Following-up my post on iPhone 3G which certainly was flawed in some ways, I managed to get access to iPhone 3G for 48 hours. I will write what I encountered during the usage with iPhone. (PracticalLife)
SingTel recently made an offer that would make an appeal to ‘resistant’ potential customers. As we know that uptake for iPhone is quite not as-fantastic. This is apparent from the availaibility of iPhone which never had any kind of ’sold-out’ situation and the fact that SingTel has been very agressive in lowering the prices and matching future competitiors price plans if they are lower.
In previous post, SingTel offered to match any future iPhone plan by Starhub or M1 if they are better until end of thi year. On that follow-up, SingTel dropped the price of iPhone by S$ 200 and provided 2-months free subscription when a customer port-in their number from Starhub or M1 to SingTel’s.The offer that should run only one week and “will not be extended/repeated” turns out to be extended. The last run was on 10th October. All these signs imply that they are really getting all the customers they can before StarHub or M1 launched their iPhone plan (which can be very soon).
Nevertheless, I managed to get an iPhone 3G and may be I was fortunate. I did not see any dead pixels, yellowish screen or dent in my unit. It can also be that I’m not as fussy as the other early users. Another possibility is that I have the latest batch started with 888. This batch seems to have better probability of getting a good unit. So make sure you get unit equal or newer than 888 prefix even in M1 or Starhub in the future.
Let me start with the good things about iPhone:
- Apple bring its innovative charactiristic to iPhone. The user interface is really appealing and revolutionary. Think about it, Microsoft PocketPC then Windows Mobile has been around long time before Iphone does and it never match the UI iPhone offers. Apple does get it right when it comes to user interface.
- It is simple with only a ‘home button’ to return to main screen. All other operations are basically done throughout the generously sized touch screen.
- It has a pair of decent speakers to listen to music. Definitely a plus compared to iPod touch or iPods.
The main reason to buy an iPhone would be the User Interface and to combine the iPod with a phone. I owned many Nokia phones before, it has a great software but when it comes to music player, iPod still have a slight edge over it. iTunes software is also a plus, one software to manage all iPhone, ipod Touch, iPod. it is a double edged sword though, as you’ll see shortly.
What’s not so-good about iPhone
- Battery life is really pathetic (I hope I could use a stronger word). On a full charge, it lasted less than a half day (3-4 hours) when used with a short phone calls and intensive data usage e.g. browsing, installing application from app-store. This is a phone that you can not rely on in daily use. Think about it, you bring the iphone outside and before you can recharge, it went flat and you have a dead iPhone that needs to be recharged. Where does that leave you? To aggravate this, the battery is non-removable, means you can buy spare batteries and install them when needed. Even for my Nokia phones, I have at least one spare battery and these phones at least lasted 8 hours on intensitve data usage. I am using the latest software that promises better battery life, so I dare not imagine what it was before the patch.
- It gets warms quickly when 3G or Wireless lan is used. The warmer it get, the more power it uses to power on the usage.
- Only one application can run at a given time. You can not open few applications at the same time, you’d need to “close” it before opening other application. Despite the issue, some applications remember when you close it.
- There is not ‘calibration’ feature for finger tap. I found that I need to tap on the right side of each alphabet in ‘virtual keypad’ to get the right one. It would be wonderful to have a calibration so that I tap on the angle that I’m used to.
- The menu sometime is counter-intuitive. You’d see choosing a network carrier is put on two different menu then the Access point definition, etc. There could be better groupings in System setting panel.
- When i travel to Bangkok, I found out that the phone was unable to make/receive any voice call, even it has a full strength signal. It took a few restarted and 30 minutes to get it to roam correctly. Simply put, iPhone had dropped 3G calls and problems with basic phone functionality. So in this kind of roaming/uncommon situation, it may not perform reliably.
Common problem with iPod Touch, Iphone and iPhone:
- Grossly overpriced accessories. A US$ 28 for a silicon skin for your iPhone/iPod/Ipod Touch, additional $10-30 for a screen protector, $40 for a multiple plughead for different countries, $20 for a USB cable. All these prices do not make sense at all.
- Inferior material. For some reason, Apple has not really chose a good raw material for the exterior casing. If you buy a iPod touch, you’ll see the beautiful glossy backcover can easily be scratched even with a dust being wiped on the surface or may be by nails. With this, users are indirectly forced to purchase accessorices that usually comes into two parts: Screen protectors and body covers. The combination of these costs about USD $ 40 onwards for a reasonable quality and we are not talking about the premium ones.
- iTunes. It has plenty of error messages that misled the real issues e.g. update your payment profile, etc. We can only sync devices to 1 computers, which is really doesn’t make sense. I have my contacts in my business PC but all my music in my personal PC. iTunes doesn’t allow me to do this. It asked me to erase and sync to one of the pc.
Conclusion
If you’re an early adopter, get the iPhone and experience the revolutionary user interface, but don’t expect this to be your primary phone. The battery life just can’t make it for full day, unless you have access to laptops or power source to recharge your phone every few hours or so.
The limitation of running a few application on the same time is also ‘annoying’.
Tags: battery, iphone 3g, itunes, limitation, problems
Saturday, 29 November 2008 at 15:00 |
Re: internet subscription(I am referring to your Post “Singtel and Starhub”)
Hi,
I saw your post on Singtel and Starhub and I would say it is really a very practical perspective and very wonderfully useful to average joe like me who is planning to sign up for an internet service and hesitating between the big three: Singtel, Starhub and M1.
I am currently a M1 Vodafone Broadband user(7.2Mbps/512kbps), yet I am very very pissed off by its frequent and unstable connection. Plus I only need internet at home, so I dont really need that much of mobility which is much featured by M1. As a result of, I decided to change my internet subscription. While I dont think I use internet very often, I do like watch videos on Youtube and watching news online. Therefore, I wish to subscribe to an internet service that provides stable and smooth streaming and network at home.
Can I have some idea from you? What kind of plan do you think I should subscribe to? I am staying in the west of singapore, location makes any difference?
Look forward to hearing from u.
Thursday, 8 January 2009 at 10:27 |
I’m pretty impressed with Starhub’s Mobile internet. They are the first to offer fastest bandwidth and my experience with their low-1Mbits plan is really positive. Reading from last week Digital LIfe from Straits Times, the editor wrote that all three operators are about the same but preferred more Starhub and SingTel (if I recall correctly).