Apple Iphone?

[Nightcrawler]

I am after feedback from anyone who has an IPhone. What are they like to use? How tough are they if you drop them? How easy is to get additional applications for them? Advice, recommendations, etc etc

Also, can anyone hook me up with 2 of them, super cheap, brand new and unlocked (or locked to Vodafone)? I am after one for myself and for the missus for Xmas. I see brand new 3G ones on Ebay for as low as $600, yet also see them on Ebay for $1,500 - WTF?

Does anyone know how to do all the good tricks regarding firmware and other unlocking features?

[typevu]

Why do you want the iPhone? I'd highly consider a Nokia N95 8GB, N96, Sony Ericsson C905, Samsung INNOV8 or the HTC Touch Diamond before taking a glance at the iPhone

[Nightcrawler]

^^^ on what basis Vu? I need hard proof. Do you own any of the above?

I know plenty of people with IPhones and they love them.

The N95 is way too chunky in my pocket for my liking.

[SLED]

I've got the HTC Touch and currently contemplating going for the iPhone as well.

My painter buys a new phone every couple of months (had everything) but has now settled with the iPhone and swears by it.

Great for vids & pics although I'm sure other phones can do the same.........you're paying for a name unfortunately even though IMO it's probably worth it if you have the cash.

[CRoNic...]

iPhone has good and bad points. My good mate has one, and went from a N95 to a iPhone.

Good:

Touch screen

Huge amount of applications available

Fast response times to everything

Large amount of space

iTunes built in

Bad:

Applications can be expensive

Screen and back cover gets covered in fingerprints

iTunes is the only program you can import music to your phone

Horrible camera

Speakers on the bottom of the phone

Hard to get custom ringtones working

No bluetooth

No MMS

On screen keyboard

My mate has dropped his phone a few times, and it hasn't stuffed up yet. They seem to be pretty hardy phones. The screen doesn't scratch easily, either.

Apparently there's a certain version of firmware that supports MMS? You might have to search around for it.

They're great phones, but it all depends on what you want to use it for. I don't think they are really a decent business phone for, say, checking your e-mails, because from memory, the e-mail program isn't a Pull-type (automatically downloads emails as they come in, rather than opening up the application each time to then download e-mails).

If you SMS alot, you'll have the Qwerty touch keyboard. The keys are very cramped, and it's hard to type quickly on it. Expect alot of spelling mistakes!

Voice quality, it isn't fantastic. Sometimes it's quite hard to hear my mate on this phone!

But application-wise, there's a huge amount available but be prepared to pay for 90% of them!! They range from $1 to about $20 and can all be purchased/downloaded via the phone.

That's about all I know of it! I've had a decent play with it quite a few times, and it's great with the touch screen, but don't know if I could use it full time. Have you seen that new Samsung phone with the Windows Mobile software on it? That's touch screen but with ALOT more features.

Edit: Oh, and forgot to mention... if you're going on a plan, make sure you get a large internet cap on it. My mate had 300mb a month and he went over it in a few days of just internet surfing, and got charged huge amounts for every mb after! The iPhones use alot of bandwidth!!

Edited December 4, 2008 by CRoNic...

[Chris#3]

You can get those htc touch diamond at jbhifi for $800-$900 unlocked although it would be cheaper off ebay.

[Johnney_aussie]

Back when i bought my phone it was a toss up between Lg Viewty and the Iphone i got the Lg cause of the 5mp camera the Iphone one sucks ass! From what ive heard there not that good my Lg is fine but id go for that new Samsung touch screen thing on the commercial seems cool! something like a 8mp camera

[SLED]

Why do you want the iPhone? I'd highly consider a Nokia N95 8GB, N96, Sony Ericsson C905, Samsung INNOV8 or the HTC Touch Diamond before taking a glance at the iPhone

actually, just had a look at these 3 that Vu mentioned (the HTC Diamond is the one after mine) and after reading Chronic's post, it might be worthwhile checking these out as well Andrew...........don't get sucked into the hype surrounding Apple, get what suits your needs cause the novelty of owning one will dissappear then you don't want to be stuck with a non functional phone for 2 years (if going on a plan).

[SLEEPR85]

Why do you want the iPhone? I'd highly consider a Nokia N95 8GB, N96, Sony Ericsson C905, Samsung INNOV8 or the HTC Touch Diamond before taking a glance at the iPhone

DON'T!!! get the N95. I've currently got one on my 2 year plan and its crap. Constantly freezes up when i'm using it, and resulting in me having to restart it at least once a day. Thinking about paying the plan out and getting an iphone actually!

[Damo_R34]

I looked at the N96 yesterday actually, looks very nice, and is a bit smaller than the 8gb N95. im 12 months on my 24 month plan, so id looking to upgrade in 6or so months. I have an Ipod touch, which is the same as the phone but obviously without calling and smsing. It really is an everything in one application, gps, pictures, video, music, calling, sms, youtube on main page, google maps etc etc. The iTouch falls over as you need access to a wireless network to work 80% of the features, whereas the iPhone would come with its own net connection.

[kidafa]

my boss has an iphone. seems pretty shweet and he loves it cos he can do so many things on it.

The latest app. hes got on it is a dyno program. becuase it has a geforce meter and a gps acurate to 1m it can give ur 1/4 times ect and extimated hp.

http://www.zercustoms.com/news/iPhone-Dyno-Application.html

[ontheranch]

I have an Iphone and I think its great, applications are cheap and very easy to download, some are just amazing.

For internet navigation i have found it the easiest phone to use. The phone pretty much owns, kinda like Ipods in the MP3 world.

The only downpoints that I notice are the touch keypad (although you get used to it) and the glass screen (I have dropped mine face first on the cement and I have a mass crack in the top corner, its insured so all good)

If you get one, i recommend getting a silicone case. I have never met anyone who owns one that doesnt like it. You have to take note that its a mini computer so it can run slow at times and needs regular re booting.

[TUFF_350]

I just got a HTC Touch Diamond & its so freaking awesome,

exceeded all my expectations. Standalone GPS, install anything & everything for free if u kno wat sites to go to (stick that up ur clacker app store!), just like using a comp with windows & the list goes on. First thing i did was download my carriers ROM & updated the firmware so it got rid of all the NextG crap branding etc. Its super smoothe, no lag wat so eva & its good to be different & not have an Ihpne

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_diamond-2368.php

[zedevan]

in regards to voice quality being bad is that on a 2g or 3g iphone?

I've got a 2g iphone. recent previous phones have been samsung blackjack (i320n), o2 xphone 2, o2 xda 2, palm treo, and before that had nokia 8000 series and carried around a pda too.

i dont understand how people can go over their download caps - unless they are watching youtube all day without being in a wifi zone. as there is an accurate counter that tells you how much you've downloaded, and most people would roughly know how large file wise each site they are visiting is? But as mine is a 2g one the net is quite slow when not within wifi, but i still couldn't see myself using the net that much more on it than i do. It is really handy having a device which you can access normal websites on without having to wait for it to turn on.

While there are many other phones out there that have more features than an iphone - the ability to mms for example. none of those phones are able to do the things an iphone does with the ease it can. Its exactly the same as how there are better mp3 players out there than an ipod - ipods win easily with userbility, even if there are massive crap points about it. I was watching someone on the train the other day with a samsung omnia i think they are called, and they were struggling to get the background image to apply with the orientation they wanted. Granted this is not something you can do on the iphone without buying additional software - it looks crap when you change the background anyway.

Zooming in and out on an iphone is dam easy, where other devices you often have to press a button to zoom in, with no option to zoom out, so is similiar to a dvd player when u start fastfowarding to fast - if that makes any sense. the keyboard is good, particually once you get used to the fact you're not ment to touch with the tips of your fingers. My gf dislikes it coz of her fingernails and the screen works off conductance - making her nails get in the way of viewing the screen lol. My bro is looking to get a touch diamond and i showed him web browsing on the iphone and how well you can control what you are clicking on, and i highly doubt anything else gets close - specially without using a stylus.

drop tests are on youtube. with any of the touch screen devices i'd recommend the cases made by www.zagg.com. after over a years use mine is starting to come off at the edges, but there is not one scratch visable on the entire phone.

Thats the main things i can think of - go into a store and have a play with one yourself. just dont NOT get an iphone just because its an apple product and associated with being a sheep - there are good reasons for y it is so popular. I did that with mp3 players and eventually bought an ipod lol, they are just so much easier to use for the effort on a day to day basis.

[syx]

The 3G is great, I get around 650kb/s (im with telstra) If your set on vodaphone you'll want to ask someone in adelaide on vodaphone with an iphone what its like. Here in Mount Gambier you only get gprs with vodaphone on the iphone.

Email is great, you can have the push style.

I use to have problems with custom apps not working almost every day, had to delete and install one to make them all work again which I think was a common problem. It hasnt happend for a while now.

Wifi is unreal.

The GPS is unreal.

The web browser is unreal.

I want to mention that of 3 screens of downloaded apps (3x16) I have I have only paid for 3 of them, and all for less than $5.

I have an app to vnc to my servers.

I have an app to ssh to my servers.

I have an ebook reader.

I have a skype/msn/googletalk client.

All free

Theres Dynolicious and PocketDyno for your Petrol Head Needs™ (and im sure more by now)

Theres so many cool apps.

You can do the whole unlock thing, but everytime I look at doing it I ask myself why, and I have no answer. If you want to do it to unlock it from a network the quickpwn thingo works fine.

Everything is backed up to itunes (apps,contact,music,etc.....) if you stuff it up.

I hate apple and their 'walled garden' approach to business but ive had this thing since just after they were released in Aus and I have not regretted it .... well ive wished it ran the android os a few times

Edit: also zedevan is on the money imo

[Luciano]

DON'T!!! get the N95. I've currently got one on my 2 year plan and its crap. Constantly freezes up when i'm using it, and resulting in me having to restart it at least once a day. Thinking about paying the plan out and getting an iphone actually!

Upgrade the firmware mate, should solve this problem! I have one too, and since i upgraded FW, it freezes nowhere near as much as it used to.

But it still does freeze occasionally

[Krishy]

i have an i mate

and to me that does everything i need as in a hand held pc sort of thing

as for my phone i use sony erricson K800i and that has a 3.2mp camera with flash

[foney]

You can jailbrake your iphone as well as addnew firmwear and update the software,

New software updates included such fucnctions as MMS and updates for camera and speakers.

however if u have an unlocked phone and have installed a third party installer app then you can not update VIA itunes anymore,

Another fault was that u could not get your numbers from your sim card. With third party apps you can do this. And i have.

I have an iphone jailbroken and unlcoked modded etc. And all the apps are free and there is a million to download.

They are strong ive droped mine so many times its not funny.

They have clear screen protectors that are very thin, sold at any phone store.

U can install third party apps to install ring tones, files. etc.

YEs even has blue tooth.

Overall its a good toy to play with. Good for watching movies on and music. pictures, zoon in and out function with your fingers etc.

I rate it highly.

Down point: chews batt power

[Nightcrawler]

wow some great feedback here guys, thanks!

I had no idea that the IPhone has no Bluetooth - that is a deal killer for me straight away, as I constantly use Bluetooth in the car on my Nuvi, and not having that functionality is unacceptable.

A mate has the HTC and he loves it, so I might give that a try.

The bad camera issue with IPhone is a sore point too, as I do want to use it for photos.

And given I don't want to listen to music with it at all, it seems I would just be paying for the IPhone name without good reason.

I wonder does the new(er) 3G version have a better camera and Bluetooth functionality, ie. people were talking about the 2G phone? Seems bizarre for it not have Bluetooth and a decent camera! Can anyone confirm that the 3G version definitely doesn't have Bluetooth and that the camera is crap?

For those with O2, Imates etc I feel sorry for you - I have had the O2 XDA, O2 XDA Mini and the O2 Flame, and they all sucked ass - constant reboots required and hardware faults needing the units sent to Qld to be fixed.

[rad100]

i have a blackberry pearl...

i love it! small, does everything i need, phone, email, sms, mms..

but thats me. never had a problem. but i will be going the N96 next!

m2c