Not in love w/ the new iPhone 3G & thinking of returning it. Anyone else?

Question

Here is my narrative of the iPhone 3G 16gb White… This is focuses on the negative aspects of the phone I have experienced in 24 hours of owning it… I am debating to Return it. Wonder if anyone else has had similar issues or thoughts…
Disclaimer:
I have had a lot of phones w/ different carriers - the majority being PDA style phones. For the most part the 1st generation iPhone has been fantastic. Realistically every phone is going to have its issues/quarks and not be perfect. But Apple did a good job w/ the iPhone 1st generation (at least in my opinion) and so I am more than eager to see their “improved” version and reward them w/ my continued loyalty.
Background:
With that said… I walked into an AT&T store and willingly renewed my contract for another 2-yrs. Coming from Verizon after many years – this is quite a sacrifice (AT&T is horrible). When buying the phone from AT&T store I had to go through strict scrutiny to make the purchase (i.e. I had to prove I was the primary account holder, have a credit card, have a driver’s license with picture, and confirm my SS#). In addition, since it was backordered I had to pay in advance w/ knowledge if I were to decide now to return it (even before receiving it) that I would be subject to a 10% restocking fee. So fast forward 7 days of waiting and I finally got the call to pick up the phone…
*Negative Issues:*
1)While walking in the sun w/ the phone “off” (standby mode)… the sun really exposed the screen LCD traits… I am not sure how to explain this… but you can see the outline of the LCD which is dark, a lighter colored perimeter about .5mm thick around the screen that was lighter colored and inactive when on, and even can clearly see the 3 sensors on the top of the black border near the ear speaker… I don’t recall the 1st iPhone looking like this at all. It looks cheap as a result.
2)Going with what I said before, now I can’t get my eyes off the .5mm thick dead border of screen that is obvious around the iPhone… its distracting and not sure why Apple left it around the screen and did not hide it or put it under the real black border of the phone.
3)Going with the above again, this iPhone is slightly wider than the previous iPhone and has a bigger black border. In essence it makes the screen look smaller when compared to the previous iPhone – although I doubt it is the actual case but rather just an optical illusion.
4)They say the plastic backing made for better grip, feel, and supposed better reception. I however don’t necessarily like the feel, its slightly wider size, and the rounded edges make its feel odd/awkward. However, perhaps I am just too use to the older iPhone and it will take some time.
5)After fully charging the iPhone, I went to a friend’s house (45mins away)… went to eat (90mins)… then to see a movie – Batman (maybe 180mins)… at this point I still had never made an actual call from the iPhone yet and sent (4) texts and did some limited playing around on the web/email and etc… (Remember I had the iPhone 1st generation so I know enough to turn Bluetooth off, WiFi off, even Push off, kept fetch on every 15mins)… so anyway… the iPhone had been on standby majority of time (I even made sure to return to home screen to stop anything from running in background) and the phone was at about 30% battery life. I checked my email for 1 minute and the I got the warning that 20% battery was remaining!
6)Upon careful look at the iPhone I noticed that I had a dead pixel on the upper right of the phone - must have been there but just noticed it now (below the battery icon and to the right of the top icon).This is not unusual I guess in manufacturing and I have complete faith Apple will swap it out for a new iPhone… no big deal… just inconvenient.
7)While home I charged the iPhone again for several hours to full charge. Still have never made a phone call on it. For about 40mins I played around w/ the menus and features… played with a few applications feature (i.e. facebook, AIM, myspace)… went on the web… looked at the GPS map feature… went back to home screen then put the phone in Standby mode… Watched TV for a few hours… looked back at phone to see the batter was 50% dead? Played with phone for 10 mins with music/photo/etc features – put it back to standby mode and watched more TV for 1 hr than looked at the phone to see it at 30% battery level. I fell asleep for a few hours and woke up to see the iPhone had died.
8)One thing I must point out… that throughout my narration/events above… whenever the phone was in standby mode I noticed it was warm to touch. It was not too hot to burn and be unable to use… but noticeably warm as if it were overheating? I thought standby was supposed turn the iPhone basically off (at least a very low power consumption level).
9)Another thing I noticed – perhaps it’s just me… but the screen seems to smudge a lot more – if not easier. The other screen was not perfect but the smudging was manageable. This leads me to believe that there is something different with this screen. Perhaps a different material or so… just something doesn’t seem the same.
10)I have had to fully charge the phone 3 times in 24hours and still have yet to make a single phone call. It would seem that just simply roaming on the 3G network is killing the battery life. Many 3rd party applications also drain the battery. For whatever reason something is running in the background that Apple has designed (maybe just the nature of 3G) that keeps it running even in standby.
*Apple Customer Service told me the following:*
1)If I return the phone for any reason (even if it is defective and etc) I will have to bay 10% restocking fee.
2)The iPhone running on 3G severely limits the phones use… they state it runs 50% less than the 1st generation of iPhone… so 5hrs talk time at most and that they recommend to people to turn off 3G and keep it in Edge. Even in Edge mode –they say the 1st generation iPhone lasts longer.
3)They tell me the weather is another feature that affects the phone – if it’s a hot day than it will be less battery life???
4)They say there has been many reports of iPhone running hot – but it’s a result of the 3G and normal…
5)They say a huge majority of the iPhones 3G have dead pixels and hardware issues...
6)I can swap out the iPhone for a new one under warranty (especially for the dead pixel)… but this will probably make it impossible for me to return to AT&T since the serial numbers would be different… so I would have to live w/ the iPhone 3G at that point...
Summary:
I am starting to think the iPhone 1st generation wasn't that bad after all. Perhaps I should just wait till much later or possible software improvements before taking advantage of an upgrade... I can always repurchase it later. Overall I am very disappointed by this whole experience due to my high expectations.

Answer 1

I agree... I am trying not to whine... but be helpful to others if they experience the same while get input before I make the decision to return (which I am leaning towards)… It’s still a great phone – but I expected something different. I also have been coming the internet and forums to see what other people think as well to make sure I am not being oversensitive about it. $300 for a 16gb is not buyers remorse kicking in… it’s just I am not sure if I see much of a difference from my perfectly good (8month old) iPhone 1st generation…
But yes… if all iPhone 3G were problematic it would be in the news… so I err on the side that I may be a unique situation or simply did not make a well informed decision when going to 3G.
Still… the idea of turning 3G off to get a full day of use out of an iPhone… even moderate use that most of us would expect w/o charging midway or multiple times is a bit much to swallow.
I don’t want to bash and just looking for peoples reaction. I still really like Apple and the iPhone in general.