As its probably known by everyone and their pets, the UK finally got iPhones last week. Along with a whole bucket of people so did I. The experience of getting one was rather ‘fun’ as I ordered from the O2 store online and ended up talking to trainee – not a great day for them to start.
The art of preparing before launching
I did have an issue with my first iPhone where it arrived with a scratch on the screen. The ordeal of getting it changed though proved to me that O2 really weren’t as prepared as they could have been for returns. First up, I had to contact customer services as had brought it online – what ensued form this was nearly an hour long call where I was passed around like some hot potatoe that nobody wanted. I grew tired very quickly repeating myself to each person I was handed to wrongly. At one point they even said they couldn’t change it and would be repairing it. This wasn’t making me very happy clappy compared to my ooo ah box opening the day before.
It all ended up with O2 calling my local store to notify them I was coming in for a replacement. Unfortunately, the call ended before it was confirmed. As a result of this I had a rinse repeat performance in the O2 store but thanks to a helpful employee there ended up leaving with a replacement without the fault – he said he probably shouldn’t be doing this but I’m glad he ended the potential nightmare that I was facing.
Whilst I was right and it was a fault and it turned out it was a chip and scratch on the screen. This did however, prove to me that O2 weren’t fully preparing for returns and seemed overwhelmed by the take up on iPhones as everyone seemed to not really know what was going on. One person didn’t even think I could get replacements as they thought it didn’t even have a SIM card (a fact disproved by the O2 employee using a drawing pin to get the SIM card out of my iPhone – yes I now know it’s not exactly a subtle procedure to remove a SIM card from an iPhone).
Ifruit
So what made me make the move from Blackberry to iPhone? Simply, it’s the interface and Safari. The Blackberry does have a web interface of sorts (nothing compared to Safari on the iPhone) but the addition of wifi for the iPhone really sold it to me. Couple that with the potential now with Apple creating a developers kit for the iPhone and not just pointing to the fact it uses web as a solution. It really gave me a lot more options and fitted better for me than the Blackberry. I’d used a mac / Blackberry sync application but it never quite worked as I wanted, the iPhone alternatively works out of the box to sync and that was another major selling point for me.
Just a phone?
My love of having multiple functions in one machine was also a part in my decision to opt with the iPhone. Whilst, it does not have that good a camera and the capacity is not great at 8gb – I love devices that combine functions so the iPhone won on that factor. Personally, I don’t like carrying around multiple devices and the ability to use the iPhone as a web browser using wifi means that where before I’d use my laptop now I can the iPhone. Whilst, I don’t plan to use the data package as much as wifi (mainly due to the slowness of the connection), having that option to fall back on really is good.
Touch type
My experience so far with the touch interface is good. The typing is a bit odd and I’m certainly not up to the speed I was using my Blackberry. Overtime though I can see this changing as already I’m starting to speed up this week using it. Sometimes it does when typing seem a bit over sensitive and the predictive text seems a bit confused as to what word I need – Blackberry did seem to nail the predictive text a bit more from the results I’ve seen so far on the iPhone.
iPhone wishlist
Whilst, I am happy there are a few things I wish that the iPhone had. I’d really like a method of storing pdfs. Being able to read ebooks offline really would add a dimension to me. I’ve been thinking for a while of going fully onto ebooks and having the ability to read them through my iPhone really would give something to me. I think this will come though maybe not through Apple but through the developer applications that are sure to come. I’d even be willing to pay to have this ability.
Storage also potentially I can see becoming a problem. I think the next version probably will if not have a large space go up to 16gb like the ipod touch. Whilst this isn’t a large storage I think this would be about right for me. Already I’m pushing the storage on the iPhone with a few podcasts and other things. It seems without very much on I’m already up to 1/2 which points to me that it’s not quite large enough yet.
goodPhone?
I’m so far very happy with my iPhone. I’ve had one error on it from docking which was a tad odd, I’ve also noticed that O2 have some connection problems with my location but that is par for the course with mobile networks where I live. Beyond the teething problems of a damaged first handset, my iPhone experience has been full of yays and wows. It really is proving to fit nicely into my routine so far. I’m very excited to see what comes from the developer kit being released and what verison 2 will bring. Now I am with O2 it shouldn’t be that hard to upgrade my phone on the new release – the sales person I spoke to even hinted you’d just have to get a new handset and could continue the contract (we shall see if this is true but it really would be good if that was the case).
