Personal iPhone Impressions

I visited an AT&T store today to play around with the iPhone and get some first hand impressions.  Though I had my two girls hangin on me saying "play the video again" I got to play with it for a good 15 minutes.  Well, I can say it was an impressive little device.

Pros 

• Size - it is very thin, not bulky, sleek
• Design - best I have seen - just a great looking device and great to hold
  
• Screen - was a delight to look at.  At every angle it was clear and bright.  Watching videos from YouTube (via Wifi) was pretty cool
• Interface - loved flicking it around...found it tough when I was wanting to select text (no cut/copy/paste - if you have not heard - very odd)
  
• iPod - the very best iPod interface and experience I have seen.  With only just over 7GB, it would be hard for the 30GB and up types to make it their primary iPod.  If they come out with a widescreen touch iPod at Christmas, I might be interested.
  
• Wifi - speed was great here for browsing - the transparent connection recongnition was cool.
• Photo app - awesome...coupled with the screen it was an beautiful experience.
• Phone app - excellent implementation
  

Cons 

• Typing - man, I hear people get used to it, but this really sucked for me.  I found accuracy difficult and the keys really tight.
• PIM apps and e-mail - if you are looking for a business productivity device, I think others do it better.  This may be due to learning the user interface.  Getting through contacts was fun with the flick-scroll, but not the most efficient.
  
• AT&T edge - connecting to YouTube on wireless was painfully slow...web was very lethargic as well. I still cannot believe they went with EDGE.
  
• Price - looking at 600 for the device, and another 1400+ for the crappy AT&T service for two years.  2000 bucks? Wow - I save money to buy computer stuff, but that is a lot of quan.

Overall, for those who are looking for a consumer device, who want to unite phone, internet stuff and iPod, this is definitely the way to go. If I decide I do not want to do e-mail outside of my laptop (I have stayed away from e-mail in my hand on purpose so far) - I may look into getting iPhone (though I just hate the AT&T exclusive deal).

But if your main purpose is to combine a productivity tool with your phone expect to be hammering e-mail, heavy SMS (no MMS on iPhone btw), working with office stuff you will probably want to stay in the Treo, Windows Mobile, Blackberry world...

Finally, just to prove that Apple people are a member of a cult, see David Pogues iPhone vid - weird.