Geek Note: Photos in this article were taken with a Nokia N95 mobile phone.

Some Saturday morning errands took me past the AT&T Store in downtown Berkeley, CA, so I popped in to get my hands on an iPhone. I didn't buy one -- though they did have "one eight gig model" in stock, according to the salesman behind the counter -- but rather spent several minutes trying out one of the display models. What follows is in no way a review, but rather some first impressions based on about fifteen minutes of hands-on time with a display unit ... and six months' worth of hype overload before that.

• Form Factor: Apple nailed this one. I've tried out a ton of cell phones over the past year for Phonedog.com and have come to tolerate a larger footprint (width and height) in favor of a slimmer profile (depth/thickness). It's rare to find a full-featured handset that's got a decent footprint and is pleasanty thin. Nokia N95? Small but thick. Helio Ocean? A little big, real thick. Motorola Q? Thin, but that QWERTY board makes for quite the footprint.

  iPhone's got it on both fronts - it's roughly the height and width of a Treo but thinner than a RAZR. This one will tuck away in a jeans pocket with no problems, and the hardened glass lens promises to keep it as close to scratch free as any gadget out there.



• Touchscreen: iPhone's screen is absolutely gorgeous - maybe the best on any phone out there right now. It really shined when I was watching video content. The multitouch functionality generally worked well, though I had some issues with the virtual keyboard and tapping some Web links (see below). There's a very well conceived tap/double-tap UI rhythm that's used to zoom in/zoom out, activate/deactivate features, and so on. Smudge factor (i.e. fingerprints) wasn't too bad considering it's a touch input-only device.


• User Interface: Typical Apple home run, minus the fact that in order to make a phone call you have to go to the Home screen and then tap the Phone icon - on a phone, you really should be able to one-click to dialing mode from anywhere. That being said, iPhone's UI is far and away the coolest I've ever seen on a mobile phone. Does that mean it's the best? Not necessarily. For instance, there's no Home screen view into the day's appointments like there is on Series 60 or Windows Mobile phones. But iPhone certainly blows all the other handsets away when it comes to eye candy on the display.


• iPod: iPhone is, hopefully, a sneak peek at the 6G iPod. And there's much to be excited about, particularly if you watch videos on the go. The 480 x 320, 160 dpi display is stellar for imaging. Flicking through album covers in Cover Flow mode is fun, though not really my cup of tea. Pinching to zoom in and out on photos is also pretty nifty, and potentially more long-term useful than Cover Flow. And the overall UI mechanism of flicking to scroll a list and then tapping to stop the scroll is really intuitive and well-done - though I don't know if it's as/more/less efficient than clicking buttons to search lists alphanumerically.

  As mentioned, watching videos (and looking at photos) on iPhone is pure pleasure. This is the "widescreen iPod" that videohounds have been waiting for, save the lack of TV-out capabilities. The overall media UI is really well done, and video playback is smooth and vibrant. Tapping the screen displays/removes playback controls much in the same way that OS X's DVD Player controls can be shown and hidden.

  One big issue I have is with iPhone's headphone jack. It's a standard 3.5mm jack, which is (oddly enough) a feature hard to find on most cell phones. But it's recessed and not flush-mounted, so it's actually incompatible with the majority of third party earphones out there. I really don't get that one - while I'm sure a ton of headphone makers out there will retool their 'phones to fit iPhone, I can't imagine spending $600 on "the new iPod" only to find out that it won't work with my $250 canalphones. For the record, it works with Etyomtics ER-6i, but not Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 pro. (Those are the two I happen to care most about in a selfish sort of way, sorry)

  Also, there's no stereo Bluetooth support, which isn't that big of a deal for me but definitely has lots of wireless fans up in arms. Again, a bit of a head-scratcher for a state-of-the-art media phone.

  

• Keyboard and Messaging: It's been widely reported that you have to spend some time practicing with iPhone's keyboard to really get the hang of it. I only spent about five or ten minutes playing with it, so I can't really judge in full. That being said, I wasn't very impressed with the virtual keyboard. My instinct was to grab the thing and start tapping with both thumbs. That was a disaster. Typing with a single index finger was a significant improvement, but I still had a hard time getting through "The Quick Brown Fox ..." without rendering it utterly indecipherable. Apple's predictive text system was pretty impressive, and I fully believe that learning to trust it is the iPhone owner's best bet. But I came away thinking a keyboard with a learning curve can't really be a good thing unless it prevents carpal tunnel, RSS, "Blackberry Thumb," or another keyboard-related affliction.

  A widescreen keyboard is available in the Safari app, and it's roomier and easier to navigate. Hopefully Apple will release a software update with widescreen keyboards enabled across all of iPhone's apps. The lack of a widescreen soft keyboard was one of the things that turned me against Motorola's ROKR E6, as a matter of fact.

  SMS messages are displayed iChat style, in colored "thought bubbles." Unfortunately, iChat itself is not included, nor is support for MMS messaging. Maybe Apple kept IM and MMS away from iPhone to help simplify rate plans, but it's another head-scratcher for such a multimedia-oriented device.

• Web: Safari looks brilliant on iPhone. Even better in widescreen mode. But EDGE data speeds are slow, and I also had a wee bit of trouble tapping certain links on the touchscreen. For instance, I hit some snags trying to click pinpricks on a Google Map. Still, the combination of Multitouch and Safari is a really nice harbringer of things to come from Apple.

  Thing is, the Nokia N75 on display across the room at the AT&T store also features a Safari-based Web browser, but with 3G data speeds. The screen was smaller and it had no touchscreen, but it was much, much faster to load Web pages, featured a full-featured media player, camera with video recording (iPhone can't take videos) and also selling for less than half the price of iPhone. Just something to keep in mind.

  Then again, I bet iPhone over a good WiFi connection is everything Nokia wishes its N800 tablet computer could be. Of course, the N800 does Skype and sells for half the price. But it's no cell phone. Or iPod. But there's no contract necessary. Man, I could go on all day ... it's kind of scary.

• Widget Apps: YouTube worked well, but videos were a little slow to load and a bit blocky. Maps was very cool, but lacking the ease-of-use that GPS provides.