I got the 3GS on launch day (had it delivered to me) and I am happy with my purchase.
I was disappointed with the battery life (draining to about 10% each day with just moderate use). After turning off Push e-mail, though, and setting it to check just once an hour, I now can go a whole day and only wear it down to 60% or so with moderate use, maybe 30% with some major use (like using the GPS on and off for an hour, taking some pictures, checking out a couple sites (up to 45 minutes or so of internet and facebook surfing), texting a bit, and maybe 35-45 mins of talk time).
I find the iPhone to be a great phone with lots of handy features. I didn't think I'd use some of the features but they do come in handy.
Some things I've done:
- Used Fandago App to locate movie theaters close by and check out show times
- Looked up movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes on impromptu movie trips to make sure I wasn't walking into something really bad
- Used the GPS/Google Maps to find places and navigate to places without having to print directions ahead of time (this really helped out too when I took the wrong turn and had to figure out how to get back on track)
- Took geotagged pictures (which actually look pretty decent, no replacement for a nice camera but definitely okay for casual stuff, much better than grainy tiny pics of older camera phones)
- Looked up product reviews on Amazon while in a store considering an impulse purchase
- Did some price research using eBay and Amazon while in impulse purchase scenarios to make sure I wasn't getting screwed
- Surfed the net for a bit (reading news and forums) while being stuck waiting for people in various locations
- Used the iPod features of just listening to stuff while commuting on public transport
- Used a music identification app to get song titles/album titles of songs that are playing in random places
I think that about sums up about 95% of my usage. As I've said, the battery leaves a lot to be desired but then again if you find yourself using the internet on your phone for more than a few hours a day, you probably should consider a laptop and/or a change to your routine.
As you can see the list of how I use it is pretty long, and it is almost hard to believe that it is all done on a single tiny device that fits in my pocket.
It's totally worth it, especially if you currently don't have a smart phone. If you are already on a good phone then maybe some of that stuff you can do already.
So don't listen to the naysayers who don't even own the device and whose entire experience with it comes from reading other peoples posts or listening to other peoples accounts of using the iPhone. It's like listening to medical advice from someone who has a doctor friend who told him something. Get it straight from the horse's mouth, and in this case I can say as an iPhone user that it is a great device and worth the money.
You pay for the experience, and in this case you pay around $2,000 (plus taxes) over the course of 2 years.
For those people who only use voice at the moment, you are still probably going to spend at least $1,200 or so over the course of 2 years on your phone and corresponding bill, so you are paying maybe $800 extra for having a GPS, an iPod, a camera, and a portable internet browser that works anywhere (almost like a netbook really).
When you add all these things up, it really breaks even, and you win with the iPhone if you factor in the convenience (such as not having to drag 4 or 5 different devices with you at all times to have the same functionality).
