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Full Review of the iPhone 2 On Launch Day

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the dock-not-included dept.

With the launch of Apple's brand-spanking-new 3G iPhone today, Engadget has a great review of the product and many of the prominent features. The review has quite a few good pictures and is not shy about technical details, but I guess they would know a fair bit about it, having ripped one apart yesterday. "The wireless industry is a notoriously tough nut to crack, and it's become pretty clear that the first iPhone wasn't about total domination so much as priming the market and making a good first impression with some very dissatisfied cellphone users. With the iPhone 3G, though, Apple's playing for keeps. Not only is this iPhone's Exchange enterprise support aiming straight for the heart of the business market, but the long-awaited 3rd party application support and App Store means it's no longer just a device, but a viable computing platform. And its 3G network compatibility finally makes the iPhone welcome the world over, especially after Cupertino decided to ditch its non-traditional carrier partnerships in favor of dropping the handset price dramatically. $200? We're still a little stunned." Update 17:17 GMT by SM: The guys over at Engadget also pointed out that Apple is having some severe problems with their iTunes servers and many customer are being sent home without their sync complete for new iPhones.

5 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. More Expensive by lessthanjakejohn · · Score: 5, Informative

    It actually becomes $160 more expensive over the life of the contract.

    1. Re:More Expensive by EvanED · · Score: 5, Informative

      You don't have to get a data plan do you? It is possible to get the phone for $200 and then use one of the bacis phone service plans, correct?

      No, you can't.

      Not even if you are buying a used iPhone from someone; you have to get the iPhone package. In fact I *just* closed the window I had with an AT&T support chat asking this question.

    2. Re:More Expensive by Fulg · · Score: 5, Informative

      I believe you can switch your iPhone SIM card over to some dumb phone, adjust your plan to include unlimited data for dumb phones (costs less than unlimited data for smart phones)... and then put that SIM card back in the iPhone.

      A word of warning to anyone wanting to try...

      For Rogers in Canada, the "cheap data plans for generic phones" (say the $7 all-you-can-leech instead of the "big" plan for iPhone) is locked to the IMEI number of your phone. The carrier has a list of IMEIs of all the phones it sold to subscribers.

      When you power up a phone with a SIM card inside, the IMEI is transmitted to the carrier. If the IMEI is unknown (your phone is "unapproved") the cheap data plan is not in effect, and you pay through the nose.

      This is all in the fine print that no one reads, though not that explicitly :)

      --
      gcc: no input sig
  2. Be warned.... Don't lose your iPhone by Andruil · · Score: 5, Informative

    A friend of mine works for a company selling the iPhone 2. According to him if you lose your iPhone 2 you will 1. Have to pay full price to get a new one (not too surprising imo) and 2. Re-sign up for a 2 year contract... Also according to him the employees have been instructed specifically to not mention this fact to customers. Pretty screwy to me. Then again I am ignorant of how most cell phones work so I don't know if this is standard or not. I'm assuming based on his reaction its not.

  3. Re:quick, someone start complaining! by Tyketto · · Score: 5, Informative

    Simple solution.

    Purchase the unsubsidized phone. Apple is selling the phone outright for $399 (8G) and $499 (16G) without the contract. If you don't want the contract, or are unable to upgrade your phone with them at this time, you can still buy the iPhone outright.

    BL.