Back at D5, Steve told Walt that the iPhone is “The best iPod we’ve ever made”, which I took on faith. At the time, I had a lowly second-generation nano (8GB black; what my friend called “the pretentious model”), which I felt was durned-near perfect in both form and function. Still, it was an exercise in discipline to wait to get an iPhone until my previous phone contract was over, which it finally was last fall. Now that I’ve had an iPhone for a few months (16GB black, natch), I disagree with what Steve said.

Did I just blaspheme? Well, let’s inject some reason. I think Steve was wrong about the iPhone being the best-ever iPod because it wasn’t an evolution in the iPod design, it was a compromise between having a portable media player and a portable communications platform (phone, email, and web browsing) in the same device. For example, the touchscreen uses the electrical conductivity of your skin, which is why you have to use your bare fingers. The nano and classic iPod have physical controls, which I find dead-simple to operate with gloved hands or in my pocket. And I didn’t have to change which application or orientation my nano was in before I started operating it; let’s be plain, Cover Flow flat out sucks.

The iPhone isn’t even the best phone I’ve had. Answering my old RAZR was simple: I just flipped up the cover with my thumb. Answering my iPhone means scrambling to get my gloves off to operate the touchscreen (I wish pressing the home button answered). Speed dialing an older phone meant holding a single button: calling someone on my iPhone can easily take 7 taps. Hanging up with a physical control felt more decisive than tapping a piece of glass and looking to make sure it worked.

All that said, there are a lot of things that the iPhone can do that no other phone or media player can do (or at least not as well, I expect). I’m definitely much more satisfied with my iPhone than my previous setup. For all the benifits—ubiquitous web access, maps & GPS, and increasingly for apps—I’m perfectly willing to make some compromises. Let’s just be clear that there are compromises.

Though my non-techie girlfriend does tell me that despite being an Apple geek, I’m a little cooler for not being totally satisfied with one of Steve’s products.