Confession time. I play poker whilst I brush my teeth.

On my phone you understand. On my own. It’s not like I whip out a green cloth and some chips. I’m not even worried about wearing sunglasses to hide my tells.

Ever since we got an electric toothbrush, the reduced effort required on my part has rendered those two minutes the longest of the day. Unless you have another distraction. OK, maybe witnessing  my 2 year old’s teeth brushing is more tedious, but it never lasts two minutes. In that time you can play half a dozen hands if you’re lucky.

2 minutes, twice a day for 75 years – that’s over 75 days of your life you could be putting to good use. Not that I’m saying tooth brushing is not good use.

Why I am telling you this?

Working in this industry, it probably comes as no surprise that I have an iPhone. It’s standard issue; part of the uniform like jeans, an open necked shirt and a suit jacket. What may come as a surprise is that my iPhone only arrived 2 days ago. Before you ask, yes I love it.

So I’m not exactly an early adopter with this one. In my defence, iPhones weren’t 3G when my last contract was renewed. At that point I opted for a Sony Ericsson W890i. It’s no iPhone, but it’s very small and does everything you want a phone to do – and a whole lot more. As well as making calls & sending texts, I could surf the net (small screen, mobile sites, but surf none-the-less), use Google maps (small screen…), listen to iTunes (Sony’s bastardised version), listen to the radio, take photos, read RSS feeds…and of course play poker. All of this within a durable, robust, scratch resistant, metal package weighing 78g and measuring a mere 104.0 x 47.0 x 10.0mm. You barely knew you had it in your pocket.

Enough of the nostalgia, what about the iPhone?

Let’s be honest, “iPhone” is a minomer. It’s much more than a phone in every way – it’s a phone, a PDA, a PSP and an iPod all rolled into one. In truth it doesn’t do anything new (remember the touch screen on the HP iPaq?) – it just does everything better and in one package. And what a beautiful package it is too. OK, once you’ve put the obligatory screen protector and skin on it (£25 courtesy of the Apple Store), it looks slightly less sexy, but heck, I’m splitting hairs. And of course, I know I have a phone in my pocket now, but what do you expect with a screen that size?

Sorry, weren’t we talking about poker?

Fearing boredom at the sink last night, I downloaded a poker app. The gameplay and graphics are awesome – a far cry from the 2D version on my W890i. But…because it’s all touchscreen, it’s virtually impossible to play one handed!

No question, it is a great phone and I’m sure I’ll get over this minor flaw. It’s important to remember though – and some die-hard iPhone fans will find this hard to believe – it’s not the perfect phone for everyone. For some it is simply too big, too fragile, too feature rich, too power hungry (too expensive). Some people do just want a phone and nothing more.

It doesn’t even have a radio*…

* Although there are rumours that the hardware’s in place.