To iPhone or not to iPhone; Part Deux!

Here’s a quote from my post regarding the iPhone:

I’d love to hate the iPhone but at this point I can’t yet. Its got the best touchscreen in the business and the smoothest user experience thus far. The main draw is that the iPhone uses a capacitative touchscreen instead of a resistive one. The former reacts to your skin’s electrical conductivity, while the latter relies on physical deformation (resisting/pushing/pressing) of the screen. It enables the iPhone (and any future capacitative products) to have a very accurate and sensitive touchscreen compared to everything else.

Couple that with Apple’s stylish, snappy interface, and you have a phone you’ll love just tapping on. The built in Safari browser is the best mobile one so far, even without the support for Flash. (most streaming video and colorful websites use Flash intensively) YouTube can be viewed via an application on the phone separate from the Safari browser.

The only reasons you or I shouldn’t run out to get an iPhone might be based on our preferences (or business needs). Some notable considerations include:

1.) Data plans in the Philippines suck. Considering that regular iPhones are locked into Globe, you’d find it funny to learn that Globe’s internet through its “high speed” 3G network is horribly sluggish. Without the internet, the iPhone’s capabilities are limited – possibly even negating the need for the large touchscreen. I mean, do you really need a big screen to call people and/or text?

If you can get Wifi in the places you frequent, then this shouldn’t be an issue. Plus it wouldn’t cost you a ton from Globe.

2.) Not the best business phone – I believe Apple just recently updated the iPhone software to include Push E-mail. Which is a big thing for business-savvy people. It enables your e-mail to be automatically sent to your phone, and replied on your phone, whereever you are. It still lacks a few more standard business functions similar to that. The lack of a real Querty keyboard also hurts your typing speed a wee bit. If you’re going to be using one, I’d imagine you wouldn’t be typing blog posts in it – but you’d easily type a couple paragraphs on a comfortable querty-phone.

3.) No decent camera. I’m way into this one. The reason I chose my current phone is its powerful camera and flash (5MP and xenon flash – digicams use xenon). The iPhone has a 2 megapixel shooter with no flash. While useful for small prints and viewing in small LCD screens, it wouldn’t blow up nice and would generally be dark. I don’t bring a camera unless I’m sure there are formal, social occasions, but then that means I’d lose all the chances of taking pictures whenever I didn’t bring one. Hence, the built-in camera preference. I’ve been in more than a few social occasions where nobody’s brought their cameras and my phone was there to the rescue. What’s more, and the iPhone has this, is GPS-tagging photos. So when I go back to my gallery, I can pinpoint exactly where in Palawan this wierd shaped island I took a picture of is. A small detail, but I like it.

4.) Apple’s slighty monopolistic products – be ready to like iTunes, the software that you need to sync your iPhone with your computer. If you have an iPod, this shouldn’t matter, but if you like choice, Apple isn’t for you. Some accessories, chargers, and products need to be Apple approved products, as there are no generic USB cables or similar. There is no memory card slot either.

In the end, you’d have to consider what you’re planning to use the phone for. What I find most often with iPhone owners is that they rarely ever pull it out and use it, possibly because you can’t really do much in them unless you have an internet connection. Buying an iPhone for just voice calls and text messages is a complete waste, even if you consider the fact that its a fun, stylish phone. If you were planning on using the iPhone’s browser and multimedia functions a lot more, then a purchase will be more warranted. If you were planning on tapping out a lot of e-mails, texts, and any business-minded activities, you should pick out a great querty-phone like a Blackberry or the E71.

Personally, I’m into travelling, night spots, social events, and any spontaneous activities in between, so my choice is a xenon flash-equipped cameraphone – to capture the moments even at night. It instantly gives you and your friends a use for the phone as a form of a.) view pictures of previous social events or b.) take new pictures. I can find no way to introduce an iPhone into a social crowd save the fact that they can tap on the screen and swipe around pre-saved pictures you took out of your computer. Not exciting at all.

Whew! I hope that helps.