The iPhone is turning out the first highly hyped consumer launch of the millennium that actually lives up to the hype.

With the iPhone launch only 2 days and 3 hours away, Apple provided review models to a few A-list tech columnists such as The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret and David Pogue from the New York Times.

27 Jun 2007

The device seems all that Apple said it would be. That alone is quite a feat. In the past years, no a single consumer electronics provider was able to create a large buzz without disappointing when their product launched. Sony's PS3 tanked, Wii never really built up much up much fervour prior to the launch, and Microsoft failed with pretty much all of their products, most notably the Zune, Windows Vista and the UMPC that it developed together with Intel.

The reviewers however all seemed to agree that the iPhone's wireless radio is drastically underpowered. Being equipped with an Edge radio rather than 3G technology, browsing the web will proof a challenge to your patience.

Secondly, the on-screen keyboard will take some getting used to.

But for every minus, there are numerous plusses, most notably the phone's intuitive user interface and operation.