Consumer Reports on iPhone as a Phone

I do not yet have an iPhone, as I'm waiting for my current phone contract to expire in November. I use my speed dial daily and I'm sorry to hear that it isn't a feature, but I don't think that is going to stop my purchase... there are too many good reasons to find a work around! Thanks for the ideas and keep them coming!

No other phone remembers what you were doing last and returns to that activity as a default. So if making and receiving calls is what I'm doing a lot of and it is, then being immediately brought back to the Recent list is what I want and need. No other phone has a Favorites list for numbers. That is one touch dialing. And I can read the names in the list on its screen without my reading glasses. I start each day by clearing my recent list. Then as the day progresses it builds with those people who call me or I call. In other words the people whom are important to today's work.
Sound quality. I keep my headphones on so I can talk hands free. Another benefit of that is that I hear the call in mono. I find it much easier to understand people in noise environments this way. And I don't have to talk loudly to be understood, the built in mic is excellent. Music: I am a musician, but still found it inconvenient to carry my iPod and a phone. But now since I have the iPod there in the phone, it is very convenient. And not just listening and answering a call. The iPhone doesn't require you to stop the music to make a call either. Just dial and it will handle your music and return to it when you have finished the call.

I would mention what is in second place to be fair, but nobody is there!

Voice quality is as good as any other phone I've had, esp. in combo with the Jawbone. I had tried various bluetooth headseats with my blackberry previously and they all sucked. Not sure if it was the blackberry or the headsets but either way, I had given up on bluetooth until iPhone/Jawbone. The iPhone wired headset sound quality on phone calls is terrible, I wonder if that is what the reviewers are basing their opinion on. It has that old "voice through a drainpipe" quality to it. The speakerphone on the other hand sounds good, though it doesn't go loud enough.

The signal quality is variable as with any phone. I find most GSM phones drop calls a little more easily in weak signal areas. On the other hand, I was previously on nextel where I experienced an alarming number of dropped calls for no reason at all.

Agree with others on some of the nits such as lack of ability to send a call to vmail when the phone is locked. Also, I'm usually using it hands-free, and with the touch screen it's very easy to accidentally hit the wrong buttons. I've already had a couple of incidents where I accidentally dialed someone just while looking at the call history list. On the other hand, the interface is so much easier than any other phone I've ever had. Visual voicemail is sweet.

Anyone else find that using bluetooth drains the battery fiercely?

I LIKE my iPhone, but I'm really upset about the lack of a voice dial feature. This makes it nearly impossible to use the phone while driving unless someone calls you and you have your headphones on. Despite its cool features, I'm contemplating taking the iPhone back and saving my money until it has voice dialing. I'm afraid Apple underestimated how important that feature might be

One feature that I think deserves to be pointed to all the people that don't have an iPhone is the ease of handling a second incoming call or any second call for that fact. As long as I've been using cell phones, I have never been able to master switching from one caller to answer another call without accidently hanging up on one of the callers. iPhone is dead simple. You see who is calling. The phone shows you how to put the current call on hold and answer the second. Then, the best part is being able to switch back and forth between the callers by just touching the name / number being displayed. For me, the ease of this makes iPhone the best phone I've ever used.

Consumer Reports has always had an agenda. I don't know what it is exactly, but I've never seen a review of theirs that I agreed with.

I used voice dialing once upon a time, wait, let me rephrase that, I "tried" to use voice dialing once upon a time. It sucked! I never tried it again.
So you're telling me that during this review, they never noticed that whatever page you have displayed will still be there the next time you access the application?
If you check your email inbox, next time you press the email button it opens the inbox and checks your email. Wow! One click!
If you access your Favorites call list (or recent call list) the next time you click on the phone button it will open your Favorites (or recent) list. Wow! One click!

I don't think I would place much stock in a review that couldn't even notice such obvious features. The would rather whine about the features (bloatware) that are missing.

90% of the calls I make are to the same people - the wife, the parents, the siblings, some good friends, and work. So if for some reason they aren't in my recent calls I just dial the number, am I the only one who remembers phone numbers anymore? Never used voice dialing on my old phones, I always found the technology flaky at best and downright unusable at worst. Other than that the phone just works, sound quality is no worse than any other cell phone I've used. I don't use the speakerphone because, well.. I hate when other people use it. It's bad enough I have to hear one side of someone else's conversation let alone both sides. It's one of the main reasons I hate Nextel so much. My private email works just fine through the mail app and my work email is easily accessible the Web Access. I have no complaints on the EDGE network either, does anyone remember surfing on a 14K dialup anymore?

CR should change their name to SCR- Subjective Consumer Reports, I haven't seen them do an unbiased review in a very, very long time.

The Techno-nerds constantly claim that "Apple didn't do it first" and "my smartphone can also do that".

What they don't understand is that Apples fortes are enabling the difficult "for the rest of us", so that we can easily and intuitively do what we want, without mastering a device with ten times as many features that we will never use...and constantly referring to thick and arcane manuals.

It's about ease of use and "empowerment" of ordinary people...something at which the other smartphones failed miserably.

As a phone, it sucks for text messaging. Has anyone gotten the hang of it yet?

I found the typing really tricky to do at a decent speed, and the interface was pretty unintuitive (though I like the idea of previous messages being on screen so you can remember what was said before).

I'm surprised to hear so many say they never use voice dialing. I make easily 60% of my calls with voice dialing. On previous phones, I could never remember what quick dial buttons were assigned to which person. Now, I press a button, speak the name, and get connected. Voice dialing is the one feature that is keeping me on the fence about switching over to the iPhone.