Product Reviews

Long after the initial frenzy has calmed and the iPhone finds its ubiquitous place among the masses, Apple's first foray into the telecom business will certainly be remembered as one of its most anticipated and ambitious product launches in history.

Rumored to be in development for more than five years-and some accounts suggest it actually was-the iPhone's long-awaited arrival marks a significant milestone not only for Apple aficionados, but for anyone who relies on that most common piece of digital kit.

With six months of hype built-up between announcement and delivery, we won't delay in answering the question on everyone's mind: yes, the iPhone really is as cool as the ballyhoo that preceded its launch suggested it would be.

At the first glance at the iPhone's glass facade, it's apparent that Apple has delivered a level of elegance and class never before seen in the mobile market. Even ignoring the iPhone's two most impressive accomplishments, its innovative touch-screen display and Mac OS X-based operating system, the iPhone trumps the design of every other handset we have held. It simply looks and feels terrific in hand.

The iPhone's dimensions resemble that of the 30GB iPod but it appears more svelte on account of its longer design and completely curved and chrome-accented edges. It is less than half an inch thick, making it stunningly thin for a smartphone. The iPhone also feels remarkably solid due to its metal and glass construction.

Apple has learned from its experience with iPods - that while consumers may love a sleek finish, they abhor the scratches that accompany them. Accordingly, the rear is finished in brushed aluminum and the glass front is exceptionally durable, like the face of a good watch that can take a beating and still emerge unscathed.

Without being activated, the iPhone passes only for an elegant paperweight: out of the box, not even the non-mobile features will work without signing up for service through iTunes. Those who envisioned tapping their wifi network for Internet access on the iPhone and taking advantage of its iPod capability without marrying themselves to a monthly plan are out of luck.

On the bright side, Apple has taken an ingenious route in delegating activation to iTunes, as owners can have their phone up and running in under a minute by completing just a few screens of required information. It is so simple, it's easy to forget that in addition to the price of admission to the iPhone party, you have also committed yourself to a two-year contract whose charges will at least triple the price of the iPhone itself.

The iPhone's touch-screen feels immediately natural to use, although it can take some practice to discover what part of your finger actually makes contact with the screen first. Perfecting your pointing instrument is made easy on account of the instantaneous response the iPhone delivers, and the animated interface elements Apple has sprinkled throughout the iPhone only make the experience better (delete an email and watch it get sucked down into the trash can).

Like a laptop's trackpad, the touch-screen magic works by sensing the change in capacitance created by your finger, meaning it needs only to contact the screen, not actually 'press' it. This makes operating the iPhone an extremely light-weight task that won't tire your fingers and hopefully will mitigate some of the stress injuries that repetitive thumb typing can create among smartphone users. It also makes the iPhone useless in the hands of a gloved operator, a potential point of inconvenience when using the device in the winter.

Typing on the iPhone's virtual keyboard is easy, despite the fact that your digit will dwarf the miniature key caps. When a key is pressed, the iPhone responds with the audible click of a typewriter and the pressed key momentarily expands above your finger, allowing one to verify that it was the one you wanted without shifting your eyes from the keyboard.

It takes little time to familiarize yourself with typing on the iPhone, although typos will always be an inevitable fixture. Fortunately, Apple has that mostly covered with its clever error-correction algorithm,

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which monitors what you're typing and automatically corrects misspelled words, eliminating the need to make corrections. If you see a mistake in your typing, carry on and the iPhone will likely fix it for you.

Error correction is currently built only to handle English, however, and it is difficult to envision how Apple could create a concurrently bilingual system that doesn't change one language's typo into another language's word.

The iPhone ships with most of the functionality expected in a smartphone, including a calendar, address book, and email client that can be synchronized across multiple systems via iTunes. Of those three, the iPhone's capabilities best shine through with Mail, which like Safari on the iPhone looks and acts much like Mail on Mac OS X.

Rich HTML email is fully supported and attached photos can be viewed directly in Mail. A selection of other documents, including PDF, Word, and Excel can also be viewed when sent as attachments or downloaded from Safari.

While both Mail and Safari are miles ahead of most competitors' mobile apps, they aren't quite full-featured desktop replacements. Flash and Java are not supported and any files not compatible with the iPhone's document viewer cannot even be saved for viewing later on your computer. Another significant shortcoming likely to be solved in a future software update is the inability to select, copy, or paste text on the iPhone.

The iPhone makes it a breeze to take photos with its modest 2-megapixel camera and email them, but oddly multimedia messaging support (MMS) is missing.

Similarly, SMS text messaging is elegantly deployed in the form of iChat-like conversations with each contact you have, but iChat itself is missing, an inexcusable omission in the age of instant messaging.

The iPhone's iPod functionality exhibits more of this give-and-take. Apple has packed the best iPod ever into the iPhone, with features like wide-screen video viewing and Cover Flow, but in the process has crippled the iPhone's versatility by mandating that its media library be tied to a single computer.

Content can only be managed through playlists on that computer, so forget about popping that new tune on your iPhone that you bought at work through iTunes if your iPhone is linked to your computer at home. Songs also cannot be used as ringtones.

Also, unlike iPods, the iPhone cannot be used a portable hard drive, although that too could theoretically be added through software.

One aspect of the iPhone that owners of the first-generation will never be able to improve is the Edge wireless data support, which is considerably slower than the more modern 3G standard. Edge is roughly two-to-three times faster than a 56K dial-up connection and is perfectly suited for email and casual Web browsing, but it wasn't uncommon to wait at least 30 seconds or more for a page to load. The iPhone's Maps functionality also takes a hit in convenience when you're on the road and need directions quickly.

Edge also makes the iPhone less fit to function as a wireless modem tethered to your computer, perhaps the reason why Apple opted to not include such support despite its obvious appeal among road warriors.

The iPhone compensates for Edge by including wifi, something only a minority of smartphones on the market feature. If you have a wifi access point at work, school, or home like most people do, chances are the iPhone will spend more time connected to the Internet that way than over Edge.

The iPhone does a commendable job of managing its wireless connectivity to conserve battery life, ever important in any portable device, but even more so in the iPhone, whose battery cannot be removed and replaced with a fresh one. Apple claims the iPhone offers up to 8 hours of continuous talk time or 24 hours of music playback on a single charge and our own testing came very close to those numbers.

Most owners will regularly use their iPhone for a mix of voice, data, and media functions, and they'll want to make it a habit to charge the iPhone at least every night to ensure ample juice for the day ahead.

Apple does make charging more convenient by including a dock with the iPhone, which features the same 30-pin connector as iPods. This means the car charger you bought for your iPod nano will also work with the iPhone, as will most other iPod accessories.

Despite its array of mostly minor annoyances, the bulk of which Apple should be able to address through promised software updates, the iPhone exemplifies the marvels of modern technology. Like the iPod before it, Apple opted not to pioneer the market the iPhone now finds itself in but, to the benefit of consumers, has blazed a trail that is simply miles ahead of competitors.