Mossberg: iPhone “a beautiful and breakthrough” device

In recent years, one or the other of the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg and the New York Times’ David Pogue has been able to proclaim the reviewer’s equivalent of “First comment!” for new Apple products. This time is no different, as both have just posted their reviews. First, Walt and his co-columnist Katherine Boehret. The pair have been testing the device “for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country.” The verdict?

Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.

Overall, the review offers plenty of superlatives about Web browsing, email, synchronization, screen quality, memory, battery life, and much more. And what about the omission of a tactile keyboard?

The iPhone’s most controversial feature, the omission of a physical keyboard in favor of a virtual keyboard on the screen, turned out in our tests to be a nonissue, despite our deep initial skepticism. After five days of use, Walt — who did most of the testing for this review — was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years.

They even — *gasp* — praised the iPhone’s battery life and its ability to resist scratches.

On the other hand, there were some downsides. Most notably, that the phone is AT&T-only and, even then, can’t use AT&T’s 3G network when available. And the duo discovered some iPod-accessory incompatibilities:

The headphone jack, which supports both stereo music and phone calls, is deeply recessed, so you may need an adapter for existing headphones. And, while the iPhone uses the standard iPod port on the bottom edge, it doesn’t recognize all car adapters for playing music, only for charging. Apple is considering a software update to fix this.

Notable “missing features” include instant messaging, video recording, Flash, and the ability to use music files as ringtones.

One other comment that will likely be misinterpreted around the Web:

It can also handle corporate email using Microsoft’s Exchange system, if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server.

My guess is that this doesn’t mean Apple has quietly slipped Exchange support into the iPhone; rather, the “setting on the server” refers to IMAP.

Check out the full review for all the details. And Walt’s video is below:

Category: Reviews

Posted by Dan Frakes on Jun 26 2007, 7:14 PM ET

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