BEFOREVIEW

Apple iPhone Preliminary Review

[2007-05-15] Updated on 2007-06-26

There is a lot of speculation and even more hype surrounding Apple's soon to be officially launched iPhone. Some expect iPhone to start a new revolution in the mobile phone marketplace similar to what iPod did to the MP3 player space, others think it will be just a mild success comparable to Microsoft's Zune and the skeptics are predicting a total market failure in the line of the Newton PDA.

While we can only speculate about the market impact for the product not yet released, we are in the unique position to provide a review for one of the first iPhones available outside Apple and Cingular and see how it compares with similar products already available on the market. The iPhone in question is a release candidate device (how we got it is better not documented here), using hardware platform version 7D01, firmware revision 92X and software at the release candidate build version RCZ-411A (2007-05-01).

Continue reading for more detailed review.

First impressions

Unfortunately, due to the nature of our iPhone acquisition, we were not able to experience orgasm usually associated when opening and unpacking Apple's product. Our iPhone was delivered in a plain looking brown box containing just a device, dock adapter with computer and power connection, Bluetooth cable, Bluetooth to USB adapter, traditional Apple headphones and a starter CD with the setup software.

[Picture removed at the request of Apple Legal]

All the components bear the famous "Designed by Apple in California, Made in China" trademark.

The iPhone itself looks well built (almost like it's made in Germany), a bit heavier than we expected but nevertheless still pocket ready. Glossy black finish and completely black screen when device is powered off gives it a look of a powerful elegance. It's so captivating that we almost did not want to turn the device on.

The device itself is very thoughtfully designed and has only 3 connectors on its body (as it should be, who wants wireless device burdened with a myriad of ports). On the bottom, there is a standard dock adapter port, same as one on the iPod (while dock port is the same, docking station is black and wider so you won't be able to use existing iPod dock). Beside dock port there is a small (and unfortunately proprietary) Bluetooth connector. Since connector is proprietary to the iPhone, existing BT2 cables will not work with it. Connector has a shape of a common USB-B port but with only 3 pins (instead of 4). Finally, there is a headphone/headset jack on the top left side of the device. The jack looks really impressive and seems to be gold plated to ensure maximum sound quality when iPhone is used as an iPod.

NOTE: While iPhone can of course be used with wireless headphones and headsets, an option to provide wired alternative is a wise one. It helps to significantly extend the battery life and ensures better privacy protection than wireless connection.

Inside the iPhone

Unlike any other GSM device, iPhone does not have removable battery or SIM card. So if you were hoping to easily replace SIM card and have phone activated, you are out of luck. Replacing SIM card and battery is possible but only by completely disassembling the phone. Opening the iPhone is very similar to opening the 3^rd generation of the iPod. The best tool is some type of the stiff plastic wedge and extreme patience is required as thin metal case is extremely easy to bent permanently. Do not use any metal tool as it will leave scratches and may permanently damage the case. It took us 2 hours to open our iPhone and get access to the battery and SIM card. Contrary to the wide spread rumors that iPhone is locked, SIM card is merely welded inside and just not removable. However, there is enough space inside to place another SIM card over the existing one. So we cut the connector from the existing SIM card, glued new card on top of the old card and then bridged the connection.

While we had our iPhone open, we used the opportunity to check out the CPU. It's Intel made, LEG (Low Energy General purpose) processor with 3 cores, 2 cores on the left and one on the right side of the miniature motherboard. Separation of the cores is probably intentional in order to provide virtual firewall between voice and data functions of the device. Memory chip seems to be DDR3 which should make it easy to overclock it in the future. There is also miniPCI connected ATI graphic chipset to provide exciting display experience. Graphics chip seems DirectX 10 capable so it will be just a matter of software support to enable iPhone users to enjoy the latest games. There seems to be unused HDMI interface on the graphic adapter so we can hope for iPhone v2 to support HD video playback directly on the HDTV?

We were impressed with the interior design of the iPhone. It is a fine piece of the engineering to cramp everything in a such organized manner in such a small package.

Setup

Apple is using a new piece of software code-named iPhunes to complete the initial iPhone setup. The software runs only on Leopard for now (Tiger and Vista support is not implemented yet in this pre-release version). The iPhunes software looks like a stripped down version of iTunes. We assume that the final version will be integrated with iTunes as a plugin. Setup process is very simple and straightforward. First, connect the dock to your Mac. Second, install and run iPhunes, answer a few questions related to your service and preferences and then when prompted turn on your iPhone and place it in the dock. Software will take about 37 seconds to update the firmware, copy your address book settings and initialize the SIM card. If you selected the option to upload your iTunes library process will, of course, take much longer.

[Screenshots of iPhunes removed at the request of Apple Legal]

One disappointing aspect of the iPhone is that it makes unusual chirping sound when turned on, nothing even close to a nice startup sound of Apple computers. We hope that Apple will address this issue before the release date. Another unusual thing is that touch screen and iPhone are completely unusable while docked. There is only flashing Apple logo and icon representing the current action.

We were pleasantly surprised that software installed without the glitch even with the replaced SIM card. There is no software imposed locks and that's good news if you are planning to activate iPhone on a different network. All you need is some patience and some welding and gluing experience and iPhone will work on any GSM network.

OS X for iPhone

The version of OS X that powers the iPhone is pretty impressive. Performance is great, we never experienced dreaded beach ball during our testing. Unfortunately, as this is a pre-release version, number of applications that will ship with the final version was not enabled on our tester. We only had Phone, Mail and iPod functionality installed.

One surprising omission from the iPhone is Java. Yes, iPhone will not support JavaME applications when released. We do hope that Apple will come around on this and extend JavaME support via software update shortly after the release. On the other hand, speculations about iPhone not supporting Flash are simply not true. Flash support is there, however it was not activated on our tester device.

One annoyance is that Apple implemented basically the same authentication model on the iPhone as it is on desktop Macs. What it means is that any activity requiring root permission will result in user being prompted for a password. It is really annoying to enter password whenever trying to make a call to anybody named Steve or send any email inquiring about jobs.

We did not have a chance to test voice recognition abilities of the iPhone as we all had sore throats that made talking a painful experience for the last couple of days.

Making calls

You can imagine our excitement when trying to use the device for the first time. It's adrenalin rush comparable only to driving a Ferrari for the first time. Unfortunately, it turns out iPhone is more like BMW, excellent but not spectacular.

First, dialing ad-hoc number is somewhat confusing. First you have to tap 2 times in the top left corner of the screen to display the virtual number pad and only then enter the number. Dialing from the address book is, of course, much easier. Voice quality is excellent but holding the iPhone seems a bit awkward, akin to holding a talking brick to your ear. One thing is clear, this device is better used with the wireless headset.

Answering calls is somewhat easier. While phone is ringing, you need to use two fingers to touch bottom left and bottom right corner simultaneously. One thing we noticed is that we could not set a song from our iTunes library as a ringtone. Pretty disappointing but understandable as Cingular has to make money somehow and selling ringtones is definitely the best way to do so.

Let us use this opportunity to put any speculation about insufficient battery life to rest. We were able to make over 30 calls on a single battery charge!

Using touch controls

Touch control is the most striking feature of the iPhone. Unfortunately, it's not perfect. While icons are pretty big and easy to touch, it is still problematic for people with large and fat fingers. We foresee a lot of issues for people with disabilities as it is almost impossible to use iPhone with a single hand. Touching screen with a nose is not always practical and icons are too small to be correctly touched by a big toe.

Messaging and emailing with iPhone

Entering text is one of the weak points for the iPhone. Touch interface is just not good enough for speed typing. Our typing speed is less than half of what we are used on the Blackberries.

On the other hand, configuring email accounts is very easy. It is done in iPhunes and settings are just transferred to the device on the next sync. We did not test iChat on the iPhone as we could not find another iPhone user to chat with.

Using iPhone as an iPod

If iPhone is just an average phone, it is definitely better iPod than the original iPod. Navigating menus and selecting content is extremely intuitive. Software is very responsive and there is no lag time to start media playback.

Sound quality is excellent, much better than on any iPod we tested so far. Frequency range seems to be wider and that should make true audiophiles very satisfied with the iPhone.

Video playback is so crisp and unbelievably colorful that makes iPhone worthy purchase only for that. If you consider PSP to have a great screen it's time for a new reference point. It is so good that PSP looks like coming from WW2 era. We can only wish that the next generation of iPod will employ the same type of display!

Camera

This is the most disappointing feature of the iPhone. This 2 megapixel POC should not even be there! Pictures taken with this so called camera are so bad that my $10 Fisher Price toy camera beats it hands down. We are not sure why Apple even decided to put this on the iPhone? If it could not be done properly, why do it at all?

[Pictures removed at the request of Apple Legal]

Conclusion

We can safely conclude that iPhone is indeed something different and has a great chance of forever changing the mobile device marketplace.

Pros:

• Cool and appealing design
• Build quality
• Video playback quality
• It's iPod too
• Wide screen

Cons:

• Expensive
• No Java
• A bit heavy
• No support for a second monitor
• Not easy to replace SIM card or battery
• Camera sucks
• Hard to use with one hand
• Typing on a virtual keyboard

Rating: 8/10

We did not have a chance to use web features of the iPhone, Wi-Fi or many applications that iPhone will ship with. We will provide more detailed review once we obtain the release version of the device where all the features are enabled.