“The Apple iPhone has variable call quality and lacks some basic features found in many cell phones, including stereo Bluetooth support and 3G compatibility. Integrated memory is stingy for an iPod, and you have to sync the iPhone to manage music content.”
https://www.cnet.com/products/apple-iphone/review/
“Before we get to the in depth hands-on, here's the verdict I'd give any good friend: Wait to buy the iPhone.
“But as the honeymoon sets, I find myself left with a phone that could be more functional. “
“The real elephant in the room is the fact that I just spent $600 on my iPhone and it can't do some crucial functions that even $50 handsets can. I'm talking about MMS. Video recording. Custom ringtones. Mass storage. Fully functioning Bluetooth with stereo audio streaming. Voice dialing when you're using a car kit. Sending contact info to other people. Instant friggin’ messenging. Sending an SMS to more than one recipient at a time.”
“And while writers are covering these facts in a glancing manner, alongside the quirky QWERTY, lack of 3G, and weak email support, I feel like they are under emphasizing the flaws in light of the shock and awe of the phone's Wonders.” (Shocking! You mean I am not the only one who didn't appreciate the first iPhones on screen keyboard?)
https://gizmodo.com/276116/apple-iphone-review
“The bad part is that there are many features that are missing. 3G, MMS, A2DP, video recording, voice recording, voice dialing, and flash are just a shame to see missing on a phone this nice and this expensive. Call quality and signal strength has been an issue as well, and not just to us but the public too.”
https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Apple-iPhone-Review_id1773
Apple spent a lot of money hyping the first iPhone so the most interesting part of many of the reviews are the comments from users:
“I agree that the first thing a phone should do is make calls - for that the iPhone absolutely sucks! Some states have laws against using a cell phone when driving but no mater what the law, everybody does it. And for that the iPhone is an accident going somewhere to happen - in a phrase, the reason it sucks is, NO TACTICAL FEEL. Over a highly sensitive touch screen, you have to navigate to the phone app, then navigate to the number somehow, then make the call - and along the way you better not inadvertantly touch the wrong part of the screen (which is nearly impossible) or you are calling the wrong person - then if you do, you have to hang up and starting navigating back to the party you wanted to call... it's a hazard and almost useless for making and receiving calls”
“I got an Iphone 1 month ago, and I used to have a NOKIA e62 and no drop calls, now everyother call gets drop in the same areas, as a phone, this gadget SUCKS!!!
I have two friends that complaint about this same thing.
I like it but I am getting fed up, If I am talking to my friends I can always call them back and laugh about it, but when I talking to a CUSTOMER it is not as nice.
I am ready to get rid of it!!!”
“I got an Iphone 1 month ago, and I used to have a NOKIA e62 and no drop calls, now everyother call gets drop in the same areas, as a phone, this gadget SUCKS!!!
I have two friends that complaint about this same thing.
I like it but I am getting fed up, If I am talking to my friends I can always call them back and laugh about it, but when I talking to a CUSTOMER it is not as nice.
I am ready to get rid of it!!!
“Great review - thanks for the info re blue tooth - I was hoping that I would be able to listen to music via the blue tooth facility on the phone. I have stereo bluetooth hearing aids and if the iphone did that then I wouldn't have to carry around an additional adaptor for my iphone (like I have to with my old ipod). Shame. The other disappointing thing for me is that the volume isn't great without updating the software. I need decent volume output for obvious reasons.
I hate to say it but my husband was right when he suggested that maybe this wasn't the phone for me - bummer! Thanks for the review - I have saved some money as a result.”
"What I like about the iPhone is that it is BETTER than every other phone I've used and it's actually fun to use and navigate. People want to quickly discount eye candy. Think about it. We love eye candy. We love animation. We love video. Otherwise we'd be content just reading text with no pictures, never watching a movie or TV and seeing everything in black and white with no color. We're visual beings. So the iPhone is appealing because it uses and stimulates our sense of touch and sight. I love it when people yell, "it's just a phone!"
Further down in his review, he makes the point that I made, one that I was called a liar for making by someone who shall go nameless because I am no longer addressing directly, who insisted that it was nothing unusual for a phone of the period to get a full Internet experience. What a load of revisionist TWADDLE that person claimed as truth when I knew very well he was full of it!
"After all I don't think any other phone (at least not any that I've seen) offer a full blown web browsing experience on a tiny screen. The implementation of Safari itself on the iPhone is well done! However, there are some flaws to this strategy. Most cell phone web browsers use WAP. WAP is a way for website designers to design a low bandwidth simple version of their sites. This works well on mobile devices. However, it's true you don't get the "full page" experience. Seeing that the iPhone doesn't support 3g and uses AT&T's Edge network instead, your pages could load painfully slow. Most commercial websites detect a WAP browser and automatically direct you to a lower bandwidth version of the site without all the frills. Since the iPhone uses a full version of Safari, that won't happen automatically. So you're going to get the regular site with all the graphics, etc. "
This person's claim that no one is referring to the multitouch sensors is completely specious. The Gizmodo review that is linked in the comments is a good example (emphasis is mine):
Like every other journalist will tell you, its multitouch UI, browser and iPod are all pants-worthy. . . .. . .I have spent many long minutes fingering the LCD, enthralled by multitouch's effortless ability to zoom into photos and scroll through long lists. It makes the 3.5-inch screen exponentially more useful than any 480 x 320 pixel LCD should be. What can Microsoft do with multitouch? They can put it in a friggin' $10k table for the Sheraton and T-Mobile. I love the buttonless design, and even if the keyboard is not as effective as a hardware model, it can be damn fast. While many tech luminaries have said they'd wanted to defenestrate the iPhone after struggling with its ghost QWERTY, people have been running at 35-40 WPM three days in. Safari on the iPhone is the best browser ever seen on a mobile, with or without Flash, because it actually renders everything "as it should".
So much for that person's assertions that multitouch is NOT even referred to in the reviews. It was, glowingly, just not his misnomer for the functionality.