First Hands-on iPhone Reviews Published: 1.5 Thumbs Up

Though wholly unknown to the unanointed technology writers of the world, the privileged few amongst the crowd have had iPhones clanking around in their pockets for about a week now. Such being the case, yesterday saw the first few hands-on reviews of Apple's now uberhyped iPhone hit the presses. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and USA Today each published a detailed review of the iPhone.

Consistently, the reviews are positive. Using terms like "revolutionary", "slick", "amazing" and "superbly engineered", the reviewers make it clear that much of the hype surrounding the iPhone is well deserved. Newsweek's Steven Levy describes the iPhone as a "cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding."

At the same time, the reviews clearly do not place the iPhone above reproach. The reviews published yesterday each take time to point out the shortcomings of the iPhone, namely the lack of MMS, video capture, and 3G, and lack of Adobe Flash support. Surprisingly absent is hard hitting criticism of the Apple iPhone's virtual keyboard. Instead, the general impression given is that - though somewhat daunting at first - the keyboard just might function as well as Apple says it does.

Overall, the reviews are detailed, unique views of a product we've all been waiting to get our hands on. Amongst the group are different valuable tidbits of insight, sample iPhone pictures, videos of the iPhone in action. Each is well written and well worth reading.

That is, if you can stand the jealousy.

You can find each of the reviews here:

Newsweek
New York Times
USA Today
Wall Street Journal

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