Forget the iPhone Duo — the First iPhone Had More Hype and a More Shocking Price

I’ve been reviewing the iPhone since 2020 and wasn’t even working at CNET when the original iPhone launched in 2007. Fortunately, Kent German and Donald Bell were, and their wonderfully written review of the first iPhone shows off the pair’s thorough testing.

“The iPhone is noteworthy not for what it does, but how it does it,” wrote German and Bell.

As CNET waits to test Apple’s newest devices, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, it’s insightful to revisit our review of the first iPhone, especially since the company’s announcement of its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, seems to be swirling in the same mix of hype, wonder and shock that German and Bell so artfully navigated in 2007.

Remember, back then, touchscreen phones and smartphones we nowhere as common as they are now.

“Is it easy to use? Certainly. Does it live up to the stratospheric hype? Not so much. Don’t get us wrong, the iPhone is a lovely device with a sleek interface, top-notch music and video features, and innovative design touches,” said German and Bell. “But a host of missing features, a dependency on a sluggish EDGE network, and variable call quality — it is a phone after all — left us wanting more.”

And while there are a lot of reactions around the iPhone Duo’s $2,000 starting price, CNET wasn’t a fan of the first iPhone’s $499 starting price. German and Bell thought $499 was “a lot to ask for a phone that lacks so many features and locks you into an iPhone-specific two-year contract with AT&T.”

If you’re keeping track, that $499 price works out to about $800 in today’s dollars. Another way of looking at it: You could buy roughly two and a half original iPhones for the price of one iPhone Duo. But in 2007, most phones before the iPhone cost $100 to $150. Even with an AT&T contract, you still had to pay $200.

Read our 2007 review of the first iPhone. Click below to read German’s revisit of the first iPhone review on its 15th anniversary in 2022.

Director of Content

As Director of Content, Hardware, I lead CNET's team of journalists and editors, covering news and testing on smartphones, laptops, wireless carriers, AI, and pretty much anything with a battery. See full bio