Review: iPhone 3G

I’ve had an opportunity to use the iPhone 3G for about a week. While the device is light years ahead of any other mobile device on the market today it is plagued with issues not typical for an Apple product. Apple’s claims that the iPhone is ready for the enterprise are countered by a vast array of missing enterprise like features. As a ten year plus Blackberry user I found many features I became accustom to completely missing. Here’s a quick overview of my experiences with the iPhone 3G.

Keyboard:
The keyboard takes time to learn, but once acquainted with it, it is usable. Even with my early proficiency my keystrokes per minute will never reach what is capable on a tactile keyboard. The biggest limitation to the keyboard is its inability to enter landscape mode with the Mail application. This is possible in Safari so it’s not clear why, on a phone that is over one year old, this is still an outstanding issue. On some occasions I found the keyboard to be unresponsive or delayed.

Exchange Activesync:
Configuring mail accounts is very easy. Overall Activesync works great with Exchange. I have noticed that the Push technology is a real battery killer. Many have suggested turning off Push to Fetch manually to save battery power (but then losing out on the Push feature). There are issues with using Activesync when you can’t connect to Exchange. There’s no “offline” mode so messages you try to move to a different folder result in an error. For some reason I had intermittent issues with Activesync when using Wifi.

Phone Functionality and Voice Mail:
The phone functionality is very good. The numeric keyboard is easy to use. On screen call options are well designed. Visual Voicemail is great! Switching between speaker phone, handset and Bluetooth is a cinch. Call quality is decent. Max volume on headset still seems low to me. External speakers worked well for calls as well as music.

App Store / 3rd Party Applications
The iPhone SDK will produce a vast array of applications. The 500+ applications currently available through the App Store barely scratch the service on what we will see vendors produce over the next year. There’s a tremendous opportunity for developers to produce rich mobile applications.

Enterprise Readiness
The iPhone is not ready for the Enterprise. The device is missing basics that both Blackberry and Windows Mobile have. Consumers will, for the most part, not care about these. Here are a few examples of features found in other mobile business products, but missing from the iPhone:
• Inability to create meeting request from phone
• Inability to view calendar in week view
• Inability to directly view contact info from meeting invitee
• Inability to customize and “profile” alert notifications for email and phone calls
• Inability to view ToDos and Notes,
• Inability to mark all messages as read
• Inability to perform global search on calendar, contacts and mail
• Inability to copy and paste
• Lack of new message indicator on screen when unlocked
• Lack of new message indicator along status bar
• Lack of external message indicator/light
• Lacks the ability to modify “out of office” from the device
• Exchange lookup via Address Book requires extra steps

Battery Life:
Phone users will need to adjust to the reduced battery life of a 3G type phone. The following settings are a must to mange battery life properly:
• Turn off locator service
• Turn off 3G unless needed
• Reduce screen brightness to 20%
• Consider Fetching mail when needed vs Push
• Turn off wireless when not in use
• Turn off Bluetooth when not in use
• Reduce auto lock time
Ultimately, you will need to figure out what services you can live without to prolong the battery life per charge cycle.

Stability:
Like others who are reporting issues via Apple’s Support forums, I am experiencing a wide arrange of stability issues. Safari has quit on me a number of times while browsing. I’ve also had a number of third party applications quit upon start up. I’ve also experienced the now called “black screen of death” where the device completely freezes and requires a hard reset. Apple needs to address these quickly. Mac news sites have reported a 2.0.1 in testing to hopefully address some of those issues.

3G Performance:
The 3G network in Chicago is spotty. AT&T’s coverage web site reflects 3G strength in binary terms – it’s there or not there. This is misleading due to the patchy 3G coverage areas and is different than how they report EDGE coverage. Browsing on 3G is a great experience and really demonstrates the new phone’s value.

GPS:
I’ve used the GPS feature in various Blackberry’s for about two years now. It has been reliable and accurate. I can’t say the same for the GPS in the iPhone. I’m not sure if the issue is with Google Maps or the GPS chip on the device. Google Maps is extremely slow to update the GPS signal on screen. On some occasions, Google Maps floated my GPS position a ¼ of a mile off from my actual location. A manual reset of my position got it back on track. Use with caution.

Multimedia Functionality:
This is the best iPod anyone could ever have. Video, music and pictures are excellent.

Camera:
With proper lighting, the camera takes great shots. Very easy to sync pictures back to your computer or email to someone else.

Overall experience:
iPhone users will enjoy having so many features packed in to one device. As a business user I’m a bit frustrated with missing features found in Windows Mobile or Blackberry. The overall experience, however, is very satisfying. Apple needs to aggressively address bugs and missing features. As 3rd party application development continues the value of the device will rise even further.