Opinion – One week ago, Apple released its iPhone. In the past seven days I took the phone through the pace of the average phone user – without taking the device apart and without trying to figure out quickly I could drain the battery. The conclusion of the first week: The phone has serious flaws, but it is good enough to have changed the way I am using my cellphone and notebook.

As a journalist reviewing a product, you are hoping for those extreme moments, these flaws or great features you discover while you are dissecting a device. In the past few days, you have learned everything and more you ever wanted to know about Apple’s iPhone on sites across the Internet, ranging from the manufacturer of the Wi-Fi chip to the progress of people trying to free the phone from the grip of AT&T.

Despite the fact that Apple has apparently sold already more 500,000 phones, it is still a people magnet and wherever you go, at least here in the Chicago suburbs, people will stop you and ask questions about the iPhone. And these questions really don’t circle around what is found behind the touchscreen, but almost exclusively what the user experience is like – and whether I’d buy it again, given what I now know about the device.

I personally bought the iPhone with the expectation of “it is just a phone” and had the luxury that I did not really have to care whether it was a great or a bad phone.

The fact that Apple and AT&T will charge you nearly $700 for the 8 GB phone ($599 + tax + activation) as well as at least $1400 over the next two years in service charges means that you can and should be very picky about the features and characteristics of the phone. The way a certain feature is integrated could be something others do not care about, but may be a dealbreaker for you.

So let’s be picky. Here’s my purely subjective top 10 list of iPhone discoveries over the past week.


#1 Yes, the phone has design flaws

Love or hate Apple, the iPhone isn’t perfect and there are hardware design flaws Apple needs to fix in generation 2. It is as simple as that. There are two problems that I found particularly annoying.

First, the screen may look nice, but it is a pain to live with. This screen attracts grease from your fingers quickly and – at least in bright daylight - becomes unusable within a few minutes of tapping: Since it is the concept of the iPhone to interact with your fingers on the screen, you have fingerprints on the screen everywhere in no time. And it is a difficult surface to keep clean: A fancy cleaning cloth comes with the phone, but it doesn’t serve its purpose. A decent supply of Windex is really what should be included with the iPhone.

Second, who designed that iPhone dock? Was that a leftover from the iPod basement? The white stand neither complements the shape nor the color of the iPhone. There always seems to be at least one screw-up in the design department with such a product and this is a rather unnecessary one. Guys, a $600 phone deserves a nicer dock. Period.

#2 The battery is not that bad, but how expensive did you say it is?

Yes, the battery has been one of the major concerns of the iPhone and yes, I have read those scary articles where batteries have been drained within four hours or less.

But, if you think about it, how often do you really stay on the phone for four hours or more? In mixed use here (iPod, phone, camera) the phone easily hits 12 hours of battery time, and in low usage times I got up to 36 hours out of one charge. Compared to my (hard drive based) video iPod, the battery holds up well, so I have nothing to complain about. One small exception: Heavy use of the camera of course sucks the battery dry quickly – I got about 250 pictures out of one battery charge.

Replacing the battery is another story: We will see how many charge cycles the battery will really take, but $85 for a replacement battery is outrageous. I still hope that this is a joke and we really will be talking about a free replacement. If not, then I am sure Apple is already preparing itself for lawsuits from angry users and hungry lawyers.

If it is true that the battery will only last for 300 charges, then Apple better comes up with something more durable soon.


#3 The interface is fantastic, but the phone needs work

I am not going to elaborate on the GUI and the way how to use it; a lot of other publications have written about that in every imaginable detail. But I will note that it is a problem that the phone is “a” function of the iPhone and not “the” function. The phone capability is integrated with the same priority level as is the iPod, the camera, the calculator, the browser and all other applications.

Before making a call you typically have to turn on the phone, unlock the phone through a slider, close an application you may not have closed before, open the phone application and then dial your number or open your contacts and call someone from there. Apple clearly needs to find a way to make the phone more accessible, as it can be very frustrating to have to go through that clicking process every time you want to make a quick call.


#4 Was AT&T really the only choice?

If you are still wondering, yes the service offered with the iPhone is – no matter how you slice it - bad. Most likely, it will be the single most important reason why iPhone sales could remain somewhat limited. I still believe that Apple shot itself in the foot with this one. Not that call quality would be terrible, but the iPhone data service falls short on value.

Some say that the bandwidth offered by AT&Ts EDGE network is inappropriate these days, especially for a device like the iPhone. I found that AT&Ts network is rather unpredictable, which may be even worse than just being inappropriate. On some days, EDGE is pleasant to deal with, as it loads webpages in 10 seconds or less. On other days it is a real pain in the you know what and takes 2 minutes to load Yahoo’s homepage. Initially I liked the speed of the service, but when I relied on it (for example to check my mail while on the road), it tended to be very slow and therefore became nearly useless.

And then there is the price. I agree, iPhone service is not more expensive or even cheaper than what you would pay for a Blackberry service. But this is a consumer product designed for the mass market and $60 for an entry level plan is ridiculous. Considering what EDGE really offers, this quickly needs to come down below $40, no question about it.

However, AT&T has little incentive to bring that price down at this time. A healthy dose of competition could change that and it is about time that lawmakers should begin thinking whether locking a specific device to only one provider should be continue to be legal in the future. In a country where every company and every politician doesn’t hesitate to talk about the benefits for the consumer, answering that question should be easy.


#5 The missing keyboard is a non-issue

Who would have thought that? Apple’s virtual iPhone keyboard isn’t really what I would call comfortable, but it is easier to use than the strange thing RIM calls a keypad on my Blackberry Pearl. In fact, it is convenient enough to type in web addresses, fill out forms and take short notes. There are even some minor tasks in website administration I can easily do with the Apple phone.

That, of course doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t encourage Apple to integrate an alternative physical keyboard (which could resolve the phone integration issue) or a fancy infrared keyboard.

Read on the next page: The camera, Safari,  Google Maps and why the iPhone is not a phone