iPhone Pros and Cons by a PC Guy

Ok, I did it. I paid the $150 goodbye slap to Sprint, pitched my sucky HTC Touch phone and headed out to my local Apple Store to pick up an iPhone.

Of course, if I am getting an iPhone, my wife is getting one too (have to keep things fair, right guys?) so I bought the 8 GB version for myself and got the 16 GB version for my wife. She uses a lot more media than I do, so I figure I’ll be fine.

We arrived at the dreaded Apple Store and were promptly helped by an associate named Nick. He was so incredibly awesome I actually pulled his manager aside to compliment his work.

He totally changed my opinion of our Apple Store. One funny thing though… He knew everything there was to know about Apple products, but when it came time for the concierge to ring us out, her wireless bar-code scanner/credit card scanning device was powered by Microsoft.

As was reinforced by the device in that associate’s hand, going with Apple is cool and all, but as soon as it comes to getting the money in the bank, even Apple relies on a PC 😉

So here is a fair review from a PC guy who dabbles in the the arts of the forbidden fruit.

The Pros

Seriously, this is the best phone I have ever owned. I own a computer repair business and I use the speaker phone a lot.  The speaker phone on the iPhone ROCKS. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the iPhone will sync with my Outlook 2007 which made my life soooo much easier.

The phone design is sleek and the interface is smooth and easy to understand (unlike my HTC Touch that was about 400 MHz short of a solar calculator).

The interface for the Safari browser is better than any mobile platform I have ever used. So hands down it was worth the $400.

The Cons

I know this is going to get me attacked by the “Sons of Steve” Apple Worshipers, but it has to be said. I learn new things about my iPhone every day, but there are a few nagging things that my HTC Touch was superior at.

Single finger email deleting. With my touch I could delete emails with my thumb on a mouse-like touch device on the bottom of the phone.

The iPhone requires me to open the spam to find out what body part needs enlarging before I can delete it. Alternatively, I can do a fingertip tap dance on the screen that requires me to press the edit button, turn a little line deal and then tap delete… ON EACH EMAIL.

Does anyone know how to delete 10 spam emails in the inbox and just ZAP them?

No Flash Support. My HTC didn’t have this either, but I am left pondering why I can watch YouTube videos, but can’t do a damn thing on Revver.com. I can open PDF files, look at Excel Spreadsheets, and open images all naively. Why no Flash support Apple?

Super Slow Internet Speed. This is probably not Apple’s fault, nor the fault of the iPhone itself. While I am sure you folks on the coasts enjoy screaming fast iPhone internet bliss, here in flyover country its a different story.

I live in Omaha, Nebraska which with its suburbs has a population of about 500,000 people. With that said, I can’t use my iPhone in places I could use my Sprint phone. No reception in the hospital for example… and my data speeds are slower than dial-up. I thought there might be something wrong with my iPhone, but my wife confirms the lack of internet speed.

Just today Kim had to call information for a phone number and the AT&T operator was so curt she MUST have been working on a PC. It was actually just easier to Google the business on the iPhone and get the number from there – except it took forever.

All around, I am not having buyer’s remorse at all and I love my new iPhone. There is always room for improvement ion a product, but Apple got a lot more right than they did wrong in this case.  Now if AT&T would stop digging up my yard…