicks (presumably if you so choose). See David Pogue’s video.
    -Huge movies can be deleted en-phone after watching them. See USA Today’s review (“Movies can eat up a lot of space. When I finished watching A Bug’s Life, iPhone offered to remove it from the device to free up some.”)
    -Works with (at least) Bose SoundDock (presumably it then works with iPod Hi-Fi. The reviewer said he couldn’t get his Belkin cassette adapter to work. I have a cigarette-lighter power adapter and an 8mm minijack I use in the car. I think that will work just fine… I hope). See again USA Today’s review (“I was able to play music through my Bose SoundDock speaker system. To combat interference, iPhone offered to switch to “airplane mode.” — it’s awesome it knows to do that)

    Other than that most of the other reviews out there (WSJ, NYT, USA Today and Newsweek) were just the same old schlepping of PR info all of us obsessed fans have heard to death. Although Newsweek concentrates a little more on battery life, and offers the jewel that Jobs called him “just to check up on things.” That’s hilarious, and it makes sense. Apple gave them the phones. It’s a perfect way to see if reviewers are having problems.

    I found David Pogue’s (NYT) review to be the best all-around, although I suspect he focused mainly on issues garnered from the 300+ comments on his blog when he asked his readers what answers they’d like to see.

    Walt Mossberg’s video review (WSJ.com, AllThingsD.com) was useless. He rambles, says “um” a lot, and even splices in speeded-up and semi-soundless versions of the four TV ads instead of filming himself using the phone. Bad form, Mr. Mossberg. Bad form.

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  4. Sramana Mitra says:

    The UI is the biggest question mark in the iPhone’s future, and the keyboard, the most key driver of the adoption curve … http://sramanamitra.com/blog/9
    I still cannot imagine typing long blocks of text on this device, but if they have truly got this right …

  5. David says:

    I’ve read several of these reviews and the most promising thing to me is the impression by the reviewers that Apple will be filling in the “holes” of the iPhone with future updates. I really want this device but it can’t quite replace my Treo just yet (due to available applications)… so here’s hoping those updates arrive soon.

    In the meantime, I’d love a new Video iPod with the same touchscreen interface.

  6. Craig says:

    My excitement for the iPhone had waned quite a bit until I read these reviews! Thanks for posting them!!

    Craig

  7. John says:

    I am the very pleased owner of a new Iphone. Have had it for 5 days now. My expectations were very high, and for the most part it has delivered and exceeded. In a word, it is simply amazing! My biggest complaint is the slow download speed when on the Edge ATT network (but I expect ATT will upgrade in very short order). When I’m connected to wifi, the speed is the same as my desktop. Otherwise, my Iphone has performed flawlessly. No bugs whatsoever. Be prepared for a revolution! If I owned stock in the other phone companies, I would dump them fast. Thanks to Iphone, ATT is going to kick the s#$t out of the other phone companies.