Section 1 - Hardware
As with most Apple hardware, it's a looker. The glossy black finish reminiscent of Sony's PS3, with a nice chrome apple "buy me" logo on the upper back of the device. The metal trim curving off the front of the device makes the device look really unique and makes it stand out anywhere.
The 3.5" screen is nice and bright and produces a crisp clear image, and is flush with the device as is the 2 megapixel camera on the back. The speaker for phonecalls is above the screen and fits in well with the device, and the loudspeaker for music, ringtones and applications is on the bottom of the device, which to be honest, I've noticed gets covered a lot by my finger when holding the phone in landscape mode. The microphone is located on the other side of the USB/Dock connector, and looks just like the speaker.
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Section 2 - Multimedia
On the Multimedia side of things there is a lot of bang for your buck. With the same interface and operating system as the iPod touch you can enjoy 3d coverflow, which shows album art for all your music in 3D and is enabled by tipping the device to a landscape position, and looks awesome! There is also youtube support so you can also get rick rolled on your iPhone! The youtube support is well integrated and a great part of the iPhone software. The iPhone sports a 2 megapixel camera, which to be honest, isn't the greatest camera i've seen on a phone with no flash, but beats rivals such as the T-Mobile G1 hands down. Your photo's can be used in applications such as iJiggles from smells like donkey inc. and more and can be amusing.
Music playback from the phone is loud, but quality-wise it could be a little better coming from Apple.
Viewing photos is great too, just simply use your finger to flick through them and pinch inwards or outwards with 2 fingers to zoom in and out thanks to the iPhone 3G's excellent multi touch display.
All of this is great however, but you can't help but feel let down by the lack of video capture on the iPhone
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Section 3 - Gaming on the iPhone
Apple really have made a great portable games console in the iPhone and the sooner people realise this the better. Console quality games such as gameloft's Asphalt 4:Elite Racing, The Hero of Sparta and Brothers in Arms, along with Sega's Super Monkey Ball make the iPhone a well suited choice to the portable gamer like myself. 3D graphics look crystal clear and the frame rate of the 3D games is outstanding. Personally, I believe the iPhone is better for gaming than the Nintendo DS Lite
Section 4 - Messaging
Not really much I can say on this as my main email account is with Windows Live, so I haven't really been able to use the email... sorry readers! But as for text messaging, I've done a bit of that, and I love it. Your messages show up in what looks like a windows live messenger sort of way, a conversation view, with green speech bubbles on the right (you) and white on the left (receipient)with a text entry window for the on-screen keyboard below.
Section 5 - Internet
Browsing the internet on your iPhone 3G is a dream! It looks great, carefully scaling full html pages to your screen in landscape or portrait mode and 3G internet speeds as well as WiFi support make this a wonderful experience. Websites such as gametrailers & more have iPhone support now too. If portable browsing is your thing, this is your phone.
Section 6 - Overview
If you're looking for a phone that can do it all (apart from video capture) then the iPhone is for you. It's an innovation in mobile phones which is already becoming the future of phones spawning copycats from manufacturers like Samsung and even Nokia.
Is the iPhone the best phone ever? Quite possibly, yes.
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