“The mania over Apple’s iPhone launch has created stratospheric expectations that are near impossible to live up to. Yet with a few exceptions, this expensive, glitzy wunderkind is indeed worth lusting after,” Edward C. Baig reports for USA Today.
“That’s saying a lot. After months of hype, Apple has delivered a prodigy — a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset,” Baig reports.
“For starters, iPhone is a breeze to set up and fun to use, evident from the moment you slide your finger across the screen to unlock it. It’s a wonderful widescreen iPod and fabulous picture viewer… The iPhone is striking to look at. The revelation is that it’s also comfortable to hold and touch,” Baig reports.
“The scratch-resistant glass-top surface protects iPhone’s gorgeous 3.5-inch touch-screen display, which I found visible even in direct sun. The most remarkable thing about iPhone is what’s missing: a physical dialing keypad and/or full qwerty, or traditional, keyboard. Instead, either a virtual keypad or keyboard shows up on the iPhone screen,” Baig reports. “Best advice: Start typing with one finger before graduating to two thumbs. You also have to learn to trust the device; an intelligent virtual keyboard auto-corrects mistakes on the fly and anticipates what you will type next to try to prevent you from making a mistake.”
“Though you’re frequently touching the display, I didn’t notice fingerprints when iPhone is on,” Baig reports. “I expected to miss the tactile feel that a physical keyboard provides. I didn’t.”
“I’d love iPhone to deliver my company mail, tap into a faster data network and provide expandable memory, instant messaging and GPS. The price could be lower, too. My wish list aside, iPhone’s splash of a debut is worthy of the attention it is receiving,” Baig reports.
Many more details in the full review here.
The excellent iPhone reviews continue to pile up!
Well if Baig is calling it a hit, then we’re likely to see this thing take off. He’s usually totally off base because he doesnt do his homework, and very critical of Apple as a result.
Damn, now where’s that 500$?
is it me, or didn’t the MS Zune recieve EXCELLENT REVIEWS?
HAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAH..NOT!
The Iphone is gonna be bigger than the ipod.
This device is going to totally change the mobile phone business as we all know it.
I predict 20m units sold at least in the 1st year.
All I can say is – Steve Jobs you are one hell of a genius!!
What’s amazing is the software and touch screen design is beyond the reach of the other players in the market. No matter what they try, their efforts will fall far short of the mark. And to think, they’ll have to rely on Microsoft to help them. Does it get any better than this? Set/Match. Games up!
I hope AT&T sees that their network is generating the most criticisms at launch. We need a 3G version soon. We are going to see a lot critiques on how worthless all the internet connectivity features of the iPhone are without decent data speed.
It’s rather apparent that Apple handed these iPhones out for review with today as the first day that reviews could be published. Who else has them I wonder?
Maybe if AT&T gave Brian France and other NASCAR execs some free iPhones, NASCAR would see the light and drop its $100M lawsuit against AT&T.
for the other lame mobile makers
apple has pateted the thing even in mars
this is AS GOOD AS IT GETS
I love these great reviews–but why is my Apple stock going down the last few days! Figured my paltry few shares would be going up with all the hype. Down over $2.00 today, I just don’t “get” the stock market.
I wonder why they don’t have the QWERTY keyboard in the landscape position. You could make the buttons bigger that way. I wonder if that’s an option.
Spark: “Who else has them I wonder?”
Stephen Levy of Newsweek. His review is at MSNBC. His overall review is positive, though his bottom line is a bit FUD-dy. The MS in MSNBC does not fail, eh?
“… But for all its virtues, the iPhone is still a risky venture because it’s yet to be proven that, despite the wow factor, millions of people are ready to pay several hundred dollars more than the going rate for phones—and in some cases, paying even more to bail out of their current mobile contracts. There’s also a potential backlash from those sick of the hype. …”
If the iPhone experience is positive, who really cares about the hype? If it’s worth buying, it’s worth buying despite what other people say.
“… But in the future—when the iPhone has more applications and offers more performance, with a lower price—buyers will find even more value. So smart consumers may well wait for that day. …”
Duh! The same thing can be said about any gadgets and computers.
So far, it’s 3.5 out of 4.
Your stock is going to rise. Bigtime.
Relax and enjoy the game the big players are making.
Potential backlash because of the hype? Oh for cryin’ out loud.
“Well if Baig is calling it a hit, then we’re likely to see this thing take off. He’s usually totally off base because he doesnt do his homework, and very critical of Apple as a result.”
To say that he does not do his homework is ignorant. Baig’s columns are always from hands-on use. If you mean he does not know every single technical nuance, sure. However, his work is about how the average consumer will experience a device.
He is certainly NOT anti-Apple. He has given positive reviews to several Apple devices. In fact, it is not surprising that he gave the iPhone a positive review – he emphasizes ease of use and reliability of use, something Apple excels at.
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/999
I still cannot imagine typing long blocks of text on this device, but if they have truly got this right …
“I still cannot imagine typing long blocks of text on this device,…”
I can’t either, but who really does? The text messages I see from phones and blackberries go something like this:
“ok. cya later. bye.”