“One of the most hyped consumer products ever comes pretty close to justifying the bombast. Apple has a history of using cutting-edge technology, slick design and friendly software to break the common logjam in which our machines have the capability to perform certain tasks, but developers haven’t figured out how to make the experience easy, even pleasurable, for users. That’s one reason why people, especially the tens of millions who love iPods, have been so eagerly awaiting the iPhone,” Steven Levy reports for Newsweek.
“The bottom line is that the iPhone is a significant leap. It’s a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding. The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge,” Levy reports.
What about that virtual keyboard? “It took me a couple of days to get used to hitting the right keys using a single finger. Maybe I’m a spaz, but I’m only beginning to get the hang of two-thumb typing. I an impressed, though, with the iPhone’s ability to correct misspellings, and I’ve had the best results by blasting through despite my mistakes and relying on the intelligence built into the system to correct my errors. That said, I think that for most consumers the keyboard issue may be overblown,” Levy reports.
“One day I purposely ran the battery down; the iPhone winked out after 14 hours, including six hours of talking, Web-browsing, music-listening and the viewing of an episode of ‘Weeds,'” Levy reports. “…I’ve found that the glass screen cleans easily with a damp cloth or baby wipe. As for wear and tear, I’ve been jamming it in my pocket with keyrings, coins and pens, and so far it’s nearly as good as new.”
“During our iPhone conversation, however, Jobs professed that he wasn’t concerned about inflated hopes, and certainly not whether he would meet his own projections of 10 million sold in 2008: ‘I think we’re going to blow away the expectations.’ Certainly all those people lining up to buy iPhones will find their investment worthwhile, if only for the delight they get from dazzling their friends… [iPhone] finally fulfills the promise of people-friendly palm-top communication and computing,” Levy reports.
Much more in the full review here.
Based on the real hands-on iPhone reviews we’ve seen so far, Job is certainly on safe ground in thinking Apple will blow away the expectations. Just wait until Apple starts adding to and updating the iPhones in peoples’ hands!