All of my friends and associates seemed to have iPhones, and I once used to watch with jealousy as they browsed the internet on the move, so it was time to take the plunge and off to my local Network 3 store I went to pick up my new and shiny beast. I had already decided the colour I wanted before seeing it and that was the newly released 'White' iPhone, everyone I knew at the time had a black one and it's always nice to be different!
I bought the phone on a 24 month contract at a rather reasonable - £30 a month which included 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 500mb of internet usage. I thought this was a fair deal at the time as I had checked other networks which seemed a lot more expensive than Network 3 with the handset priced at only £99.
***Inside the box***
I walked out of the Network 3 shop rather proudly with my new phone in its little posh looking plastic box. I don't know what my problem is with Apple's packaging but it always takes me a while to actually get inside, however once I was inside I found;
-The Phone (Very nice looking indeed)
-Wall charger and USB wire
-Earphones
And the usual paper associated with electronic items... Not really a proper instruction manual but it is very easy to set up.
To set the iPhone up you must plug it into a computer and pair it with the iTunes software which can be rather annoying but I guess it must be done. It was actually quite simple to do, I plugged it in and waited for the software to do its thing and voila! My beast was alive and it greeted me with a fantastic quality screen filled with lots of applications of which I was about to discover :)
***Using the phone***
The phone is extremely easy to use when you consider how powerful and feature packed it really is. The home screen contains all of the short cuts to various applications such as 'Phone', obviously you touch this if you want to make a phone call, 'Messages', 'Safari - Apples internet browser', etc.. I personally love the set-up of the phones menus and I find it extremely easy to use and all of the menu's flow smoothly as you swipe your fingers accross the screen.
I made my first phone call within seconds of turning the phone on and I remember being extremely impressed with the very clear sound through the earpiece and the person on the other end said I sounded better than calling on my last phone, which must be a good sign. I did notice however that the iPhone without a fitted case is quite sharp to hold, the edges of the phone are not as rounded as the older iPhones that I had used in the past but luckily Network 3 had included a case which fixed that issue.
So Nick, what can the iPhone do apart from making phone calls?
The iPhone is a smartphone and in my opinion it is one of the best I've seen. It has the full iPod software installed which allows you to store and listen to all of your favorite music. You can buy your tunes on the phone itself without going through the hassle of plugging it into the computer and all of the messing around.
When you open the iTunes store you are greeted with all of the music you could ever wish for and I doubt that there is anyone left out. The song prices are clearly marked (Usually costing around 69p - 99p per track) and to buy you simply press 'buy-now' and the song will be on your iPhone ready for enjoyment within a minute. Music videos and certain TV shows are often available for download too which makes the phone very interesting.
The phones audio is very good and the quality is fantastic, the earphones provided do not give the best sound quality which is a shame. They are good enough for me but I have tried other brands and they are much better. The earphones have a microphone built in which allows you to talk hands free, the phone does however have speakerphone built in but if you're listening to music at the same time as someone calling you can easily answer.
***Using the internet***
This phone has both the 3G connectivity which uses your network provider's connection and of course, WiFi which can be used free of charge in your home, Starbucks etc.
All of the internet browsing is done through the 'Safari' shortcut on the home display which is absolutely fabulous. You can browse pretty much any website you want and make Google your homepage if need be. I was so impressed with the internet browsing that it was not long until my laptop was retired to the cupboard and I was using my iPhone for everything - that is the reason I haven't been on Caio in a while..... It takes quite a long time typing and rating on the iPhone and that is the only downfall I have found so far but the on-screen keyboard is perfectably useable and I would consider trying to write a review on it someday.
TV???YES!! You can watch TV on your iPhone :) I discovered this by accident one night when I decided to try BBC iPlayers website and I discovered that there is now an application for iPhone to stream videos straight from the site, this includes ITV too which is extremely handy. The picture and sound is extremely good and in all honesty I would chuck my TV in the bin right now if it was just me living in the house. I now watch all of my programs straight from the iPhone whether I'm in the house or on the move (Beware that it can be rather costly on some mobile provider's tariffs if you go over your internet usage - I found this out from experience! Ooops)
***Applications***Now this must be one of the most exciting features of the iPhone - the App Store! The saying 'There's an App for that', is rather true. You can find useful applications for almost anything you want and most are free to purchase with others costing fair amounts. Here are some of the Apps that I use on a daily basis (Gosh what would I do without my iPhone?)
*Ebay
*PayPal
*Facebook
*Lloyd's TSB internet banking
*BBC iPlayer
*ITV Player
*Skype
*Lots of games and I'm not going to mention any more as there are too many loaded on my phone right now, if you have any questions at all please do ask and I'll do my best to answer as I don't want to make this review too long.
***Camera***
Now this is one of my most used features, the camera is a 5mp I believe and the quality is absolutely incredible. You can take videos of pretty much any length and with 16GB of phone storage you can store many of them! I currently have 38 videos of various lengths and 1346 photos, these accompanied with all of the music that I have stored on the phone has unfortunately filled my memory to capacity but that's not a problem as I can transfer all of your pictures and videos to my computer using the easy iTunes software. This is done in a matter of a few minutes.
There is also a camera on the front of the iPhone which is there for using Apple's facetime feature. If your friends with the iPhone 4 are in WiFi range then you can make video calls and talk face to face. I have not used this and doubt that I ever will but it is handy. I mainly use the front camera as a mirror and it is fantastic for this, it shows every wrinkle!
***Quality of the handset - Battery etc***
Now the quality of the handset is very impressive. Now I believe that the phones front and back panels are glass, scary I know! I have owned the phone for about 6 months now and I've used the case provided the whole time, I've dropped it 6 times EEEK! But I have been very lucky and the glass panels have not even got a single mark on them. I usually find with smartphones that their large screens are easily marked normally as they are made from plastic, the iPhone does not suffer from this. My screen is not at all protected and I do not look after it too well as I just chuck it in my pocket when not in use etc. However there is not one mark on my screen, it's like new! The protective case is a must though, if you drop this on concrete without a case it will not bounce like the good old Nokia's, it will smash and it won't be very pretty!
The handset is very basic; there's just one main button on the bottom, which is used for exiting certain screens while using the handset etc. There is also an 'On/Off' button on the top and a very handy side button for turning the silent mode on and off - Gone are the days of searching the phones menus for the silent mode. This button can be slightly annoying at times as it can be accidently moved in my pocket, maybe it's just me finding this but it is very rare that it happens.
Most reviews that I've read on iPhones complain about the battery life - mainly the older models. I use my phone probably much more than the average person and I easily get a whole day from the battery. I really cannot complain about the life of the battery as I've had far worse and comparing the features to the other phones that I have owned.... Well they cannot be compared to be honest! If I just used the phone for texting and calling I reckon I could stretch the battery to last 2 days which is still rather good. The charge time is very quick and mine takes roughly just under 2 hours for a full charge and that is rather reasonable.
There are so many features with this phone that it's actually quite hard remembering them all.
It has all of the usual features which include - Bluetooth, Alarm clock, calendar etc...
***Overall opinion***
This is a fabulous phone and I can see myself being extremely happy with it throughout the whole time of my contract. After my experience with this I'm quite happy to say that as soon as the iPhone 5 is released I will buy it without a question. The phone looks stunning and has every feature that you could wish for, it is not over priced considering everything that it does, I have now joined the iPhone gang and oh boy am I glad I did? Yes
I love this beast :) 
Well reviewed. E.