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The Apple iPhone's 50 biggest flaws revealed

November 8, 2007

Apple's iPhone has many great features, but its shortcomings are just too big to ignore. Here then, is a list of the iPhone's 50 biggest failings, found while I was testing the device to exhaustion.

Actually, there are 52, but I whittled it down as far as I could.

(If you want to focus on what's good about Apple's hybrid mobile phone and iPod - and there is plenty - read PC Advisor's review of the Apple iPhone.)

  1. Touchscreen imprecise; can't adjust for parallax (finger/screen offset)
  2. Web apps cannot download, upload or store data
  3. Web pages cannot be saved for offline viewing
  4. Cannot browse iPhone's folders by any means
  5. No Flash, Java or native application support
  6. Mail viewer HTML image display, JavaScript can't be disabled
  7. Yahoo push email did not deliver immediately in tests
  8. Proximity sensor did not answer calls in tests
  9. Extremely strong radio frequency interference
  10. Enclosed speaker is too weak for speakerphone and voicemail playback
  11. Operation of interactive websites awkward
  12. Two-year commitment required for US activation - no word on the UK
  13. No voice dialling; full hands-free operation impossible
  14. No VoIP support for Wi-Fi
  15. No A2DP (Bluetooth stereo) support
  16. Battery not user-replaceable
  17. Memory not swappable or expandable
  18. Quality of camera is comparatively poor; focus distance limited; no digital zoom; cannot capture video
  19. No voice-record capability; iPod add-on did not function
  20. No TV out
  21. Safari doesn't try to reformat web page for convenient viewing (like Windows Mobile IE's one-column view)
  22. Device does not operate in landscape mode in all applications
  23. Battery drains rapidly with Wi-Fi use; no transmit power setting
  24. Substantial delay for new voicemail notification
  25. Will not accept existing SIM card
  26. No external mute button
  27. Slow rendering of zoomed HTML content
  28. Slow JavaScript interpreter, no mouse events hamper Web 2.0 apps
  29. No streaming audio/video support
  30. No full-screen view in browser; large button strip always present
  31. No edit-in-place in Settings; each line of text is a separate entry page
  32. Onscreen keyboard is large, opaque; obscures underlying interface
  33. No text select/copy/paste
  34. No rich text editor
  35. Vertical/horizontal scroll regions too narrow; trip underlying controls
  36. Feeling for home button can delete email (trash button is bottom centre of display)
  37. No file upload limits use of online document viewers
  38. Not addressable as USB storage
  39. Phone audio quality below par
  40. No over-the-air sync options
  41. No third-party software
  42. Spelling errors are not flagged in text
  43. Cursor positioning inside editable text is difficult
  44. Cannot download content for offline playback except through iTunes
  45. No Bonjour support for iTunes, web sharing
  46. Headset jack not phone standard
  47. iPhone pairs with MacBook Pro Bluetooth, but offers no supported services
  48. No master inbox covering multiple mail accounts
  49. Chat substitute uses expensive SMS (web alternatives available but don't signal on incoming chat invite)
  50. Fewer slideshow transition effects than video iPod
  51. No musical ring tones
  52. No exposure control in camera, very slow shutter creates blurry images

InfoWorld

Posted by: Tom Yager

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Comments

Posted by trevor on July 22, 2007 :

Baffled as to why anyone would come up with a list like this. Most of it applies to every other phone (smart or otherwise) on the market. Reading some of the items makes me wonder if you have even used an iPhone.

Posted by Ian on August 3, 2007 :

Haven't used the iphone but have had a Nokia N95 for 3 months and it has most of these features and more. Something that I would expect from a phone that, to quote Steve Job's, "iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone." What the iphone offers is actually 5 years behind the time. I live in the UK and it's already a joke here and in Europe. No 3, let alone 3.5, G. No MMS. No removable battery or MicroSD. It can't even send one text to multiple addresses. I for one appreciate the exposure of the iphone for what it is (or is not).

Posted by matt on August 3, 2007 :

you can find thousands of flaws on a blackberry you can find flaws on anything apple never said that it could do any of the things that you are complaining about if apple said that their phone could do java and you got the iphone and it didnt do java then it would give you a reason to complain but it didnt say that it had that function.thats like saying my solo mobile phone doesnt pop popcorn kernals use ur head

Posted by jeffy on August 3, 2007 :

ya i agree matt ur awsome

Posted by Ian on August 3, 2007 :

Let me remind you of Steve Jobs words once again "iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone." Which part is literally 5 years ahead?

Posted by Ceri on November 8, 2007 :

I had a Sony Ericsson P800 for years and it also had many of the above features, but the iPhone is still a far superior phone. Checking off a feature list does not alone make a phone great; attention to detail and usability are important as well.

Posted by tim on November 9, 2007 :

My answer for Ian
The interface.
There is no such thing as "eye candy". The mistake many make is looking at spec lists and thinking that this is all that counts as a comparison. The other frequent mistake is that people can't imagine that other folk operate by different criteria.
The N95 is a wonderful thing but there are many who don't want the features and, importantly, many more who might like them but can't work out how to use them... really. You can, and that's great; but not everyone can. All that "eye candy" usually allows people to guess how the dang thing works.

Posted by tmventures on November 9, 2007 :

Not a bad list but you missed the biggest which is the SMS app is completely hopeless, popups of your sms's for everyone to see, no sending to multiple contacts, no management of vcards, no individual delete of messages, etc, etc. Possibly the second most used phone function and it's totally broken. Hopefully the influence of a european market will push them to fix this asap.

Posted by Donald Michael Kraig on November 9, 2007 :

Too much time on your hands? Why don't you get a job?

Posted by Davey on November 9, 2007 :

At the end of the day, if you buy a phone it's likely to be a device you will be using every day. Even the smallest of issues would start to annoy you and sour your opinion of it. There are quite a few items in this list that I would check when choosing a new phone so this list is good for me.

I'll hang back and see what develops with the iPhone I think.

Posted by doncollier on November 10, 2007 :

jealousy is ugly

Posted by dean on November 10, 2007 :

one thing you're missing; a new iPhone feature is as simple as a software update. that's revolutionary.

Posted by Nokia N95 on November 10, 2007 :

Nokia upgrades its phone software, please return your phone so we can add another button to the keypad.

Posted by Gazza on November 10, 2007 :

whats with all the apple haters. Its microsoft you should hate. how mutch did they charge for vista £149 to £349, what a rip off. The iphone might not be perfect but what phone is. my mates n93 kept crashing so he upgraded to the n95 but he says its still got problems.

Posted by dean on November 11, 2007 :

why? probably because this is a PC Advisor forum. i've been a windows user since late 80's with Win 3.0; last year switched to mac when Vista left me in the technical dust. only thing i regret is not switching to mac years ago. OSX is an elegant OS, and my Mac does everything i need to it do. I still have an XP system but hardly ever turn it on again. btw, apple's retail stores sales and traffic are growing more than 30% a year which means the demand is there.

Posted by Darren Scott on November 12, 2007 :

This list waas obviously written by a biased idiot!

Most of these flaws are things that you dont need because they make other phones complicated. It is the most usable and sensible user interface I have ever used.

How many special features did the wheel have when they invented that, it is just a simple device that performs it function well.

Posted by Dave McMeow on November 12, 2007 :

Most of these 'flaws' ar software based and will be fixed (i'm sure) in future firmware updates. a couple of the 'flaws' aren't at all - they're selling points. a pretty pointless list.

Posted by Thanks for the list. on November 12, 2007 :

Hmmm!
Think I'll stick with my £30 Motorola W375 pay as you go.
It's a phone.

Posted by JC on November 19, 2007 :

First off, i have used this phone and think it's a bit average. As a package, this is overhyped and poor.

Technologically, it's a small step forward (it's easy to use and the touch screen is interesting) but nothing more than what HTC and HP have rolled out in the past with Windows Mobile.

The whole concept of Apple being able to disable phones if you tinker with it is just horrific. If MS did this then the EU would come down like a tonne of bricks. And what's up with not being able to use your own earphones?!

I'll stick with my current phone and iPod 4G for now.

Posted by Whatever-ishere on November 21, 2007 :

thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful...

Posted by Dog training on November 27, 2007 :

Very interesting... as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.

Posted by Alex on December 9, 2007 :

much of these have been fixed in software updates already, the stuff about safari not editing the web is the selling point. The touch screen is the best on a phone. The phone is easy to use so you won't lose anything and need to browse folders.There is little interference recorded by others. It has the most memory available in a phone.There is a mute button. Rendering of zoomed content is very fast (for a phone).There is a spell check.

The only serious issues are the lack of 3G, the camera and the cost. These do not matter to me as it it a cool enough device to make up for the cost, it has wi-fi (which is widely available in the south-east and the cloud is packed with the contract) to make up for the lack of 3G and I only use a phone camera to get the gist of something

PC Advisor staff
Blogger Daily news, views and thoughts from the PC Advisor staff as they put together the magazine. Collectively the PC Advisor team has over 100 years of computing experience, so as you'll imagine they're never short of an opinion or two.
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