Nov 28, 2010 11:46 AM
4758 Views
I purchased the iPhone 3gs with OS version 3.1.3 from an Airtel store. Absolutely impressive phone as far as the build quality, touchscreen and look and feel is concerned. NO phone even comes close. I have seen the recent Samsung Galaxy S, but it has a kinda plasticky feel to it. Doesn't feel solid in the palm of the hand.
Having used this phone for a year now, here are the downsides:
Camera does not have a flash. This is a serious impediment if you plan on taking photos indoors or in low light like in a restaurant.
Camera does not have dedicated shutter button. Difficult to take self portraits since the button we need to click is on the touchscreen.
Cannot select multiple contacts and delete. This is the most irritating feature that is missing. I HAVE UPGRADED the OS to 4.2.1(LATEST as of Nov 28th 2010) and this feature is absent. Makes it a pain to remove unwanted contacts.
Applications are plenty, but many of them are useless and the rest of them are NOT FREE. The flashlight app sucks the most coz its just not bright enough.
Tied down to iTunes - this is the MOST HORRIBLE thing about all the i* products(apple). It would be great if there was a USB mass storage mode to upload/download songs and manage software.
BLUETOOTH SUCKS - cannot even send contacts or images, etc. to another bluetooth phone. This is a SERIOUS limitation and in my opinion, makes the iPhone quite useless and isolated as far as connectivity is concerned.
Cannot easily upload custom ringtones. You need to screw around in iTunes and break the MP3 to create the ringtone.
Phone is not that loud. Many times, it is quite easy to miss the ring(in heavy traffic) and the vibration. Also, the speakerphone is not loud enough.
WEIRD QUIRK - sometimes during the day, the EDGE symbol just disappears. When this happens, the internet connection GPRS is not available. The only way to re-enable this is by RESETTING the NETWORK settings. DON'T know why this happens, but is very annoying. This started happening ONLY AFTER I upgraded from 3.1.3 to IOS 4.0
It also takes VERY LONG to get to the "signal" from the "Searching." mode. As in, when the network is dropped, say while in an elevator, it takes too long to get back into the signal mode.
SMSes that could NOT be sent because there was no signal ARE NOT RETRIED automatically. An exclamation mark is displayed next to the message you have to retry manually.
CALENDAR reminders are USELESS. The sound cannot be changed and it is too feeble. There is no option to snooze or reschedule the reminder. Once the reminder has passed and you didn't open it, it does NOT show up on the front screen and DOES NOT give any indication that you have missed a reminder.
BATTERY needs to be charged every day. Especially when using EDGE or MAPS.
That being said, the GPS on this device is FANTASTIC. It locks on really fast, does not lose the GPS lock and I have used this phone on my trips to Mysore, Coorg, etc. It uses Google Maps and I even use them to get around and find shortcuts within the City. Very Very Useful and it actually works.
Android phones from HTC and Samsung beat the iPhone in all the above respects, especially the freedom that they offer by not being tied down to the product like iTunes which is very quirky and is further bound to the computer on which it is installed.
