In brief: I wouldn’t recommend an iPhone to anyone, anymore. It’s not worth the compromises, or the official price. It still makes some sense for me, since I mostly live on the Web and appreciate the touch interface. But 15 months and still no background data? Come. Fucking. On!

Update: Looks like a lot of you are having trouble with the lack of caller ID on the iPhone in India. If you’re jailbroken, try this link. It’s what I used. There’s also an Installer.app package that does the same thing, but I haven’t tested it.

• EDGE-only: We don’t have 3G in India, and even if we did, it would be rubbish (ask any ‘broadband’ user). Also, client processing speed is more important, which is where the iPhone scores.
• Touchscreen-only: I’m not a fan, but using your thumbs on a virtual keyboard beats hunt-and-peck with a tiny stylus. I’m improving with the iPhone’s keyboard, but still not up to E61 speed.
• No memory cards: 8GB is enough. I can never fill ET‘s 5GB mp3 player.
• Expensive: Not really. You’d pay more for recent N-series phones.
• N95 is better: er, no.

Of course, since I bought it on the 11th from the Apple store in NYC, it runs the latest firmware, which has not yet been unlocked. Which means I have an iPod Touch. Still, with the cool browser and WiFi, it makes a damn fine Internet tablet. Some observations:

• WiFi antenna is better than in my E61. Usable signal in my room.
• It’s not perfect. It can act sluggish at times, but even that is leagues better than what I’m used to. No crashes so far.
• Email client is functional, but doesn’t seem to do true push email. IMAP support exists, but I don’t know if it does IDLE.
• Earbuds are horrible. Seriously, if you bought an iPod and think the sound is great, you are a sad, ignorant poser. It’s like Steve Jobs mandated “midrange above all else”.
• WiFi does not work with some models of iMac/MacBook/PowerBook using the built-in Airport and Internet Connection Sharing. It worked fine for me yesterday but died after a few hours and never came back. The Internets have no solution, nor does Apple support.
• Camera is discreet, which is important to some people.
• Buttons are excellent. Just the right amount of relief; tactile.
• Front face is a fingerprint magnet. Nay, it’s worthy of gathering forensic evidence. Keep RayBan-wipie-cloth handy.
• Phone is dense, heavy. Must get a cover. Doesn’t look like it would survive a fall too well.
• Google Maps doesn’t have cell-tower triangulation. I’m addicted to that feature on my E61.
• Browser is bloody brilliant. Even though it uses the same core as the S60v3 browser, it’s just heaps better. I suppose it helps that everyone has or wants to publish an iPhone-optimized site.
• It needs a device-wide search. Or any search for that matter. I’m sure flicking through hundreds of contacts to find the one I want will get lame real quick.
• Battery life with heavy usage is about par for the course. I think I’d get about a day. However, this is with a LOT of WiFi use and with the GSM radio hunting for signal all the time. In actual use, I think I will be satisfied.

I hope it’s a short wait until someone finds a 1.1.2 unlock solution. So far I’ve done a jailbreak and activation, staying away from all the nasty baseband poking (which doesn’t work for 1.1.2 OTB anyway). There are reports of people being able to unlock it today, but at exorbitant rates and with a big question-mark on future viability. There are too many flaky iPhones out there to risk doing something that you may not be able to reverse.

Update: On the same day, I also checked out the mobile GMail app, and that has been updated to v1.5 as well. There are some improvements, though nothing exciting.