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[PSUs]| Thursday 28th June 2007 |
We knew, for instance, that it had a glass cover on the screen for durability, no 3G, and no hardware keyboard, but it wasn't known how well any of it worked. But now the phone has landed in the US is it the revolution that Apple promised?
The iPhone's core specifications are a peculiar mish-mash of up-to-the-second touches and archaic features that are set to disappoint early-adopters. The 3.5in screen has an unusually high resolution of 480 x 320, and runs at 160dpi for finer detail.
The iPhone also breaks away from mobile phone tradition by having a proper, 3.5mm audio jack, although CNet notes this is "deeply recessed", and that some headphones might need an adapter anyway. And the camera on the back is, by modern standards, measly at only two megapixels - sufficient for opportunistic snaps but not enough to replace a standalone camera.
Buying the iPhone in the US locks you in to a two-year contract with AT&T Wireless, with contracts starting from $60 a month for 450 anytime minutes, 200 text messages and 5,000 night and weekend minutes. Every plan also comes with unlimited data downloads via AT&T's EDGE network. But EDGE's maximum data transfer is 384kb/sec, while 3G, which the iPhone doesn't support, has a maximum (theoretical) data speed of 2Mb/sec. Unlimited data bandwidth isn't much use if it takes ages to get anything, and the New York Times is uncaring in its dismissal of the iPhone's "slow and horrible" browsing performance.
The browser also lacks other key features. There's no Flash support, for instance, so although there's a standalone application for playing YouTube videos. No other online video will play properly. There's also no Java support.
Plus points
But it's not all bad. The operating system - which takes up 700MB of the iPhone's 4GB or 8GB capacity, is a stripped down version of Apple's OS X, and the browser
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It's apparent that there are a couple of other odd niggles, too. You can open Word documents received in emails, but can't edit them, and according to the Wall Street Journal, there's no way to cut, copy or paste text. And, as a potential deal-breaker for some, the iPhone is completely sealed. When the battery begins to lose its efficiency (which Apple claims will happen after around 300 charge cycles), the entire phone will need to be returned and the battery replaced - for a fee.
The New York Times reports that it's possible to change the SIM card, but only the iPhone will remained locked to AT&T's network. So there's no hope of buying an iPhone on Ebay and popping in your own SIM card. And, in spite of having all of that space for iTunes music and video, the onboard camera can't capture anything other than stills. And speaking of space, there's no way of installing other memory cards. MMS messages are also out of the question - the only way to send images is via email.
A mixed bag then, but there are plenty of positives for the iPhone. The lack of a proper, physical keyboard was no problem for most testers, with many US reviewers commenting that they were able to reach Treo-like speeds within a week of switching their iPhone on for the first time.
And there's no denying the hardware is stunning. The iPhone is only 12mm thick, making it 2mm thinner than the svelte HTC Touch. But most important is the software - the Touch proves that gorgeous hardware isn't the sole domain of Apple, but Apple has proved, once and for all, that touchscreen technology requires specifically-designed software, not a layer of touch software overlying an interface designed for either a keyboard or mouse or the Touch.
The iPhone simply cannot hope to live up to the huge amount of hype whipped up by legions of Apple fans, but such positive initial reviews, by the time it hits the UK (the first quarter of next year is as committal as Apple will be), it should have no problem matching most of it.
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