iPhone review - and thorough

A through review of the iPhone? I’ve found it (in 5 parts so far), by Paul Thurrott on his SuperSite. Be sure to read all five parts (and compare it to what you know of the 8525). Here’s some excerpt to get you there:

As a long-time PDA and smart phone user, I have certain expectations of any mobile device. These expectations revolve around such mundane tasks as synchronizing with my PIM data and allowing me to access the Internet, through the phone’s Internet connection, with my notebook computers. As it turns out, my current smart phone, a Motorola Q used via Verizon’s high-speed EV-DO network, is much more capable than the iPhone in this regard.

But before I get critical, understand this: The technology in the iPhone is of a completely different caliber than anything found in any smart phone currently being sold in the US. Indeed, the iPhone is a technological crossroads joining traditional smart phones (i.e. pre-iPhone smart phones) with the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC), Microsoft’s ultra-mobile computing platform. So we’re talking about a device that is head and shoulders, technologically, above most other portable devices of this size. With technology, of course, comes some complexity. But Apple is good at making things simple, even if it often does so at the expense of functionality.

So let’s take a look at the core technology Apple put in the iPhone, not just to revel in what it is, but rather to discover how it impacts users in the real world.