Apple's iPhone: The Future is Here
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 2, 2007 6:13 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
The iPhone email client is one of the best applications on the device for the same reasons that the iPhone itself is impressive: it's fast and it just works.
ITunes will automatically sync your email accounts from Mail or Outlook, or you can add email accounts manually to the iPhone. Just about any POP/IMAP account will work, provided that you supply the account credentials. I setup my AnandTech email address as well as my gmail and Yahoo mail accounts.
With your email accounts configured, the iPhone can check them every 15, 30 or 60 minutes automatically. Apple desperately needs support for free push email; while the iPhone supports Yahoo push mail, it appears that you have to pay a $3/month fee to enable push support on your Yahoo mail account. If Apple can bring push Gmail support to the iPhone, I'd be happy.
Email on the iPhone is geared towards keeping up with your messages while you're away from your computer, and as such there's absolutely no search functionality. By default, the client only shows you the last 50 messages in your inbox; if you want to see more, simply flick your finger up the screen until you reach the end of the messages and ask the application to load the next 50 (this number is configurable up to 200).
As a device designed to fill the gap between when you're using your desktop and your laptop, the iPhone succeeds in handling email. While downloading email the interface does slow down slightly, but even with an inbox full of 200 messages navigating and reading email is as intuitive as it could be.
The iPhone's screen comes in handy when viewing emails, text is sharp and clear; mobile email never looked so good before.
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michael2k - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
Except of course for the keyboard.If he unveiled the thing, it would have to be as a small laptop.
edwinder - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
Anand, I never got through your iPhone review...because everything I read is basically Blackberry this, Blackberry that. Just so that you know, not all your readers like/own/used Blackberries, and have found other replacements that suit us more besides a Blackberry (i.e E61). Yes, I know you love your BB's, but hope you can rename your article to reflect the review that you wrote. Nothing wrong with it... but reading your article gave me no basis of which to refer to, hence stopped reading it after a few pages.aGoGo - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
Exactly,I used BB 8700, 8100, 8300 and 8800.. all of them suck, i have to admit that the RIM makes the best "stupid-proof" devices, that can enable you connect to your work email through BES, other than that, every single feature sucks.
I'm using the Imate Jasjar (HTC Universal) and it can do every single thing the iPhone can do, without the cute looking UI, people wanna use things, not look at them, how many of you are still using Aero glass and DreamScene? Every single person disabled them after one week.
r33tr33t - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link
You can catch bits of Anand's gigantic house as well as his face reflected back in the metallic part of some of the iPhone photos.plinden - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Actually, http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html">here, Apple does claim "up to 6 hours" internet time, so what you're seeing is in line with Apple's claims.
Yes, I do like my Apple products (3 Macs and two iPods) but I've always taken the battery life claims with a large pinch of salt.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
I know exactly what you're saying; battery life on the MacBook Pro is no where near Apple's 6-hour claims; I'd be lucky to get 2.5 hours of real work on mine.Thanks for the correction, I too was shocked to see it actually lasted 6 hours on WiFi. I'm doing some more tests now looking closer at its battery life, so you may see a follow-up article in the near future.
Take care,
Anand
strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Looks nice, but too big for me. If they can build one around something more like a 2.25" screen that would be sweet.Also on the next to last page there is a picture missing of the screen you get to unlock the phone.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Agreed. An iPhone mini could be very interesting but I'm not sure how the keyboard would work out. And I've added the missing image, thanks for the heads up :)Take care,
Anand
Drumsticks - Wednesday, January 7, 2015 - link
I had to go through this review for a paper I was writing for school, and I came across this comment. In 2015... how times have changed :)aGoGo - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
Blackberry Curve and Blackjack?there are better phones to use, how about the HTC Universal? Nokia N95? SE P990i? HTC Athena?
I really don't know how much this damn thing is gonna cost if it's unlocked? $1000?