iPhone delivers more misses than hits

Apple and AT&T deliver plenty of great features in the iPhone, but the list of shortcomings is too extensive to ignore. The following is a list of pros and cons for the iPhone I observed in my extensive testing of the device (see also InfoWorld’s iPhone Test Center Review).

Pros + Works with standard iPod charger, USB cord + Visual Voicemail speeds through large voice mailbox, eases initial setup of greeting and PIN + Extremely high-quality text + Zoom, pan, and scroll gestures ease UI operation + Incoming call smoothly fades out audio, fades back in after call ends + Text editor has BlackBerry-like shortcuts for contraction, plus near-miss dictionary + Buzzer motor powerful, silent + Word, Excel, PDF document viewing built in (no editing); useful for file storage + Clever zoomed-in handling of HTML option lists

Cons – Touchscreen imprecise; can’t adjust for parallax (finger/screen offset) – Web apps cannot download, upload, or store data – Web pages cannot be saved for offline viewing – Cannot browse iPhone’s folders by any means – No Flash, Java, or native application support – Mail viewer HTML image display, JavaScript can’t be disabled – Yahoo “push” e-mail did not deliver immediately in tests – Proximity sensor did not answer calls in tests – Extremely strong radio frequency interference – Enclosed speaker is too weak for speakerphone and voice mail playback – Operation of interactive Web sites awkward – Two-year commitment required for activation – No voice dialing; full hands-free operation impossible – No VoIP support for Wi-Fi – No A2DP (Bluetooth stereo) support – Battery not user-replaceable – Memory not swappable or expandable – Quality of camera is comparatively poor; focus distance limited; no digital zoom; cannot capture video – No voice-record capability; iPod add-on did not function – No TV out – Safari doesn’t try to reformat Web page for convenient viewing (like Windows Mobile IE’s one-column view) – Device does not operate in landscape mode in all applications – Battery drains rapidly with Wi-Fi use; no transmit power setting – Substantial delay for new voice mail notification – Will not accept existing SIM card – No external mute button – Slow rendering of zoomed HTML content – Slow JavaScript interpreter, no mouse events hamper Web 2.0 apps – No streaming audio/video support – No full-screen view in browser; large button strip always present – No edit-in-place in Settings; each line of text is a separate entry page – On-screen keyboard is large, opaque; obscures underlying interface – No text select/copy/paste – No rich text editor – Vertical/horizontal scroll regions too narrow; trip underlying controls – Feeling for home button can delete e-mail (trash button is bottom center of display) – No file upload limits use of online document viewers – Not addressable as USB storage – Phone audio quality subpar – No over-the-air sync options – No third-party software – Spelling errors are not flagged in text – Cursor positioning inside editable text is difficult – Cannot download content for offline playback except through iTunes – No Bonjour support for iTunes, Web sharing – Headset jack not phone standard – iPhone pairs with MacBook Pro Bluetooth, but offers no supported services – No master inbox covering multiple mail accounts – Chat substitute uses expensive SMS (Web alternatives available but don’t signal on incoming chat invite) – Fewer slideshow transition effects than video iPod – No musical ring tones – No exposure control in camera, very slow shutter creates blurry images