“We’ve already reviewed Apple’s iPhone, so why are we taking another look? There are several reasons. First, a different reviewer means a different opinion. That applies to any product, of course, but Apple’s claim that the iPhone is ‘revolutionary’ perhaps justifies an alternative appraisal,” Tony Smith writes for Reg Hardware.
“Second, the first review was of a device limited by the shackles of AT&T’s two-year subscription requirement. With an unlocked model, this reviewer is much less restricted. Thirdly – and this is the killer, really – having used the iPhone as my sole communications device for a time, I think it’s bloody marvelous and I’d like to explain why,” Smith writes.
“iPhone comes with a variety of web-centric apps: not only a browser, Safari, but also Mail, Stocks, Weather, YouTube and Maps. With the exception of YouTube and Stocks, I’ve used all these applications on a daily basis since I got my iPhone. That’s right, used – not played with and then forgotten, but used,” Smith writes.
“Other platforms do [these kinds of things], but not as well… Safari is, without doubt, the best-looking mobile browser, by a very long chalk… The virtual keyboard isn’t as quick to type on as a physical one, but it’s not much less so, and it beats typing or tapping with a stylus on the tiny virtual keyboard Windows Mobile presents,” Smith writes.
“I found the call quality to be pretty good, both on local calls and transatlantic conversations,” Smith writes. “I’d choose an iPhone over, say, a Nokia N95 any day of the week. Only the much lower price you can get an N95 for might sway me. Actually, no it wouldn’t.”
“The iPhone proves yet again what the iPod demonstrated: that great software can beat good hardware,” Smith writes. Apple’s iPhone is “a fully integrated device from day one that presents all the information you want in a consistent way. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”
Much more in the full comprehensive review here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “RadDoc” and “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
