The flashy look and cool factor of the iPhone might have been great features in the beginning, but after a month of use, the Houston Chronicle’s Dwight Silverman found that the combination iPod and smart phone’s luster had worn off. Topping his list of complaints were email support, Web browsing, and Internet connectivity.

Mr. Silverman found the iPhone’s Microsoft Exchange support to be lacking. "f your company uses Microsoft Exchange for its e-mail , you can forget about using the iPhone to get your business mail unless your systems folks are willing to turn on an older e-mail feature called IMAP," he said. "Many system administrators won’t do this (including those at the Chronicle), leaving users in the lurch."

He also found the lack of support for "push" email that arrives in real time to be a problem, and wasn’t pleased with the iPhone’s new email notifications.

The Safari Web browser does offer an overall better experience than the browsers found on other handheld devices, but Mr. Silverman found that he had issues with JavaScript, and that some sites failed to function correctly. He also felt that the EDGE data network the iPhone uses was far too slow.

"If you can get to Wi-Fi with the iPhone, you’ll want to do it, even if you have to beg, borrow or steal, because the Edge network is incredibly slow," he said.

Mr. Silverman also found the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard to be lacking. He wasn’t able to get proficient with the keyboard, and considered the predictive typing feature to be inferior to the offerings on most other smart phones.

The iPhone’s price tag was a problem, too. At US$499 or $599, the device should offer far more than the 4GB or 8GB currently available.

In the end, Mr. Silverman went back to his familiar Samsung BlackJack. His advice: Wait for version 2.