Merlyn_3D 07-08-2007 01:00
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Decided to return our iPhones today....
...Well after using them for a week, I agree wholeheartedly that this device will change the mobile industry, but the lack of 3G as well as other current shortcomings of the iPhone just make it an easier for my gf and I to go back to our treo 750's. For one thing, call quality (over bluetooth as well) seems much more solid on the treo, as does signal strength. The lack of a 3G option was a real disappointment as well, as whenever we got anything less than 4-5 bars on the iPhone safari just seemed to stall while downloading a webpage.
PIM functions, while so incredibly cool looking and pretty, just aren't up to par with other smartphones right now. A prime example is that when you have an appointment in your iPhone calendar with a reminder, the reminder alerts you once with a tone that's not nearly loud enough, but never seems to remind you again. No repeating alerts, no snooze, no dismissing. Funny thing is that all these functions seem to be in the alarm clock, but not the calendar alerts....what happened here apple? Also, you should be able to pick your tones for things like emails, messaging, calendars, etc.
I also noticed that bluetooth on the iPhone was not nearly as strong as on the treo 750. With the 750, we could be on our headsets and have a wall between me and my phone with no static, with the iPhone, the other end hears a garbly voice while I would hear static.
I have no complaints about the keyboard, in fact I loved it. It's an even better keyboard to use than the treo keyboard after you've had a couple beers! I do wish it made an appearance in your contacts screen though, so you could search through them easily.
My last real big issue with the iPhone is really just the restricted feeling of it. You get an iphone and sure you can put your sim card in another phone and use data and sms, but everytime you call voicemail you'll get a silly text message, MMS will no longer be provisioned, and the whole point of SIM cards on GSM really seems to be lost. When you put your sim into any phone other than the iphone, it feels like all the features just aren't enabled because of this. Oh, and I don't like the fact that the iPhone won't give you the standard GSM network options that all other GSM phones seem to give you, like the ability to change how long to wait before the network forwards your call to voicemail. I had to use another phone to change these options when I should have been able to do it from my iPhone. The iPhone should just be another GSM phone, lock it if you want, but all this proprietary plan crap just stinks, both switching to it and then switching away from it. It's so much more trouble than it really needs to be.
Also, Apple really needs to open up to 3rd parties. Imagine the kinds of applications you'd see on the iPhone when this happens. The iPhone will NEVER reach anywhere close to its full potential until any developer can write any application they want for it (just like the Palm). With the functionality (or lack thereof) of the iphone right now, I just can't justify $600+tax on it.
I will be back, though, for version 2 of the iPhone when they put in (hopefully) GPS and 3G.
BTW....we have two 8GB iPhones in excellent shape if anyone wants to buy them from us at cost, just PM me. I'm in the SF Bay Area.
Maui19 07-08-2007 01:08
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I'm thinking about doing the same thing. I love the thing but it sucks as a phone. The Rf needs to get better, it needs to handle marginal signals better, and Bluetooth needs to work. You also raise a number of other excellent points. I may have to wait until they refine it a bit.
Merlyn_3D 07-08-2007 01:50
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Originally Posted by AMSguitarist
That's some good input and valid reasons for a return. Maybe you'll change your mind when the new firmware comes... though that won't fix the network speed problems.
I doubt it....the cost still doesn't justify it for me, and my gf and I are both still in love with our treo 750's (about as much as we love to iPhone). I know there will be a 3G iPhone eventually though, and at that point I will definitely buy again.
Originally Posted by Maui19
I'm thinking about doing the same thing. I love the thing but it sucks as a phone. The Rf needs to get better, it needs to handle marginal signals better, and Bluetooth needs to work. You also raise a number of other excellent points. I may have to wait until they refine it a bit.
Yes....I hate that I can't trust the signal bars on the iPhone. They're not a good representation of what signal you're actually getting. At one point I stood in one spot and the signal bars jumped from 5 to 2 to 5 to 1 then dropped the call.
I'm also severely disappointed in the lack of an OBEX profile for bluetooth. I couldn't even transfer my vCard to a coworker the other day or receive one from him. Every other smartphone does this. Tethering is also not enabled, and I doubt it will ever be. What's the point of Bluetooth 2.0+EDR if it doesn't make use of it at all? A2DP should have been available as well.
Originally Posted by awj223
Those are all good reasons for returning a phone, except for the part about GSM network options. You know that the menu functions to change these things on all phones are just GUIs for entering the standard GSM network codes that do this, right? In other words, you can change this stuff from any phone, menu or not, by entering the network feature codes directly.
Take a look:
http://www.geckobeach.com/cellular/secrets/gsmcodes.php
IMO, you should memorize these codes and forget about the menus! Who needs a crippled GUI? You'll be able to do more than your phone menus ever could using these codes directly.
Thanks for that URL....I'll take a look as it will probably come in handy. I kind of like the GUI on the 750 though, it seems to cover a lot of the commonly used options.
Oh, I should also add....the antenna being on the bottom of the phone is a questionable design. I wouldn't know where else to put it, but many many people hold the phone there, and if you actually go to the field test screen of the iphone, you'll notice at least a 10dBm difference between when your hand is holding the phone at the bottom versus holding it at the top. I think this is the cause of some of the dropped calls I had, but even holding it at the top the RF didn't seem as strong as the 750, which held a call when the iPhone could not.
And apple should have released an update this week to increase the in call volume. The earpiece is not loud enough (for the phone being the killer app on this phone), and the speakerphone volume is quite simply laughable.
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