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Home > Shopping Guides, Articles, and Tips > Recent Articles > Apple iPhone
Apple iPhone
Editors note: Apple eliminated the 4GB model on September 5, 2007, two months after the iPhones initial release date. We updated this review on January 17, 2008 to reflect the iPhone updates that Apple released at the 2008 Macworld. Subsequently, on February 5, 2008, Apple introduced a 16GB model. On March 6, 2008, Apple unveiled a iPhone software development kit. The company also announced that the iPhone will support the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol when the second generation model is released.

From the moment Apple announced its iPhone at Macworld 2007, the tech world hasnt stopped asking questions. Because Apple has kept many iPhone details under wraps until very recently, weve been forced to speculate. Until now. Is the iPhone pretty? Absolutely. Is it easy to use? Certainly. Does it live up to the stratospheric hype? Not so much. Dont get us wrong, the iPhone is a lovely device with a sleek interface, top-notch music and video features, and innovative design touches. The touch screen is easier to use than we expected, and the multimedia performs well. But a host of missing features, a dependency on a sluggish EDGE network, and variable call quality--it is a phone after all--left us wanting more. For those reasons, the iPhone is noteworthy not for what it does, but how it does it. If you want an iPhone badly, you probably already have one. But if youre on the fence, we suggest waiting for the second-generation handset. Even with the new $399 price for the 8GB model (down from an original price of $599) and $499 for the 16GB model, its still a lot to ask for a phone that lacks so many features and locks you into an iPhone-specific two-year contract with AT&T. Well be more excited once we see a version with--at the very least--multimedia messaging and 3G.

Design
On with the review: the iPhone boasts a brilliant display, trim profile, and clean lines (no external antenna of course), and its lack of buttons puts it in a design class that even the LG Prada and the HTC Touch cant match. Youll win envious looks on the street toting the iPhone, and were sure that would be true even if the phone hadnt received as much media attention as it has. We knew that it measures 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.46 inch deep, but it still felt smaller than we expected when we finally held it. In comparison, its about as tall and as wide as a Palm Treo 755p, but it manages to be thinner than even the trend-setting Motorola Razr. It fits comfortably in the hand and when held to the ear, and its 4.8 ounces give it a solid, if perhaps weighty, feel. We also like that the display is glass rather than plastic.

Display
The iPhones display is the handsets design showpiece and is noteworthy for not only what it shows, but also how you use it. Well start off with its design. At a generous 3.5 inches, the display takes full advantage of the phones size, while its 480x320 pixel resolution (160 dots per inch) translates into brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements.

Menus
In true Apple style, the iPhones menu interface is attractive, intuitive, and easy to use. In the main menu, a series of colored icons call out the main functions. Icons for the phone menu, the mail folder, the Safari Web browser, and the iPod player sit at the bottom of the screen, while other features such as the camera, the calendar, and the settings are displayed above. Its easy to find all features, and we like that essential features arent buried under random menus. Fluid animation takes you between different functions, and you can zip around rather quickly.

Much has been made of the iPhones touch screen, and rightfully so. Though the Apple handset is not the first cell phone to rely solely on a touch screen, it is the first phone to get so much attention and come with so many expectations. Depending on what youre doing, the touch screen serves as your dialpad, your keyboard, your Safari browser, and your music and video player. Like many others, we were skeptical of how effectively the touch screen would handle all those functions.

Touch screen
Fortunately, we can report that on the whole, the touch screen and software interface are easier to use than expected. Whats more, we didnt miss a stylus in the least. Despite a lack of tactile feedback on the keypad, we had no trouble tapping our fingers to activate functions and interact with the main menu. As with any touch screen, the display attracts its share of smudges, but they never distracted us from what we were viewing. The onscreen dialpad took little acclimation, and even the onscreen keyboard fared rather well. Tapping out messages was relatively quick, and we could tap the correct letter, even with big fingers. The integrated correction software helped minimize errors by suggesting words ahead of time. It was accurate for the most part.
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