Apple iphone – does the novelty wear off?

I am able to upgrade in next couple of weeks, and looking at various phones/deals. Ive always been impressed by a few mates iphone's, but i am concerned the novelty will wear off and i will left with a more expensive 2 year contract. Other issue is the reports of sh*te battery performance, and because the phone is so bloody expensive i would have to look into getting some sort of insurance.

Other option is a free Nokia 5800 on a shorter and cheaper contract.

Sensible contributions appreciated…

Fanbois = No, NEVER! They are acest of the aces. Etc.
Everyone else = Meh.

it hasn't for me after 9 months.

Short answer – NO
Never had a problem with Battery Life – have a charger beside my bed and an additional charger at work (also have dock in car). Charge it every day (at night) and not a problem – had since 3G came out so nearly 21 months so far… Admittedly I am on a replacement as the old one had a button break (I know there are very few – still dont know how it happened) – Apple / Carphone Warehouse replaced free of charge (got insurance on it).

The technology in it is incredible – so many uses!

IMO – get and enjoy – there are alternatives – but ive not found anything better yet!

B

9 months or so here and no, the novelty hasn't worn off. It's not the best telephone ever (i'd still go for my old Nokia 6310i) but it completely changes the way you use the internet on the move. It's a great mp3 player and PDA as well (and I've had a proper try out with Android phones and the Palm Pre – the iPhone still beats them all for the all round package).

Battery life is poor – charge each night and if you're a heavy user probably need to top up during the day – but this is true of all smart phones. The main problem is that you use them more – if all i do with my iPhone is make calls i don't get any battery life issues.

Always some new app that keeps it fresh. I just have a cheapo charger in the car and at home and plug it in fairly regularly, no probs.

Mine has been so useful over the past 5 months. I've not had internet at home so its been my single point of contact really. Sure I could have got away with most of the core features (phone, sms, internet, mail, facebook) on another phone, but the ease of use has meant it makes a very valid replacement to my mac at home.
For me it's one less device to carry around too, as I have never been without my iPod since the mini came out.

The contract is a bit steeper than I would have liked but i could justify it without a broadband bill on top. Saying that we just got an internet connection yesterday so I will be looking to drop the contract down a step as I never fulfil my minutes quota (I went for high contract 'free' phone with the intention of dropping it after the minimum term).

Time will tell if the novelty wears off for me. Hopefully I will get more battery life out of it now that it wont be used as heavily.

You also get used to the auto correction and punctuation because I just had to run through this to correct it all!

As for your insurance comment, the submersion indicator (more like slight hint of moisture in the air sensor) in mine has turned red. So warranty is invalid and I need to get another 12 months of use without anything going wrong before I'm due an upgrade :/

Unlike a regular phone which becomes obsolete and doesn't have the latest thing etc etc, the iPhone is just a software update away from having the latest stuff.

I still have my original iPhone, bought on day 1. I still love it, even without the nicer camera or GPS. Battery still holds a decent charge after newly 30months too.

Oggles – whats the issue with water/moisture ingress in practice?

Only had mine 3 months but still think it rocks. Battery life is poor (though as others have said this is partly because you tend to use it all the time), and the camera is weak, but other than that it's a cracking piece of kit that I can't imagine getting bored of – it just does what it does so well.

I've got a Nexus One (aka Googlephone), fairly comparable to an iPhone – at least according to all the reviews I've seen – and it's a lot lot lot better than the 5800 it's replacing.

no way , its more than just a phone , its a friend as well .

So basically if you've a charger ready at every location you're likely to be then battery life's not an issue?

Phew!

The iphone is a beautiful piece of electronics, but it does suffer from poor battery life and below-par camera. It is also very expensive.

The 5800 is a good phone and much cheaper. If cost is a priority then go for the 5800. It has loads of features, but out of the box it is lacking visually. The latest update improves the phone overall considerably and combined with a nice skin like Aanex it is an enjoyable experience. Battery life is very good for it's class. Generally lasting 2-3 days with wifi and media usage.

If money is no object and slick usage is a priority go straight for the iPhone. If it's value you want, then the 5800 wins hands down.

Boz – I looked after it like a baby for a month or two, then i noticed the spot had turned red (means they wont replace it if faulty). After that i have started taking it running in the rain, listening in the shower with steam everywhere etc and had no problems. Certainly not something to worry about, and i'm not trying to put you off!! It just seems like a 'get out' so they don't have to replace your phone… I would have sprung for the insurance if offered again. If I had the foresight/got a new one I would knock up a dock connector bung to stop anything getting in there in the first place.

As for your insurance comment, the submersion indicator (more like slight hint of moisture in the air sensor) in mine has turned red.

What's this red dot you're on about?? Mines a 3gs btw, where is this moisture sensor??

My daughter has one and it is the dogs danglers as is the wife's Itouch . Ive got a HTC touch 2 which is brilliant but a cheap alternative at only £15 a month , still it does what I need and more.

What's this red dot you're on about?? Mines a 3gs btw, where is this moisture sensor??

The one you can see easily is the white patch inside the headphone jack which turns red when submersed in water. There are further sensors under the screen & where the docking cable connects at the bottom.

Hasn't worn off with me yet. One year into my two year contract and I always changed my phones as soon as I could previously.

I'm no Apple fanboi either. I'm fact I detest the whole Apple worship thing and wouldn't dream of owning any other mac product but the iPhone really is better than the competition though you do pay for it and unfortunately have to put up with lame looks of approval from proper fanbois when they see your mobile.

Posted from my iPhone 😉

Mine's a 3G, 16 months into an 18 month contract, so I'll be upgrading to a 4G in June. I've had an XDA Mini S and a Nokia N95 before the iPhone, and it's by far and away the most useful piece of electronic whizzyness I've ever used. Sure, the battery gets a hammering, but nobody will own up to saying how crap the N95's battery was, unless you stuck to just making calls. Two hours using the music player would kill the battery, and the GPS about the same. This was regularly highlighted in reviews, and it was true. People bitch about the iPhone being too big as it is; stick a bigger battery in and it would have to be a lot thicker. You can get external battery units, I've got two from Deal Extreme, cost about $20, they're 2400mAh, and they're called iPower. I've got loads of ebooks on mine, using Kindle, ereader, Stanza and 3D Bookcase, I've also got Memory Map Free, with a load of 1:25k OS maps covering Bath to Savernake Forest, and the Forest of Dean, Outdoor South West with the whole of the S/West of England in 1:50k OS, CoPilot Live Turn By Turn mapping, then there's all the other useful apps like Facebook, Shazam, Red Laser, Starwalk, Orange Wednesday, (I'm on O2), Wiki, Google, Find Pubs, iCarRadio, various photo apps…
Frankly, I can't imagine not having it around, I use it all the time, and that has bugger-all to do with ‘novelty’, and everything to do with sheer usability. And the camera is nowhere near as bad as people make out, the 5Mp camera on the N95 was crap, it refused to focus, I spent twenty minutes trying to get a photo of my bike propped up against a tree. It just wouldn't lock on. The iPhone is the perfect snapshot camera, which will upload to Flickr and Facebook easily, which is all you need. If you want more than that, then buy a proper compact like a Lumix TZ-10, for Chris'sake. Nobody ever complained about Instamatic cameras, which is all a phone camera is, and anyone who thinks SE's 12Mp phone camera is going to allow A4 size prints with comparable quality to a camera like my Lumix or D60 is fooling themselves; Wired magazine were quite unimpressed with it. The newer iPhone allows video with in-phone editing, and the 4G will be up to 64Gb, probably with a 5Mp camera as well. Couple that with the iphone's touch screen which is better than pretty much anything else out there, and you have the perfect pocket computer, which is what the iPhone is; you just have to stop thinking of it as a phone.

the submersion indicator (more like slight hint of moisture in the air sensor) in mine has turned red.

I have heard (i.e. have no idea whether it's true) that if you paint over the moisture sensors with clear nail varnish, it stops them turning red if in fact they do come into contact with moisture. But, obviously, it makes me wonder whether that's correct because after all, nail varnish itself is moist, so wouldn't that make them turn red? ❓

i got fed up with my iphone after around 6 months. i was annoyed that it can only do one thing at a time, i was fed up with the poor battery life, i was fed up of being so worried about breaking it, so thought enough is enough sell it and go back to nokia.
which i did. sold it for £300 and bought a nokia N86. What a dick.
I lasted 2 months and had to get another iphone. i realised i can live with it's faults, but the nokia just couldn't do what it could. email on the nokia was just text no images, browsing a webpage was slow and you had to scroll to the link, zooming was awkward, i missed the way it stores text messages as conversations so when someone text i could see what it was they were going on about.
I missed a load of the apps some are really useful, and nokia ovi store didn't have anything similar.

I will add that if you can afford it buy one on pay as you go and get one of O2 simplicity sims. It works out much cheaper over the 2 years that you would be tied in on a contract, and you only need give 30 days notice should a better deal come along or you manage to destroy the phone.

I work in mobile apps / tech and in our office we think iPhone is great but have started to gravitate towards Android phones, specifically the Google Nexus One. My wife has an iPhone and if you are going to be typing a lot then the touch screen is better. That being said the battery life on the Nexus is great – I use Spotify on it for music in the car and then track my riding with Endomondo and recently I did 2 hours of music each way to Wales and then 4 hours combined GPS and music whilst riding W2 and still finished up with over half charge. With a better screen / camera and a super fast processor the Nexus just edges it for me over the iPhone.

I sold a Nokia N97 and N95 to fund mine and it makes both of them look primitive by comparison. With Sony Ericsson / Motorolla / Samsung & HTC launching Android devices now or soon the app support is only going to get better and better.

The way I see it, if you got a top of the range mp3 player that did loads of other things as well (games, info etc), would you be bored of it within 6 months? Probably not.

Why should you then get bored just because it makes calls as well, and allows you internet on the move?

CaptainFlashheart:

FanboisIphone Owners = No, NEVER! They are acest of the aces. Etc.I like it and it does what i wanted.
Everyone elseCFH = Meh.I do not have one but constantly feel the need to bash them for some reason.

POSTED 12 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Fixed that for you.

I had one when they first came out for about 4days, it certainly had the WOW factor, but I decided it wasnt for me and sent it back.

A couple of months back I had my first Blackberry, love it!!

But I think the novelty wears off everything eventually….apart from riding of course! 😉

I'm hoping to get one, but it'll only really get used for browsing rather than calls and texts, so it makes more sense for me to get a prepay phone from Tesco for £440ish, which comes with free data/wifi/openzone access for the first 12 months. Don't think you need to top up each month to get the free data, but when you do top up its tripled, so £10 becomes £30.

The contracts work out at £700-800 over the period so only worth it if you make lots of calls.

I've had mine for 5 days and the novelty hasn't worn off yet 😉 I think it will be the best 'phone' I've ever had.

I think the initial novelty of touch screen etc, if you've not had one before, does wear off after a little bit, but that is then replaced with just how easy-to-use/useful it is, which in some ways is a lot better. And that in no way means it becomes boring to use, it just becomes more about what you can do on it rather than how you do it….if that makes sense….

As people have said, new apps keep it 'fresh' and just keep adding use and value to it.

It is a pretty impressive bit of kit really.

Hmmm – very tempted to get one now after your opinions… 8)

clubber – Member

"I'm no Apple fanboi either. I'm fact I detest the whole Apple worship thing and wouldn't dream of owning any other mac product but the iPhone really is better than the competition though you do pay for it and unfortunately have to put up with lame looks of approval from proper fanbois when they see your mobile."

Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much…. 😉

CFH – I think you've hooked a fanboi 😆

I like to think that i'm not a fan boi, but as I still love mine after 22 months, maybe I am?

All I know is that I was driving back from london, hit a big traffic jam, quickly looked at google maps and the GPS, then worked out a quick route around saving my 15 minutes. It's ace.

+1 to Clubbers sentiment. Not an Apple fanboi in general but the iPhone has completely changed the way I use the net (he says, writing this while taking a dump).

I'll happily consider an android-based phone when it comes time to upgrade though, as they do look good to and a better camera would be nice.

allthepies:
CFH – I think you've hooked a fanboi

*sigh*

Isn't the Iphone due an update in the next few months? I'd hang on till then and get the latest one.
The Android based phones are also getting very,very good. The HTC Desire is due out later this month and is worth considering.
I have a HTC Hero (T-Mobile G2)and it really is a smart phone and has revolutionised the way I use a phone.

Had mine about 20 months now. Reached the end of my contract and there's nothing out there I'd rather have, so dropped to £20 a month till they get a summer update (didn't fancy paying the extra for a 3GS right now).

Can't imagine not having one. And this is from someone who plays with various smartphones (winmo, symbian, android, etc) as part of his job.

I've always wanted to like the iPhone but something (unknown) still holds me back.

Hence I opted for the Hero back in August. Awesome piece of kit. Now waiting for the 2.1 OS upgrade to appear in April – looks fantastic.

If you can't settle on the iPhone then check out other smartphones (if you're gonna be using the additional functionality that is).

nail varnish itself is moist, so wouldn't that make them turn red?

Water moisture is different to ethanol moisture.

For the OP, I don't have an iphone but i do have an ipod touch and it's brilliant! I'm the last person on earth who would support the bizarre approach apple take to the laptop market but as far as handhelds go I reckon they've got it nailed.Bored of it? Just go to the apps store and download something brand new that's been uploaded there. And it is a constantly changing landscaope, so quickly you can't keep track of it.

In the top 3 inventions of all time along with sky+ and Stella IMO