It Crashes?

Yes the iPhone crashes, and for the comparison that I hate to make, it crashes less than my Windows Mobile 5 based Blackjack. 

The iPhone has only crashed a couple of times for me, and each time it did the same thing.  I'd be browsing the web and all of the sudden the application I was using would quit and take me back to the home screen as if I hit the home button.  There are no errors, no ugly messages, nothing; it's literally as if you accidentally hit that home button.

The first time it happened to me I thought I actually hit the home button; later realizing that the home button would require a deliberate press with a reasonable amount of force to activate, I came to the next conclusion: yay I just crashed the iPhone.

Both times Safari crashed on me, I had just opened a popup window and I was rotating the iPhone at the same time.  I did that same exact deadly combination multiple times and it only crashed twice, and only then did I know that the iPhone was truly running the same Safari that I had on my Mac.  There are many times when Safari under OS X will just keep crashing for me over and over again, only to be totally fine after it gets the crashing out of its system.  I will have made no hardware or software changes, Safari will just crash two or three times in a row and then be fine for the next month.  I don't get it, but now I can take that behavior with me in my pocket.  Apple, how did you know the key to my heart?

All kidding aside, the device is robust; it handled my small library of 1045 pictures without a problem, and Apple has already proved that it knows how to manage multiple GB of music and videos quite well.   The device is stable and the only two crashes I've had in my extended usage of the the device were handled gracefully.  The only indication I had that the device had crashed was a message from iTunes the next time I tried to sync, asking me if I wanted to send anonymous crash log data to Apple.

Notes Battery Life
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  • michael2k - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link

    Except of course for the keyboard.

    If he unveiled the thing, it would have to be as a small laptop.
  • edwinder - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link

    Anand, I never got through your iPhone review...because everything I read is basically Blackberry this, Blackberry that. Just so that you know, not all your readers like/own/used Blackberries, and have found other replacements that suit us more besides a Blackberry (i.e E61). Yes, I know you love your BB's, but hope you can rename your article to reflect the review that you wrote. Nothing wrong with it... but reading your article gave me no basis of which to refer to, hence stopped reading it after a few pages.
  • aGoGo - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link

    Exactly,
    I used BB 8700, 8100, 8300 and 8800.. all of them suck, i have to admit that the RIM makes the best "stupid-proof" devices, that can enable you connect to your work email through BES, other than that, every single feature sucks.
    I'm using the Imate Jasjar (HTC Universal) and it can do every single thing the iPhone can do, without the cute looking UI, people wanna use things, not look at them, how many of you are still using Aero glass and DreamScene? Every single person disabled them after one week.
  • r33tr33t - Wednesday, July 4, 2007 - link

    You can catch bits of Anand's gigantic house as well as his face reflected back in the metallic part of some of the iPhone photos.
  • plinden - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    quote:

    This time on WiFi, the iPhone comes in about an hour under its estimated 7 hour internet battery life.


    Actually, http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html">here, Apple does claim "up to 6 hours" internet time, so what you're seeing is in line with Apple's claims.

    Yes, I do like my Apple products (3 Macs and two iPods) but I've always taken the battery life claims with a large pinch of salt.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    I know exactly what you're saying; battery life on the MacBook Pro is no where near Apple's 6-hour claims; I'd be lucky to get 2.5 hours of real work on mine.

    Thanks for the correction, I too was shocked to see it actually lasted 6 hours on WiFi. I'm doing some more tests now looking closer at its battery life, so you may see a follow-up article in the near future.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Looks nice, but too big for me. If they can build one around something more like a 2.25" screen that would be sweet.

    Also on the next to last page there is a picture missing of the screen you get to unlock the phone.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Agreed. An iPhone mini could be very interesting but I'm not sure how the keyboard would work out. And I've added the missing image, thanks for the heads up :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Drumsticks - Wednesday, January 7, 2015 - link

    I had to go through this review for a paper I was writing for school, and I came across this comment. In 2015... how times have changed :)
  • aGoGo - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Blackberry Curve and Blackjack?
    there are better phones to use, how about the HTC Universal? Nokia N95? SE P990i? HTC Athena?
    I really don't know how much this damn thing is gonna cost if it's unlocked? $1000?

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