Apple iPhone review

If nothing else, the iPhone will be remembered as the most anticipated mobile phone in history. Fortunately, for Apple and users alike, it's not just a marketing success: it's real, and it's undeniably magnificent.

We got our hands on it in the States, the only place you can currently buy or officially use an iPhone, though it's due in the UK before the end of the year. No matter how many times you've seen pictures of it, you can't help but be impressed by the device in the flesh. It's smaller than you might imagine, barely half an inch thick and just as glossy as it looks in the photos, and seems to consist almost entirely of its screen. Measuring 3.5 inches across its diagonal and displaying 480 x 320 colour pixels, it's big, bright and sharp.

Of course, it's also a touchscreen, and although this is by no means a unique feature, by designing the whole phone around it Apple has created something very different from any other mobile. It's as practical as it's revolutionary, a paradigm shift in user interaction.

If you've struggled with everyday Internet tasks on other phones, you'll be thrilled by the iPhone's robust email client, which supports full HTML, as well as the Safari web browser, which replicates Apple's Mac/PC version perfectly. There are still significant omissions, like Flash and Java support, but compared to the BlackBerry browser or the mobile Opera experience, Safari on the iPhone simply rocks.

Lots of phones now purport to serve double duty as media players, but the iPhone is a true iPod replacement. In fact, thanks to that touchscreen, it out-iPods the iPod, taking the portable media experience to the next level. You can flip through album covers using the same CoverFlow feature that's in iTunes on the PC, and widescreen video playback looks as good as it ever could on a pocket-size display.

One limitation is that the iPhone's media library can only pair with one computer, which is a drag if you have content on more than one PC that you might want to carry around with you. There must be some sort of agenda behind this, as the iPhone's contacts, calendars, and email can sync with as many computers as you like. As a media player, the iPhone has only one other flaw: the narrow headphone jack is recessed enough that most third-party headphones won't fit without an adapter. It's readily available, but costs an extra $10. If Sony can throw in a headphone jack adaptor with its Walkman phones, Apple should be able to do the same with a device that costs several times more. You do get a dock and an iPod-like set of earphones with a built-in microphone, as well as a wall charger.

Flawed masterpiece

A smattering of other shortcomings should stand a good chance of being addressed with software updates down the road. Since the iPhone's operating system is based on the much-praised Mac OS X, Apple should have plenty of scope for future upgrades. At present there's no support for MMS picture messaging, though it's easy to send photos via email; no instant messaging client, although the iPhone excels at SMS; no built-in search functionality (any heavy email user will find this borderline unforgivable); limited Microsoft Exchange support for corporate email users; and a maddening lack of facilities to copy and paste text, or even erase chunks other than by patiently hanging on to the Delete key, like with an old typewriter. We were also disappointed to find that the manual is on the Internet, not in the box.

Software issues aside, the iPhone's hardware holds its own. The 2 megapixel camera isn't as fancy as some, but usable, and WiFi is built in as well as Bluetooth. Data transmission over the cellphone network is via EDGE, which is considerably slower than 3G but quite passable for checking email, casual Web browsing, or using Google Maps, which is flawlessly integrated. Unlike some smartphones, however, the iPhone lacks built-in GPS to take mapping to its logical conclusion.