iPhone Review – LizRating

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Comprehensive Cell Phone Review

Brand: Apple
Product Name: iPhone 3G
Model: A1241
Model Year: 2009
Amount Paid: $199
Date Purchased: 3/1/09

Overall Assessment:
Is the iPhone worth all the hype? When it first came out, I definitely thought NO. Since then, I’ve been patiently waiting and waiting to buy one until the price finally came down far enough to be on my radar. I think it was worth the wait. The touch screen functions so well that the touch screen function alone makes it the most pleasurable phone to use on the market. You can type reasonably fast on it and the email even turns sideways now to be in landscape orientation.

Email Capabilities:
After the latest update, you can now type your emails in landscape orientation. Now I really don’t have anything to complain about.

Battery Life:
I’m not completely thrilled about the battery life on the iPhone. I charge the phone every night. If I use the phone to listen to music for more than 3 hours or make business calls on it all day long, I noticed it needs to be charged before the day is over. For a normal day’s use, it seems to last all day with no problem. A normal day might be defined as about 10 phone calls less than 5 minutes long or thereabout and 3 hours of listening to music. I guess if I think about all the things this phone does, I’m not surprised the battery doesn’t last more than a day. It’s a trade off…the cooler the phone, the more battery life it’s going to consume.

Ring Tones:
The only other thing I have to whine about (call the wambulance) on the iPhone is the difficulty of creating ring tones. Unless you have a Mac computer, you have to pick one of the few eligible ringtones from your iTunes library, right click to create the ringtone, right click to create an AAC version, save the ringtone to your desktop, change the file extension from “.m4a” to “.m4r.” Ring tones are really easy to get for a Blackberry…all you have to do is go to crackberry.com and send any ring tone you want right to your phone. This is what I’m used to. So, I wanted to put some of my favorite ring tones on my iPhone. Since I didn’t purchase these ring tones on iTunes, the iPhone wouldn’t allow me to install them. I quickly found a way around this annoying little quirk! I loaded some software made by Xilisoft called Xilisoft iPhone Ringtone Maker. All you have to do is quickly create a ringtone with any song or sound bite you want and import it. It’s so easy and I get my way! Rock on! Sorry Apple suckers!

Comparisons:
The Storm doesn’t compare with the iPhone…I don’t care what they say. The Storm simply can’t compete. I even switched mobile services just to get the iPhone instead of the Storm. Not to mention…$199 for a second generation iPhone and the same price for the first generation Storm. Experience pays off! When you compare the phones, you find out that the iPhone is superior on pretty much all levels. With the iPhone, applications open faster, you can type faster, and there are applications up to your eyeballs available at your finger tips. Gotta be fair though, the Storm will catch up on the applications. And Apple’s applications will always be confided within the “Apple Box” while for Blackberry products, you can get applications from more outside sources and they’re more likely to be free on websites like www.crackberry.com.

The browsing function is better on the iPhone when compared to any of the Blackberry products. As far as internet speed, I’d say there’s not enough of a difference there to talk about. The iPhone browser seems to have a better look and feel and seems to be a little easier to use. When you need to zoom on the iPhone, you can pinch with your fingers closer together or further apart, which is just plain cool. On the Storm, you either have to double tap the screen or use the plus/minus buttons to zoom. You just have to determine what’s right for you.

Summary:
It seems to be the case that if you use your phone mostly for emailing and texting, that the Blackberry products are better for that, while if you use your phone mostly for internet and browsing purposes, then the iPhone is better for that. You’ve got to make your own decision though. Have fun playing with the phones and figuring out which one’s better for you.

LizRating

I’m giving the Apple iPhone 3G a rating of 9 out of 10. Apple has gone out of its way to make some really creative products that are pushing their competitors. That’s what we need, a little friendly competition!

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