AppleInsider | Print: NYT's David Pogue: 'AT&T’s EDGE network is excruciatingly slow'

View this article at: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/06/26/nyts_david_pogue_atts_edge_network_is_excruciatingly_slow.html
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 @ 8:00pm

NYT's David Pogue: 'AT&T’s EDGE network is excruciatingly slow'

iPhone "does things no phone has ever done before" but also "lacks features found even on the most basic phones," writes the New York Times' David Pogue, who was one of several journalist to publish an official review of the first Apple handset on Tuesday.

"The phone is so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese," he wrote. "The glass gets smudgy—a sleeve wipes it clean—but it doesn’t scratch easily. I’ve walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there’s not a mark on it."

However, the bigger achievement, according to the technology columnist, is the handset's embedded version of Mac OS X. "It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate. You can’t get lost, because the solitary physical button below the screen always opens the Home page, arrayed with icons for the iPhone’s 16 functions."

Excerpts and points of particular interest from the review have been compiled below, though readers are encouraged to check out David's full blown review, which was compiled after using a production quality iPhone for approximately two weeks.

Points of interest

Making a call can take as many as six steps.

"Call quality is only average, and depends on the strength of your AT&T signal."

"If Verizon’s slogan is, 'Can you hear me now?' AT&T’s should be, 'I’m losing you.'" According to Consumer Reports, AT&T’s signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities.

AT&T’s ancient EDGE cellular network is excruciatingly slow. In Pogue's tests, The New York Times’s home page took 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo, two minutes. "You almost ache for a dial-up modem."

"E-mail is fantastic."

"The Web browser [...] is the real dazzler."

In regards to Maps: "the iPhone doesn’t actually know where you are -- so you tap the screen when you’re ready for the next driving instruction."

"Free live traffic reporting, indicated by color-coded roads on the map."

Battery life: Pogue got 5 hours playing video and 23 hours playing audio (with Wi-Fi enabled, which against Apple's recommendation).

"In practice, you’ll probably wind up recharging about every other day."

"There’s no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing."

"The browser can’t handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos."

"The two-megapixel camera takes great photos, provided the subject is motionless and well lighted." It can’t capture video and you can’t send picture messages (called MMS) to other cellphones.

"Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first." Once you "trust" the smart correction software "speed and accuracy pick up considerably."

"Even so... The BlackBerry won’t be going away anytime soon."

Pogue encountered "a couple of tiny bugs and one freeze" during his tests but hopes Apple's promised software updates will improve on the software quality.

"A future iPhone model will be able to exploit AT&T’s newer, much faster data network, which is now available in 160 cities."

"But even in version 1.0, the iPhone is still the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years. It does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles."

Read David's review in full over at The New York Times.

In addition, the Times offers a video review and a slideshow of photos taken with iPhone.