iNotsmartphone or why I don't like the iPhone
Wow...
That was my first reaction when Apple released the iPhone on Tuesday. What a beautiful phone, what a beautiful interface. Sooo cool technically... wait...
The interface is cool, but not very convenient - at least for a phone. The tactile feedback of REAL keys is unbeatable wherever I can not focus on the phone completely. So the interface is great in the office, but not in my car, when sending SMS messages in a bar, when waiting for the bus. I can live with that because of the additional features of a smartphone. But is the iPhone a smartphone? I say no. It does not have a single important feature (yet) my beloved K800i does not have - it even lacks in some very important areas. The worst of which is It does NOT support 3rd party software WTF? That's such a huge blow that I'm totally puzzled by it. My K800 supports Java games and Applications and it does it well. I can play Backgammon on the train, lookup bus schedules or even edit small spreadsheets with that small NON SMARTPHONE.
The K800 can play MP3s (it even has a nice iPod like interface for that), show pictures (even on a TV - over bluetooth), has a 3 Megapixels camera with auto focus and a real flash. It can read RSS feeds and has a very nice built-in browser plus Opera Micro. The K800 does PUSH-Email and it's a lot of fun to use. Except for the better camera on the K800 and the (assumed) better browser on the iPhone it's a tie in these areas.
The iPhone has voice mail caller ID, some useless sensors and the nicer interface. That's where it wins. (I get like one message on my voicemail a week and get an SMS which tells me who left the message)
The K800 supports themes, has a built-in IM client (plus a lot of J2ME IM clients). I can write my own software for it with a free Dev-Kit, It can remote-control my mac without additional software, it has a built-in radio and a memory-stick slot. It wins in these areas.
The price is the worst thing about the iPhone. How can a phone with a limited feature-set cost $499 (that's the small 4GB version) with a two years contract? My K800 was € 39 (~$ 50) also with a two years contract (today it's free) - it's not sim-locked and works with every GSM provider in the world. NICE.
That's it. You can start flaming me now.
by Stefan LH