Anand Reviews the Apple iPhone 3G
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 16, 2008 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Clutter Awaits!
The iPhone doesn’t support third-party background tasks, and as I applauded in the original review, its whole goal is to kick applications and data out of memory as quickly as possible to maintain the fastest interface possible. This approach is partly necessary to ensure that the iPhone can appear to be faster than other smartphones built on similar hardware, but it also makes sure the phone can scale with the number of applications you have installed.
Theoretically, it shouldn’t matter if you have zero or forty applications installed, performance should remain identical since all they do is take up space on the iPhone’s writable flash yet don’t remain resident in memory. I didn’t notice any performance degradation as I kept adding applications to the iPhone 3G, but admittedly I could only find around 21 that I wanted to have installed.
You can now have multiple home screen pages, you swipe to view additional pages. My second homepage is just App Store applications.
But even with only 21 applications installed, the iPhone’s home interface quickly becomes cluttered. You quickly have to reorganize the iPhone’s home screen to optimize for frequently used first and third party applications.
The original iPhone’s interface worked because it was so simple, something many considered a detriment given that the iPhone lacked basic smartphone or cellphone features. My thinking was that Apple honed in on the top 10 features that it wanted to get right and focused on perfecting those, which it absolutely did with the original iPhone. The problem is that with the 2.0 firmware and the app store, the iPhone takes a dangerous step towards becoming more like Windows Mobile. The balance between program functionality and UI was tilted far in favor of UI with the first iPhone, but with multiple screens of applications and very little connecting them together, the tides are beginning to turn.
By no means am I taking issue with the app store, it’s clearly an important part of Apple’s strategy and as you’ll soon see, there are a number of applications that will actually help make this phone even better. The problem becomes what happens when you’ve got so many applications that you use on a regular basis that navigating between them all becomes an issue?
Apple helped addressed this on the desktop through the use of the Dashboard in OS X 10.4. The Dashboard provided one simple interface for things like notes, weather, stocks, the calculator and more, unfortunately porting that to the iPhone wouldn’t really work given that you’re constrained by screen size. The concept however, I believe, is similar to what Apple may need to do going forward.
When all of the applications you needed to run fit on a single home screen, things were fine. Once that number grows significantly, we start to straddle the line between feature-packed and cumbersome. Apple’s iPhone interface is far from the mess that is Windows Mobile, but it’s headed in that direction. I do hope, for Apple’s sake, that the next iPhone update actually encompasses more than some minor hardware/physical changes.
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robinthakur - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link
And naturally, the 'competitor' that you chose, the N95 supports 4G does it? Don't make me laugh. I used to have an N95 and I upgraded to the iPhone after having used one and being uber impressed. The N95 might have a longer spec sheet anda better camera, but for usability the iPhone is so far ahead its almost comical. People seem upset that Apple got something right pretty much first time which all the other manufacturers still can't do. Just look at the mess that is Windows Mobile.Obrut - Friday, July 18, 2008 - link
Robin,1. I'm talking about N95 8GB and not N95, there is a quite big difference. But nevermind - you can pick N96. It even has built-in TV-tuner.
2. I never said N95 supports 4G. I was talking about the differences between North America and Europe for example. 4G is for my laptop and stationary phone.
Besides I never said that iPhone is a bad phone at all.
Obrut - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link
For the clumsiness - I agree.4G is available here (Bulgaria), though we're the only country in Europe with 4G coverage (yet). I mean nation-wide WiMAX coverage over 4G equipment.
As for the install base - compare the number of Symbian applications over iPhone apps...
A-GPS - I've been using this for long time and I can't even imagine that the first iPhone is lacking this. So A-GPS - no news, welcome to the club.
Accelerometer - welcome to the club also.
Photo - 2 MP means no camera at all
Flash support - this feature is mandatory for decent browsing experience.
Battery - how usefull is a phone which you should recharge twice a day (in case you're using it for more than talk and that's the big idea with iPhone)
FM Radio, Java, etc... just read this: http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone2=2088...">http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone2=2088...
rubbahbandman - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link
Epic review. This phone looked like a steal at $200, but man it really is spendy once you do the math for those 2 year contracts. For now, I think I'll hold off until I can find out what's in store with the Google phone.Griswold - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link
There will be no "google phone". You'll just get whatever the various manufacturers do with android and last but not least the telcos feed you - no magic google bullet that will make everything glorious.And yet, there are already dark clouds on the android horizon. Open source they said? Why is it that only a handful developers under NDA get SDK updates and the rest is forced to use outdated, bugged versions?
More about it and a petition can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/6hn7m7">http://tinyurl.com/6hn7m7
With that in mind, android could face some major delays... big chance for nokia (and their newly founded, open symbian alliance) and apple to steamroll over googles android parade before it really took off.
shortylickens - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link
With the phone, that is. The article is exactly what I've come to expect from Anand, nothing less.I will admit I am normally an Apple hater. I lady I know at work made her husband get her this as soon as it came out. She was showing it off to everybody on Monday. I admit it was pretty darn sweet and had a ton of useful features. When I went to the AT&T site and saw I could get the 8 gig version for 200 bucks I was astonished.
Of course, AT&T will probably have some way to leech a ridiculous amount of money from me with the service, but the phone itself is great and a really good deal right now.
Bremen7000 - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link
Maybe the webpage load times are specific to your area? Ars's findings were significantly more in favor of 3G: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iphone3g-r...">http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iphone3g-r...And I agree with the above posters, you should know better than to complain about a specific carrier's reception without heavily qualifying it.
GTaudiophile - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link
I refuse to buy one until I can use it (legit) with T-Mobile.Arc 0V - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - link
Same iPhone should be on more carriers than AT&T but oh well. On the other hand I love my Verizon service. I travel a lot with family and friends, and my cousin and a friend have T-Mobile and the other has AT&T, and I can not count how many times I have service when they don't (wow lots of ands). By travel I mean like out of state constantly either driving or flying.imaheadcase - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - link
Yes 3 articles on Iphone. Sad, pretty sad change of course for the site.When can we expect to see a preview, review, and feature set of the Ford Escort, or Bud Light with Lime? I await with anticipation!