“We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions,” Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret report for The Wall Street Journal.
“It has the largest and highest-resolution screen of any smart phone we’ve seen, and the most internal memory by far. Yet it is one of the thinnest smart phones available and offers impressive battery life, better than its key competitors claim,” Mossberg and Boehret report. “It feels solid and comfortable in the hand and the way it displays photos, videos and Web pages on its gorgeous screen makes other smart phones look primitive.”
Mossberg and Boehret report, “The iPhone’s most controversial feature, the omission of a physical keyboard in favor of a virtual keyboard on the screen, turned out in our tests to be a nonissue, despite our deep initial skepticism. After five days of use, Walt — who did most of the testing for this review — was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years. This was partly because of smart software that corrects typing errors on the fly.”
“The display is made of a sturdy glass, not plastic, and while it did pick up smudges, it didn’t acquire a single scratch, even though it was tossed into Walt’s pocket or briefcase, or Katie’s purse, without any protective case or holster. No scratches appeared on the rest of the body either,” Mossberg and Boehret report.
Walt Mossberg – Apple iPhone is Breakthrough Handheld Computer:
Full review with much more here.
Also, Apple CEO Steve Jobs answers Walt Mossberg’s iPhone questions here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ChrissyOne” for the heads up.]
This is arguably the most important review the iPhone will ever receive and, as it’s basically a rave review from Mossberg, it means even more money in the bank for Apple.
re: excuse me – the iphone’s safari browser doesn’t recognize flash? how the hell am i supposed to use a flash web site? this needs to be corrected… soon!
/mdn ‘magic word:’ now
—-
FFS give Apple a chance!
The product is version 1.0 – flash will come in time when the iphone is out and Apple have time to update Safari for it!
1st things 1st – get the product in the shops and then they will update it via software update ofc.
@ marko
“@ Harriet
“liberal” means open minded. “
I can’t see the relevance of any of this to a tech product, but no, it doesn’t.
It’s from the Latin root _liber_, meaning “free”. Therefore, it has to do with the concept of freedom.
Note the term “Liberal education” – meaning education suitable for a FREE man (as opposed to a slave). Note the old-fashioned virtue of “liberality” – being FREE with your money. Note the 19th-century notion of political liberalism – meaning personal FREEdom, as over against State power.
Of course, most people who now call themselves liberals have little respect for personal freedom, but that’s by-the-by … and nothing to do with the iPhone.
_Liber_ – free.
Petey:
I’m sure I remember Jobs commenting that the browser on the iPhone is totally Web 2.0 standards compliant. Although Adobe Flash is quite commonplace on websites [annoyingly so in my view], it is not Web 2.0 compliant.
No doubt, now Adobe owns Flash it will eventually bring it up to web standards [or not, as is Adobe’s want these days]. At that point – assuming it happens – Flash will be viewable on Safari’s iPhone browser.
Personally [and I’m a Flash user] it is a big fat pain in the ass all this non-standards software.
I’m glad to see the initial reviews are overwhelmingly positive, but they SHOULD be tempered a bit. Tech-headed reviewers (and users) tend to overlook the little things that they take for granted, but which annoy the heck out of Joe & Jane Shmoe.
Real reviews will be on the blogs and in our ears in a few days. Sit tight.
@Jooop
Umm, no….the liberals (i.e. Greenpeace, ActForChange, etc.) have been hammering Apple as of late. You’re the one that must have been away…
They aren’t “liberals”, they are just good old pains in the ass.
It’s time for people, especially USAnians, to put the bed the notion that “conservative” and “liberal” can be simplistically used to describe an entire worldview, or that either of those terms means what they think they mean when used in the pejorative as they so often are…
Since the iPhone has a virtual keyboard, why didn’t Apple develop a setting for Dvorak in addition to QWERTY, since it is officially recognized by ANSI? Sorry Georgy Porgy Puddin’ Pie if you can’t accept logical change and progress.
Imagine how fast we could type if our thumbs hovered over the vowels on the left thumb and the common consonants on the right thumb alternating thumbs. This is an information technology world we live in and no longer need to spell “typewriter” as a marketing gimmick on the top row any longer (in addition to the random placement of letters keeping the most common 2 letter combinations illogically placed far apart and more difficult to reach). Dvorak gave a great gift to humanity, it’s a shame we should squander the legacy of his dedicated hard work, time, and effort. Even the inventor of the QWERTY typewriter, Christopher Sholes, tried to change the patent layout after springs were added to it (to a keyboard map much similar to Dvorak’s), but Remington would not listen.
The ONLY people that will disagree and find my feedback offensive are those that are stubborn and cannot embrace change, let alone progress. No matter how hard one will try to debate this, there is no valid argument that will justify their case.