[3GScottishUser]

CNET has published the following about the iconic iPhone:

That's right, we said it -- and we're not taking it back. The iPhone may be the greatest handheld surfing device ever to rock the mobile Web, and a fabulous media player to boot. It may be the highest-rated mobile phone on CNET UK, rocking the pockets of half of our crack editorial team. It's certainly the touchscreen face that launched a thousand apps. But as an actual call-making phone, it's rubbish, and we aim to prove it.

Say what? iPhone call quality is bad

Call quality on the iPhone is pathetic, and it's mostly because of the tiny speaker. It has to be aligned with your ear canal with the accuracy of a laser-guided ninja doing cataract surgery, or else the volume cuts down to nothing as the sound waves bounce uselessly around your ear shells.

The earbud headphones that come with the iPhone include a hands-free microphone, but they're tinny and as weak as a kitten, with no sound-isolating rubber nubs. Rumour has it Steve Jobs is hard of hearing and Apple has been criticised for making iPods too loud. We don't want music players blasting the hearing of future generations into fleshy tatters, but we could use some of that power in our iPhones' speakers.

The microphone is similarly craptastic, letting in all and sundry sounds to pollute your important calls, from fire alarms to passing unlicensed mopeds. Thank heavens the 3.0 version of the iPhone's software supports Bluetooth, so we can get our headset on and make some calls.

Full Article: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49303754,00.htm

[Hands0n]

Is one to take it that CNet are getting that desperate for ratings?

What a load of old codswallop!

[Ben]

Lmao. 3GSU. No. There are no problems with call quality on the iPhone.

Shame on CNET.

[miffed]

LOL ! :D

Not a shred of truth in it , I can go to my junk drawer and pull out a dozen (high end) phones with worse call quality

Seems everyone is SO DESPERATE to discredit the iPhone these days that they make straw clutching bafoons of themselves

OK cNet , If you want to believe that iPhones suffer from "the worst" call quality in the world , then you get on with it :D:D:D:D

[3g-g]

Clutching at straws me thinks!

However, if you want to get your website noticed alongside the most iconic handset ever, IMO, then think of something pathetic to slate it about (the size of the earpiece speaker!? I mean, come on!) and Robert's your Dads brother, your hit count goes through the roof.

On the flip side, you show yourself up to be completely useless at reviewing anything with a shred of neutrality! Morons!

[3GScottishUser]

Yikes...that review has not been well recieved.

CNET are generally a well respected source of technology information and I thought it was worthwhile highlighting this article having seen it displayed on Google's news website.

You iPhone users are best placed to relate to the comments made.

A very damming article that would put me off buying into the iPhone experience if I was in the market for a new smartphone.

[Hands0n]

A very damming article that would put me off buying into the iPhone experience if I was in the market for a new smartphone.

The article is so completely and incoherently wrong!

Thus the current trend for people to walk down the street with their phones on hands-free, yelling into the mic at the bottom while they hold the rest of the phone away from their faces.
This is the babblings of a maniac. I have never, ever, seen anyone do this. It defies all logic. There is nothing wrong with the handsets earpiece, unless the author suffers the deformities of the Elephant Man himself.

The rantings on battery life are ridiculous - all smartphones suffer lower battery life, that is a simple fact. The author waxes lyrical about how previously a handset battery would last a week. Yes, well those kind of handsets are still available, usually for around £12 from the Tesco PAYG counter. But there is not an equivalent smartphone in the land that will outlast the iPhone battery - they are all of the same, consuming the same energy per feature/facility switched on.


You can't answer if it doesn't ring
Perhaps the worst of the iPhone's problems is its ability to sit there stealthily and ignore incoming calls. With no ring or vibrate to clue you in, your friends and family are redirected to voicemail... or just treated to silence. If you're in a two-iPhone family, it can be a case of the deaf leading the mute.
O2's 3G network is a classic case of under-investment - which is why O2 are very belatedly spending £100M over the next 24 months to further increase its 3G coverage. O2 have the lowest dispersal of 3G than any of its four rivals in the UK. Not only that, but the 3G that they do have is very problematic. The fault for this is, in the article, laid firmly at Apple's door? How on earth do they expect to be read seriously when making such a huge gaffe?

Other commentators seem to not agree with the author ...


I must have a different iPhone to the one you describe! Mine is the best phone I've ever owned. No dropped calls, no problems hearing calls (I'm half deaf in my phone ear too),

And rather tellingly ...

I don't think the problem lies with the iPhone, but more the UK o2 network. I use my iPhone on o2 (DE) in Germany for 9 months of the year and never have any problems. For 3 months of the year I use it with my o2 UK sim and often have poor network coverage.
The UK networks should catch up with there European partners.

And then to question the author's credentials ...

Flora - bit disappointed by your complete U-turn here. In March you blogged:

"I haven't been so happy with a phone since my Nokia 8210 in 1999"

"And unlike other touchscreen phones I've owned, it can actually make a phone call, quickly and easily"

"I thought the iPhone would be another on a long list of overhyped, overpriced Apple disappointments. But now I've joined the pod people"

Were you wrong or naive in March? What changed?

No, I reckon I was right first time - the article is worthless drivel - it is a first degree Troll.

[3GScottishUser]

What is interesting is that the iPhone has not made into the mainstream.

It's done exceptionally well but it's not a handset I see young people usuing.

I see plenty of educated professionals with them but thats about it.

I think it's a market shaking product but thanks to Apple's greed it will be short lived and others will provide a similar and better user experience without the networks having to share their revenues.

The iPhone is another Apple oportunistic thing thats not likely to be sustainable.

[Hands0n]

Not mainstream? That may well be an entirely parochial view, but it is no reflection of what I see as I mooch around London and the South East - and repeated across Europe!

"...Apple's greed" ... oh come on, what is meant by that? In what way are Apple greedy? I have checked several times and cannot see Apple registered at the Charities Commission. The last time I looked Apple were a regular American business corporation. Why does Apple get singled out for being greedy and no other manufacturer? The price of success or fame is often to bring on the critical attention of some who would deny them that right.

As a going concern, it is Apples duty to its staff and its shareholders to enrich itself to survive financial recessions, as Apple has done successfully. What point would there be in Apple trading a minimal margins and go belly up at the first financial jitter?

And what of Microsoft that created the richest individual on the planet? Was that not greed by any definition of the word? Why does anyone need to be the richest individual?

In three years the iPhone is going as strong today as it has been since day one. It is still considered iconic, it still sets the bar for others to attain to.

Sustainable? There is no serious competition on the horizon - and no doubt when one appears Apple will be quite well positioned to up their own game. It would be a serious underestimation to believe otherwise.

The benefit of all of this is that the whole industry has been shaken out of its complacency. Android is a very credible alternative - but that is all that it is.

[Ben]

A very damming article that would put me off buying into the iPhone experience if I was in the market for a new smartphone.
No. It might put you off if you were in the market for a new regular phone, but if you were in the market for a new smartphone then, well, the iPhone is the best of them all.


I see plenty of educated professionals with them but thats about it.
What can I say, us educated professionals know how to pick a handset that's much, much more than just a phone ;)

[miffed]

Well ,I can only go by my own experience - We have 3 iphones in my house - then I go to work , and 3 out of the 4 staff have them.
As I work in a gym (we do not have lockers) people often ask me to look after their phone and keys while they train , I'd say iPhones outnumber all other phones put together by about 3- 1 in this respect
Whenever I am out and about I am constantly checking my phone because I'll have heard the message tone - but 9 times out of 10 it is someone elses phone !!
I recall a similar thing with N95's , but even that was nowhere near the scale the the iPhone has attracted
I'd say the iPhone is probably THE most mainstream phone since the Nokia 3310 !!

[gorilla]

I would say that the iPhone is mainstream now, albeit a premium handset, but still popular.

I haven't had the best call clarity on the iPhone 3G, the 3GS seems to be better, but then on O2 I suspect any phone would have problems.

[Hands0n]

Unfortunately, for the legit iPhone users out there, we have a situation where the Golden Goose is tethered with a dirty old bit of string!

[The Mullet of G]

You folks are crazy, the iPhone isn't just the worst phone in the world, its the worst full stop. Its all shiny and full of goodness, and that freaking screen just makes you want to do all sorts of multi touch shenanigans. Also there is simply to many great apps and games in the app store, its like an Aladdin's cave full of everything you ever wanted, and some stuff you didn't but its free so you'll have it anyways. Its a horrible device, can't really see what the attraction is......:)