I've had my iphone for 18 months now and am getting a bit fed up with it too. It does everything it should do but I find I am now only using half of the features in it. The novelty of the app store has worn off and I find I am starting to miss having a physical keyboard rather than a touch screen one.
I am due an upgrade in a few weeks so will have a good look around before I decide on a new phone again.

Well that's solved that one.

And why do people hate iTunes?

Back in my Windows days, i had no problem with it, and now its even better on Mac!

Because it's a pain in the arse to use.

Because its awful to use and bloated. Its just as bad on a mac.

Also you shouldn't need manufacturer specific software to use a device.

This! ^^^

I think, considering the cost and the presentation by Apple of the device, its a dissapointment.

On that basis people have a right to compare it with other products.

I cant fault the hardware hugely, or even the software, but the biggest issue is Apple and its controlling restrictive attitude towards what is effectively the consumers device, yet they continue to release updates which effect people who have made an informed conscious decision to jailbreak.

I agree with around 70% of what dontpannic said. What caught me was using sales and profits as an argument, and later contradicting the point of raising an argument by saying there is no argument as a better or best phone.

What intrigues me is that we all know that purchasing a mobile phone is heavily subjective so why do people persist to question it in such a critical manner? Why should it bother you what people are "hyping" if you're not interested? I can tell you that I'm not the slightest bit interested in Apple, but comparing megapixels and exaggerated stories tells me that you're already off to a bad start.

Thats rediculous.

That logic would mean that noone has any right to criticise the iPhone as a product. For example, saying the camera on x device is better than the iPhone is a healthy level of debate.

I seem to remember Apple were only too happy to run down other manufacturers phone antennas when the iPhone 4 antenna design flaw came up

No it wouldn't mean that at all. It means that buying a mobile phone is heavily subjective. Criticizing a phone in such a blanket and unjustified way is not constructive at all.

To paraphrase - "It's overrated because it only has 5MP", - that either means you don't know what you're talking about, or 5MP isn't enough for YOU making it subjective. I can't see where that's ridiculous.

Yes, agreed, but in these threads its only the faulty criticism which is noticed. Come up with any real issues, real faults with the device and nothing is said.

You will note, what we are now talking about, isnt iPhone flaws, the controlling nature of Apple, but instead faulty criticisms.

Its nearly as frustrating as 4.3.5!

I own an iPhone 3GS, overall it's a good phone but it has its issues. The underlying OS is very stable in normal usage, and it rarely crashes.

Exchange integration is excellent - email, address book and calendar all work seamlessly.

The interface is well designed and easy to navigate, in comparison with other phones (e.g. Nokia E-series).

The built in web browser is excellent, yes you can get other browsers like Opera mini for non smart-phones but it doesn't compare, quite a few websites' functionality appeared broken on Opera mini esp. with job app sites.

Apps are plentiful and there is pretty much an app for everything.

There are some negatives, however.

Battery life is one of them - medium to heavy use, expect the battery to be drained by the end of the day, or before.

Using iTunes (this one is subjective). I personally hate iTunes, as it is an overly bulky piece of software on Windows (as it installs lots of other junk on the PC). If, like me, you don't use iTunes as your music player and have lots of other exotic lossless formats that aren't supported by iTunes/iPhone.

There's also not enough options in iTunes - want to save youe iPhone backup on another drive? Hardly an unreasonable request, if you don't fancy filling up your hard drive with a backup. Simple answer is, you can't... without having to hack the NTFS file system using command line tools, when a simple option in preferences (or regedit) would've sufficed.

When there's a problem, recovery can be a painful process. Currently I am experiencing problems with my iPhone's battery draining quicker than normal, and upon taking it to the store they suggested going to wipe the entire phone before they'd do a replacement, and suggested that one of the apps might be at fault, corrupting something or another and so causing the battery to drain. It's plausible - but again, there's no option to just back up the texts and settings and wipe everything else?

The camera's rubbish at night time - well, to be honest, all cameras on phones tend to be rubbish anyway, even moreso if they don't have a built in flash. To whoever said the iPhone has a 5Mp camera and the LG has an 8Mp camera, the amount of megapixels isn't the be all and end all - the optics and sensor size matter too.

I've got a Nikon D40 digital SLR camera (positively old in camera years), and it's only 6 megapixels, but its image quality would beat the pants off any mobile phone camera out there.

All of the above is based upon my personal experiences - I certainly don't have an "iPhonez iz teh b3st!!1!" attitude.

I think Apple's marketing machine has a tendency to make people look at Apple products with rose-tinted spectables, as if it's something that will never break down, have technical problems etc.

I got into a debate with someone today because I discussed handset options with a colleague and she didn't choose an iPhone. She was upgrading from a problematic Samsung Jet.

"I hear you talked her out of getting an iPhone"... erm no I didn't, she asked for advice, I gave it, she picked a phone and she seems well chuffed with her choice.

I discussed openly her mobile usage, features she wanted and so on. Told her what I knew of the various platforms and features of particular handsets.

(She chose a Desire S in Teal with o2, I actually thought she was gonna get the Sensation)

It's the 'chicken and egg' riddle of course.


In many many ways.

All Apple products are a money cow milked by Steve Jobs and I don't like the image apple owners are often tagged with, 'Sheeple', sort of drone like. My children won't have them as they are seen as a 'chav' phone these days, not an image they want to aquire.

There are better alternatives to a phone that won't even let you swap batteries or simm cards and suffers signal problems. People go on about itunes but given the poor battery performance I'm surprised they use the music player at all.

For **** sake. Does nobody read threads any more!? I don't know why I bother.

Please try to learn a bit more about the product before making arguments against it. Not everyone who owns an Apple device because it's made by Apple. I certainly didn't.

As for the second bit...

OK, you can't quickly swap batteries which is a bit of a downside, however external batteries are available and the internal battery doesn't reach the end of its lifetime after a short amount of charge cycles.

You have been able to swap SIM cards since the original iPhone, this only changed with the CDMA iPhone designed to be used on the Verizon network in the US.

Signal problems? What signal problems, or are you referring to the 'grip of death', or the heavily congested AT&T network in the states?

I can listen to music for hours and still have battery left at the end of the day. The phone has replaced my MP3 player.

do you worship the apple dontpannic . your forum name does you justice.
anyway i do have an ipod classic, also a ipod touch 4 32gb. they are both good bits of kit, but i do not worship the brand. loading music using windows can be a pain in the a##e. itunes is a lot better, dontpannic does it matter if there is another thread or view on the best phones. regards popp

I think the problem is that people who buy Crapple think of themselves as some sort of uber-geeks and look down their noses at anyone who buys something else , if Crapple were that good then they wouldn't have lost out to Microsoft in the home PC market and they wouldn't be so low down in the Smartphone slaes market the Galaxy S2 is outselling the i-Phone 2 to 1 at the moment but with the release of the i-Phone 5 then the sheeple will be out in force to buy the last offering of their guru Steve Jobs , I have a feeling though that the release will be rushed before his unfortunate demise and that any bugs will not sorted just the like the i-Phone 4 but will rather be road tested on the public and letting them find the faults

Having said that each to their own, personally I wouldn't touch any of their products as I think they are massively over-hyped and that there are far better products on the market

Your point lost all credibility with me when you used the childish "Crapple" instead of their proper name.

Not at all, my iPhone is the first Apple device I've owned (apart from my old iPod nano - but even that's running Rockbox). I buy and use whatever suits my needs when I come to buy something. My PC's are all custom built, my phone does what I need it to, thats as simple as it gets.

I agree, iTunes is a heaping pile of crap, a lot better than what it was, but I still fail to understand why a pretty organisational tool is so, so slow.

It doesn't matter at all, but the stereotyping really annoys me. Just because I have an iPhone does not mean I'm superior to everyone else, nor do I rub it in anyones faces. I don't worship a brand, I don't buy a phone because everyone else has one, I can go on and on. Then, when someone like Paul2307 back there telling us that all people who buy Apple products think highly of themselves, it really pisses me off.

As I can see from your info you have Crapple phone , you have just proved my point

Troll alert. Piss off to somewhere where you're wanted. I've already made my point perfectly clear, we don't need you stirring up arguments.

No, I have an Apple phone. I've never heard of Crapple ones, are they fake ones or something?

Touchy touchy can't i-Phone users take it or can you only give it out ! If you read my post properly I did say each to their own all I am is giving is my opinion but ask yourself this if the i-Phone is so good why are Android phones outselling them

If we read your post properly you are talking about Androids (which do exist) and "Crapple i-Phones" (which do not), so it has no relevance.