It's iDay minus two and counting, with Apple's iPhone launching on Friday. The first iPhone reviews have arrived, with many reviewers calling it a "breakthrough" device while still noting the lack of some features and the drawbacks of its cellular capabilities.
The iPhone is "a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer," wrote Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret on the Wall Street Journal's Web site. Its software "sets a new bar for the smartphone industry," they added, and its "clever finger-touch interface" works well, "though it sometimes adds steps to common functions."
Mossberg and Boehret went on to praise what they called "the best Web browser" they have seen on a smartphone and the largest and highest-resolution smartphone display.
No 3G  , No IM, No Flash ... Oh My!
But, like other reviewers, they noted several shortcomings. They pointed out that the iPhone doesn't have 3G capabilities and can only use the much slower EDGE technology. The compensation for this shortcoming is that the iPhone can automatically switch to Wi-Fi networks, when available, for Internet browsing. On Wi-Fi, they report, the iPhone "flies."
They also lamented that there was no instant messaging, no video recording, and no support for Flash. The lack of Flash means that many Web sites' animation and video will not play on the device.
The lack of a physical keyboard was a "nonissue," Mossberg and Boehret said, adding that they were able to type on the iPhone as well as with a Palm Treo, in part because of the iPhone software that instantly corrects common errors.
'Spectacular' Image Quality
Writing in the New York Times, David Pogue found the typing to be "frustrating" at first, but speed and accuracy improved when he started to "trust" the correcting software and let it correct his mistakes.
Overall, he said, the device is both "revolutionary" and "flawed." It does "things no phone has ever done before," he said, but it "lacks features found even on the most basic phones." In addition to praising the interface, he lauded the fully formatted e-mail, the Web browsing capabilities, and the "spectacular" image quality. But he dinged it for no memory card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing, and no Java or Flash capability.
He also cited the network issue, saying that AT&T's signal strength is ranked low in nearly all major American cities and that the "ancient" EDGE network is "excruciatingly slow," although he noted that AT&T's newer, faster data network is now available in 160 cities. (continued...)
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