Should I get an iPhone 2.0?

[buffcoat]

I know it's early.  And the pre-release reviews haven't even come out.  But I need something to get my email on (we use Microsoft Exchange, which iPhone 2.0 supports), and I don't want to go all the way to a bulky smartphone.

Plus it looks cool.  And AT&T supposedly will pay for me to get out of my contract with Sprint.

Music on the phone is not important to me (I have an iPod for the car and an iShuffle for travel).  I like the idea of GPS-enabled maps.  I like the idea of being able to view Word/PowerPoint/Excel docs, too.  I've loved the aforementioned Apple products.

My primary fears are that AT&T won't provide as good coverage as Sprint here (I checked out a site that had people in different regions rate their cell performance - every carrier had multiple 1s and 5s, sometimes from people close to the same place, it was absolutely useless).  And also I understand that iPhone 1.0 was not a great phone at all in terms of call quality etc.  Also whether the display-only keys will annoy me when I try to dial in the car.

Anyway, I was wondering about people's initial thoughts on 2.0 plus their iPhone 1.0 experiences.  I will post more as we get closer to July 11.


PS I'm also considering the Samsung Instinct (I could stick with Sprint and it has actual physical feedback when you hit a key; downside is the browser supposedly sucks and doesn't have real connectivity with MS Exchange).

[yesno]

apple day here at fot hq.

The monthly data fee is high, $30 for 3g. Also, at&t does suck in some places-- coverage is a variable thing from place to place though.

For exchange your company needs to turn on active sync, I think. At least for push.

It kind of is nice to use one gadget at all purpose communicator, iPod and shifty camera. But some people I know who keep a paper calendar etc, I told them not to bother.

Newsgator for iPhone rules, by the way.

[Gilly]

You don't have to pay data fees with an iTouch and you can access your email on it as long as you are in an open wireless network. That's the hitch but if you are always in a wireless network (for example Mpls. has citywide wifi) there's no need to pay the outrageous fees for an iPhone. I wouldn't buy an iPhone until they give customers a choice of provider.

[yesno]

If you don't want 3G or GPS, buy one of the first iPhones off eBay contract free, and you can jailbreak it to run on any provider.  The software will be the same, as well as the Exchange support.

Although you make it up in monthly payments, the iPhone is now "cheaper" than the iPod touch.

I gave up trying to be free of carriers a while ago; I'm always locked in to one or the other and to switch to AT&T from T-Mobile I ended up paying $200.   Maybe I'll get some of that back as a result of one of the class actions that's going on.  Number portability helps in switching carriers-- I've had the same phone number at three now, and I intend to keep it even though I haven't lived in that area code since 2005.

For some reason, it's really easy to convince people to get something "free" today in exchange for their agreeing to some ridiculous contract.  Just like people would rather buy crappy stuff at WalMart that breaks and will have to be replaced and ends up costing more, than invest in good stuff up front.  People love nothing more than screwing themselves down the line.

Or you can wait for an Android phone.

[bookem_dan-o]

Aside from everything else that makes the Jesus Phone awesome to own, one of the best things about it is being able to listen to WFMU live via streaming when I'm out and about and not near a computer.

If you plan to use the features that make the iPhone great (IOW, pretty much everything--except the camera, maybe), and you don't already own a first generation iPhone, buying the iPhone 3G is an absolute no brainer. People are making a big to-do about the fact that the drastically "lower" price on the 3G is a scam, because AT&T makes 3G owners pay $10 more per month for unlimited data, but if you have enough income that you can even consider buying something like an iPhone, this really is a non-issue. The value you get from using it is more than worth it, esp. now that it has GPS on it.

I was one of those nerdly "early adopters" of iPhone 1.0 (although I was not so nerdly as to camp out in front of my local Apple store) that paid $600 for the 8GB iPhone, and even though it annoyed me that Mr. Jobs cut $200 from the price a few months later, I have never regretted my purchase. I am a HEAVY podcast listener, RSS reader (Google Reader on the iPhone is awesome), and Twitter user, and I'm so glad I dont have to carry around an iPod AND a phone anymore. And the wierd thing is that I had NEVER used text messaging until I got an iPhone, simply because I never knew how to use it on any other phone I've owned.

The new features of iPhone 2.0 pretty much eliminate any of the reasons why you previously may have held off on buying an iPhone...besides, of course, the stigma of being one of those douchebag, public-finger-swiping iPhone owners (alhough you can always spot a veteran iPhone user...they only use thier thumbs to control the screen. Newbies do the index finger thing)

[bookem_dan-o]

As far as call quality is concerned, I have no issues with my iPhone in terms of that. Nobody has ever complained that my sound quality stunk, nor have I had any issues with others sounding awful.

Unless you're listening to a Steely Dan record over the cellular voice network, you're not gonna notice a difference in quality that really matters.

[buffcoat]

As far as call quality is concerned, I have no issues with my iPhone in terms of that. Nobody has ever complained that my sound quality stunk, nor have I had any issues with others sounding awful.

Unless you're listening to a Steely Dan record over the cellular voice network, you're not gonna notice a difference in quality that really matters.

I only listen to those special gold CDs.