Just a few days away from the iPhone's launch, the web is flooded with news surrounding the highly anticipated cell phone. Yesterday, Apple apparently lifted its embargo on the lucky few journalists who got their hands on an iPhone a couple of weeks early. Walt Mossberg and David Pogue, of the WSJ and the NY Times were among the first to post their hands-on reviews. Newsweek's Steven Levy and USA Today's Edward Baig posted their views short after.
"Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer," Mossberg wrote in what we in the business call the nut graph. Pogue wrote, "As it turns out, much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it's flawed."
Apple's iPhone received mostly good reviews. The large screen, mail client, finger-driven scrolling interface, and especially the embedded Safari web browser received high praise from each reviewer - though they criticized the lack of flash or Windows Media Video support. The touch screen keyboard received mixed reviews, although the little virtual keys on the screen were frustrating at first, they all seem to agree that after a period of getting used to the new input method users will manage to type in making almost no mistakes. Though the iPhone seems to live up to most of its hype, perhaps the biggest let down was the painfully slow EDGE network, fortunately, the device's Wi-Fi support will allow faster browsing when connected to a hotspot.