[Bearxor]

I'm going to throw my .02 in here, even though this is an extremely long thread already.

I've been using WinMo devices since the Toshiba 2032SP. My last device was the Treo 700wx.

Let me just start out by saying that I very much dislike side-sliders. Like, a lot. When my PPC-6600 died, Sprint replaced it with a 6700 and it was, by far, the worst device I had used, ever. That's neither here nor there. Suffice it to say that even though I got Sprint to replace my 6700 with a 700wx, I have also tried a Mogul and I do currently own a Tilt that I swap my SIM card out to every so often, now that I've moved off of Sprint on to AT&T (I guess you know where this post is going by that, lol).

So, next up, let me also say that I very much dislike HTC devices. This was a slow realization, mainly coming from the fact that besides the very early players that dropped out quickly in the NA market (Toshiba, Hitachi), HTC was pretty much the only game in town. HTC devices never live up to what they should be. They're always buggy and of poor build quality. They require constant attention and tweaking. That's why forums like this exist, to basically prop up HTC devices.

I keep wondering when the end-users are going to stop buying HTC devices. Every release is exactly the same. High expectations with eventual disappointment and the resignation that 'it's just the way it is'. That's why I loved my Treo 700wx so much and why a HTC phone wasn't even on my 'possibility' list to upgrade, only the Treo 800w.

Then, the iPhone 3G was announced. It wasn't even the 3G part that caught me, it was the 2.0 software. I had often looked at the iPhone and told myself 'It's neat, but I really need it on Sprint and it really needs Exchange support. 2.0 fixed the Exchange complaint and the promise of future software updates really intrigued me. While I resisted, on July 13th I ended up waking up really early to head to the Apple store to stand in line for a 8GB black iPhone. One day after my birthday, too.

Let me just say that it is the slickest device I have ever laid my hands on. Nice and smooth, really thin with a nice big screen. One trend in the Windows Mobile space that I have not been a big fan of is 2.8" screens. My first three phones had full-size 3.5" screens ad moving to the 2.5" on the Treo was a major bummer. I've always used my phones for some multi-media video streaming, and the smaller screens always irritated me.

I was a little hesitant about the touch interface, having never liked touching my screen on other devices, but it works really well on the iPhone. I wouldn't say the interface is amazing, though. I would really prefer having everything limited to one screen on the main menu rather than having to flip through pages. I know there's some jailbreak apps that let you put applications in to folders and I've tried a jailbreak a couple of times and have always went back to stock because the phone seems so unstable afterwards. Often times, I find myself flicking through pages trying to find the app I want. 12 icons per page just aren't enough. I would just prefer to have everything on one page, even if it means tapping a couple of extra times to navigate a 'start menu' like interface.

I'm really irritated by Apple's lack of push notifications so far. This was promised to be delivered this year and it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I'm sure they're working on it, but AIM is basically a useless app without it. I still get my IM's when I'm offline via text message, just like I have been for the past 5 years, but it would be nice to get them in the AIM app.

The keyboard takes some getting used to. It's not VERY inaccurate, but it is fairly inaccurate. I do miss physical keys. They 'key' to being a good typist on the iPhone is to rely on the auto-correct software to fix your mistakes and then re-read it when you're done typing. If you do that, I find that I'm a faster typer on the iphone than on the Treo or Tilt.

The phone can be kind of laggy sometimes. Often, tapping an application to launch it will result in a 15-20 second wait while it launches. The delay for the SMS app is simply unacceptable. I don't have a problem from the other main apps like Phone, Mail and Safari, but the SMS app takes a good 30 seconds sometimes before it comes up.

Keyboard lag is also unacceptable. Often times, clicking in a text box will result in a significant delay as the iPhone seems to struggle to bring up the keyboard. Having said that, it's not any more of a delay than sliding the keyboard open on a HTC device and waiting for the screen rotation would take. It's just very pronounced because you're doing nothing while waiting for that keyboard. Sometimes, on the Treo, there would be a delay in my typing before it appeared on the screen, but at least it would catch up. You can't do that on the iPhone, because you can't type until the phone gets around to displaying the keyboard.

The inability to customize the new mail sound is unacceptable. It is an extremely low-sounding notification to begin with, even at full volume. The mail app, on the other hand, is very nice. Hardly have any problems out of it.

The phone app is also very nice. Bringing up the dialpad give you a nice, large dial surface with no lag between hitting a number and having it display on the screen with a nice satisfying 'button sound'. This has long been a complaint on WinMo device, though Palm fixed it by essentially eliminating the default WinMo phone app. The favorites are nice, and a quick double-tap of the home button will bring you straight to it, as long as no music is playing.

The silent switch is nice. It silences everything except alarms. Alarms have to be manually set by you, so it's not a big deal. On my Treo, I would often silence it while browsing the web at night and forget to flip the switch back and then not wake up in the morning because of it. The alarms will go off on the iPhone. Also, even if the silent switch is flipped, the iPhone will play anything you start manually, like music, movies or games Also very nice.

I wish I could add codecs to the iPhone to play divx or xvid files, but that's not a deal breaker for me. I wish I didn't have to use iTunes for file management. I'd like to just copy my files to a directory and manage it myself, thanks, but I understand the majority of regular users are simply going to just want to sync their music over.

There's no AT&T 3G service in my area, but it's not AT&T's fault. The towers are maintained by a local Telco, not AT&T, so it's their fault. Having said that, the EDGE speeds aren't bad, they can be quite decent. But when they're bad, they are bad, like in places with poor signal. i do wish I was still on Sprint sometimes, but it's not overwhelming. Especially since I can get service in my house now. The iPhone is also very good at intelligently switching between WiFi and cellular when it can. I'm pretty impressed by it, honestly.

Safari is simply INCREDIBLE. I don't think any other mobile browser can even compare. Lack of Flash/Java is a sticking point for some though. Honestly, the site I visited most often with Flash was Youtube, but it do run in to it every now and again. I'm hoping Apple will look at adding the newer version of Flash Mobile in the iPhone, but honestly, even on OS X the Flash implementation isn't that great.

Software updates. This is a biggie over WinMo, at least currently. Apple has been very good at releasing software updates on a regular basis to fix bugs and add new features. Not only that, but they're not leaving the old hardware out. If you bought an iPhone in 2007, it has the exact same operating system as a 2008 iPhone. the 2007 iPhone will have the exact same OS as the 2009 or 2010 iPhone. Not only that, but these upgrades are free. Unlike WinMo devices where, very often, you're stuck with the OS it came with unless you start to delve in to the ROM scene and then, at best, it's not supported by either the manufacturer or the carrier, at worst, it's piracy.

The App Store is a huge leg up over WinMo devices. Very easy to browse and navigate, a huge collection of useful and free apps, all right there on the phone the moment you take it out of the box. It's a model for things to come.

I don't like how the phone basically seems to want to force you to sync it to your computer. Since getting an Exchange account in 2004, I hadn't synced my devices to a computer. I tried to keep up on the iPhone, but it hasn't been synced in well over a month now. As such, there's been no new content like podcasts, but 2.2 is adding wireless podcast downloading so that will largely fix a major complaint I have.

I've probably rambles on for far too long now. Suffice it to say, that as a long-time WinMo user, I'm pretty happy with the iPhone and I look forward to seeing what they can do in the future through software upgrades.

Can it do EVERYTHING a WinMo device can? No. Unless you're doing something really weird with your device though, the iPhone should be able to do everything you throw at it, or will in the future. It's not right for everyone, but it's certainly worth a look. I feel like you really have to use it before you can decide. Not just go in to the store and mess around with it for a few minutes, but really use it as your main device for a month. It's the same thing with the Treo. On paper, it looks like an inferior phone, but in practice, it was far superior to any WinMo device available, especially in usability. The same goes for the iPhone in this case.