I finally succumbed when my contract was up and plumped for an iPhone 3G 16GB, namely because everyone else had one, which to me at the time was as good enough reason as any!

Now firstly I would like to point out that I am a) not technical and b) do not have a good track record with phones and accidents!! So if you are looking for a review that will tell you all about the GB (with gb being gigabytes I believe though who knows!?) and storage and all that jazz, this is not the review to read!


**The look of the phone**

As I am sure you are all aware, iPhones are now pretty recognisable. About 10cm long and 5 cm wide, with a shiny black back and a touch screen front, there is no removable battery inside so the phone is slimline and compact.

- The Back - it has a small camera lens in the top left hand corner, a silver shiny apple logo in the middle, and some blurb across the bottom ("iPhone, 16 GB, Designed by Apple blah blah) - just in case you didn't know that you had an Apple iPhone. As I don't have a case for my phone, the back is pretty scratched and messed up, this doesn't bother me in the slightest, though I can imagine it would bother others!

- The Front - as I said it is a touch screen, so the majority of the face is a screen. The phone automatically locks itself after a set period of time (not long, I'd say about 30 seconds) which is good if you always forget to lock your phone and don't want to ring someone by accident! The button on the bottom of the phone, which is the main menu "OK" button, when pressed, lights the screen up (useful to use as a torch) and a sliding toolbar appears so you can unlock the screen and access the main features (see below!). I personally don't, but there is an option to have a numeric password on your phone, my opinion was I'd have too much to drink and forget it!

- The Buttons - On the top right, the on/off button; hold this down and again a sliding toolbar appears on the screen asking you to slide if you want to power off, press it once and it locks the screen. A volume button on the left hand side, easy to use, very self explanatory! And a button which clicks to a position (rather than be pressed) which controls whether your phone is on silent or on normal volume! I personally keep my phone on silent, though sometimes when it is in the bottom of my bag it manages to click itself to "sound" which can be annoying mid-meeting!


**The Set Up**

To set up the phone one of the things you MUST have is the internet - sounds stupid, but at the time of me getting the phone I had just moved into a new place with no internet connection and my only internet accessibility was at work. No good for me wanting to download iTunes and sync my phone!

Other than the need of the internet, the rest of the set up is relatively simple:

1. Insert the SIM card. This took me a while to do, eventually giving in and reading the instructions finding a funny shaped paperclip type thing, shaking my head at it and nearly throwing it away before realising I needed to poke this in to the hole on the top left of the phone, at which point up pops the SIM card holder. Now what fun I had amusing myself over the next 5 minutes making this pop up ......
2. Charge phone and switch phone on. Gone are the days of 24 hour charging of your mobile before first use (do you remember them??)
3. Attach phone to computer via USB, and it automatically syncs with the iTunes you have already downloaded
4. Throw phone across room when you realise all your contacts aren't showing and you aren't technically competent enough to work out how to do it.
5. Take SIM card out, write down all numbers, decide you are doing a number cull on people you never call and end up with just your Mum and Other Half on there......add a few more to make you feel as though you have friends....
6. Re-insert SIM card and input all the numbers. Realise there is probably a way to do this all technically, decide that you aren't even going to bother looking for a way to do it!


**What you get with the iPhone**

You get the phone, a charger and a set of headphones. The headphones were particularly useful for me as I had recently left mine on the tube (a whole other story!), but other than saving me going out to buy a new pair, they are pretty bog standard, stick them in your ears with a volume button on the cable type of headphone! They don't hurt my ears which is a plus point as normally non-covered ear phones do!

The charger; confused me for a while! And now I love it, its very cleverly a charger and a USB cable all in one, that means I am not having to keep track of 2 cables, one of which I am bound to lose. The USB simples clicks into a mains "head" and to attach to your computer you just pull this head off! The other good part about an iPhone is nearly everyone I know has either an iPhone or an iPod, should I ever need to charge my phone on the go - I just borrow their chargers as one size fits all!

** The Apps**

I am not going to review every single app on my phone because that would be boring for you to read, plus the fact some of the apps that I have require a whole review to themselves! Its time instead to look at the basics, which after all is why you have a phone:

Calling / Contacts
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To call on the phone, the standard formatting shows a phone icon in green at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. You simply press this and it will bring up a new screen which allows you to naviagate to favourite numbers, recent contacts, your contact list, a keypad and your voicemail.
- Favourite numbers, quite simply numbers which you set as your favourites!
- Recent contacts, all made, received and missed calls. What I find most irritating about this is that even missed calls on the same day can show up as 2 separate entries on the list, rather than just as a list under that contacts name, which means that very often my contact list just repeats "Mum"!
- Contacts, will take you to your contact list. I have mine arranged in alphabetical, last name order, though you can vary this to suit your tastes.
- Keypad, a large (full size of the screen) keypad comes up which means it is easier to press the numbers as you have a larger space to do so and even those with big fingers are able to hit the right number!
- Voicemail, I like the voicemail because if a contact has left you a voicemail it shows you their name and you press the play button to replay that message - so no more wading through lots of pointless voicemails to get that all important number you missed previously!

Volume on the phone is well controlled and I have no problem hearing people or having people hear me either, except for when I move to the black hole reception spot in my flat!

Text Messaging
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Again, a simple icon depicting an envelope shows the message functionality. A touch screen qwerty keypad, though it is quite small! I often find that i am hitting the wrong letters which makes for some interesting words. I have the predictive messaging set up (not entirely sure how!) and as such when my fat fingers hit a p instead of an o my iPhone appears to know what I wanted it to say and automatically changes the word; slightly annoying when I am trying to use made up words, though if I don't want to take the iPhone selection I need to remember to press the "X" button that appears with the new word selection BEFORE I press space!

Messages appear as a grey speech bubble down the left hand side for received messages and as a green speech bubble on the right hand side for sent message, I love this feature as I can go back many conversations with friends and my boyfriend and know exactly the context of the messages so I can laugh at them all over again!

Camera
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The camera, I think is a great picture quality WHEN using in daylight. I have not found a flash, and I am told that there is not one....however I was also told there is no zoom feature and there is (simply tap the lefthand side of the screen in the middle when on the camera function and a zoom bar appears like magic!)
The camcorder, poor quality to view though you can record for a significant period of time which is good. For both I am not technical enough to tell you about megapixels and the like. What I can say is that the quality is good enough to upload to facebook and for me to have some lovely memories on my phone and computer, though if I was going to something special I would not just rely on an iPhone.

I like the fact that the photos (and videos) can be uploaded directly onto facebook or the internet, which saves a lot of messing around with cables. And when I was without my camera, it proved useful for the (rare) times I used the camera!

iPod
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This is a feature that I LOVE about the iPhone, I don't have a separate iPod and run everything through my iPhone. Tunes are easy to download through the iTunes app (helpfully installed on your phone right from the start!) and available straight away. You can also sync this with your iTunes on your laptop/pc so you don't lose your tunes when you upgrade (or break) your phone. The headphones supplied are normal everyday headphones, and mine have a volume button on the wire which is useful to use when running and my iPhone is in my pocket! I find 16GB sufficient to put both music and apps on my phone, though if you are an avid music lover with thousands upon thousands of songs then maybe you should keep them separate! To set up purchasing songs over your phone you simply need to set up an Apple account with a valid debit card, and by entering your password you can get hold of the latest tunes. Prices from £0.79 for a single song, which I don't think is too bad!

Internet
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Easy to access, either via 3G or wi-fi. One of my tips would be if you are not in a "real" wi-fi zone, just the BTOpenzone area then to switch off your wi-fi and use 3G, I find in the BTOpenzone/BTFON areas you cannot really load the internet, a lot of pages show up that you have to click through and the speed is slow when you do manage to get on, not good if you are impatient! Standard searches work well - and it pretty much is like carrying the internet in your pocket!

Apps in General
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Easy to search and download via the App Store; I'm fairly sure there is an app for everything, I generally tend to go for the free apps (as I'm tight!) and some of my highlights have included "Stop Snoring Aid" "Currency Converter" "Words with Friends" "RunKeeper" to name but a few! There is something out there for everyone


**Battery Life and Water**

My biggest gripe with the iPhone is the POOR battery life, you are lucky to get a full day charge out of your phone. A feature that I thought Apple would improve by the iPhone 4 at least, though according to reports from owners, it is still a majorly lacking feature.

Water......yes I dropped my iPhone in water. What can I say? DON'T do it - a very expensive claim later meant I am now on my second iPhone. In my experience, you can't take the phone apart to dry it out, putting it in rice didn't help, it was just broken, didn't turn on, was just a very expensive mistake sat in a random bowl of rice! Luckily for me I managed to dry it enough (using the rice method) to sync with my laptop so I didn't lose anything on there, though the phone wouldn't switch on and was unusable. A hefty insurance claim later........well let me just say; keep your phone away from water and sync regularly!!


**Price**

I don't know how much these cost to buy standalone, I'd guess again this varies from phone shop, to apple shop, to eBay, though I would say that now the iPhone 4 has been released these have gone down in price. I personally pay via my contract, my upgrade was free, my contract an extorionate £40 a month for 18 months, with this I get 750 free minutes a month and unlimited texts!


**Summary**

Yes its a swishy fancy phone - but when did we need to get all fancy with phones, do we not all use the same basic things? I feel as though I'm trying to keep up with the Jones all the time, though it has saved me going off to buy an iPod!