NEW YORK, September 12 — Nineteen years after PCMag published its review of the original iPhone, the magazine has revisited that verdict and measured it against everything that followed. The review’s closing line called the device a vanguard product “heralding some insanely great products to come.” PCMag’s retrospective, part of its “An Apple a Day” series running daily through late September, treats that prediction as the through-line of the mobile era since. The piece was updated September 12, 2026, by Eric Zeman, Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics.
PCMag notes its team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year. The “An Apple a Day” series shares Apple stories and video from the archives, alongside pieces from sibling sites CNET, Lifehacker, Mashable, and Popular Science.
How the iPhone Arrived
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone on stage at Macworld in January 2007. The announcement came in San Francisco on January 9, 2007, while most of the industry was in Las Vegas for CES. The device reached Apple and AT&T retail stores in June 2007, after a six-month wait that, in PCMag’s telling, “felt like an eternity.” Even before release, the iPhone was loved and reviled equally.
Some hailed it as the “Jesus phone,” while others judged it for what it wasn’t. The next day, at the Hilton in Las Vegas, a joint Apple and AT&T press briefing turned contentious.
PCMag’s then-lead phone reviewer Sascha Segan loudly questioned Apple’s decision to ship the phone with EDGE (2.5G) rather than UMTS or CDMA (3G), which was catching on with competing devices. On paper, the original iPhone looked like a loser to the tech-obsessed. It lacked 3G, stereo Bluetooth, and third-party apps.
Its stated one-day battery life was less than half the endurance of others. It packed a 2MP camera with a single function at a time when Nokia was shipping advanced 5MP cameras with multiple capture modes, and it could not send picture messages or record video at launch.
Microsoft’s then-CEO Steve Ballmer said, “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” It took 74 days for Apple to sell 1 million units.
Why the Skeptics Were Wrong
In person, the device was remarkable. It was the first phone with only a finger-touch user interface. Until then most devices relied on resistive screens supporting stylus input but still required directional buttons or scroll wheels.
The iPhone wasn’t the first phone to support multi-point touch, up to 10 fingers at a time, but it was the first to put it to such effective use, with swiping and pinching gestures for the home screen and menus — a UI paradigm still used every day. The iPod app’s UI was colorful and fun, unlike text-heavy, folder-based menus elsewhere.
Safari browsing was worlds different from text-heavy WAP browsers thanks to broader HTML and imagery support. PCMag’s review, by Sascha Segan and Tim Gideon, proved prescient despite the skepticism. “The Apple iPhone is a great first try from Apple,” they wrote, adding, “Apple’s smart, though, and this is just the beginning.
Think of this as the 128K Mac of the 21st century—a vanguard product, maybe not perfect or the most usable machine ever…but heralding some insanely great products to come.” They also wrote, “The seamless integration of the internet, iPod, Maps, Phone, and email functions flaunted in the commercials is no exaggeration. The iPhone is intuitive, interconnected, and impossible to get lost in—just hit the home button to get to the main screen.”
A Regional Retail Ritual
For mobile enthusiasts across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the wider Middle East, following Apple releases has evolved from niche hobbyist chatter into major retail events. Regional heavyweights like Amazon.ae, Noon, and Jarir Bookstore handle the launches, with carriers like du, Etisalat by e&, and STC lining up midnight launches. This week, Apple introduced the iPhone 18 Pro, the 18 Pro Max, and its first foldable phone, the Duo, drawing immense interest from tech followers tracking Apple’s September event across the GCC.
Related PCMag coverage includes “Samsung Trolls Apple by Hiring ‘Tim Cook’ to Endorse Galaxy Z Fold 8,” “Apple’s New iPhone Duo Is a Digital Artist’s Dream. It’s Just Missing One Thing,” and “Apple iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Which Foldable Is Right for You?” What to watch next is whether the foldable Duo earns the same kind of long-arc vindication the original iPhone eventually did.
PCMag’s archive series continues daily through late September.
