I have to say it was completely worth standing in line for 6 hours to get one on opening day so I could take it with me on my trip (was leaving the next day). I got there around 4:30 in the morning, figuring I’d beat all the people who would try to get there around 5.. It ended up being the perfect time to get there, after all the folks who had decided to spend the night, but before almost anyone else who wanted to get there early.

It was a pretty interesting experience. You definitely build a camaraderie with the people around you in line.. I was next to several business owners, one guy who runs some multi-million dollar online social networking thing that has a base of operations in GSO, another one who paid his secretary to hold his spot in line until he got there, and then bring coffee and breakfast, and another guy about my age going to college.. We had some pretty interesting conversations about Apple, Microsoft, Linux, technology in general, and all sorts of stuff. I think I’d definitely go again for a new product release, but probably not if the weather was horrible or it was really cold out like for Black Friday with the people standing outside Best Buy or whatever..

I was actually lucky to get the one I wanted (let alone one at all) even though I was something like 15-20th in line, the store only got 40 units in total, which was stunning to me and pretty much everyone else in line. We expected them to have at least 100 at the minimum.

The store opened at 8, but the manager and a few employees didn’t come out until about 7:30, and by that time there were already around 150-200 people standing in line. They told those of us at the front that they had only gotten 40 in total, and said they’d come out and speak to the other people after they opened the store.. and by the time they did, many who didn’t get one that day had already been standing around for more than 2 hours..

As you can expect, they weren’t happy.

I halfway expected there to be a geek revolt, but everyone was pretty chill. The line definitely thinned out at the back after that, but some hardcore people stood around to be among the first to have their orders placed for the next units they’d get in.

It actually took a bit longer than I expected it would to get people in and out of the store, they were having massive problems “activating” the phone through their special version of iTunes.. (which I used to get the $36 activation fee waived a few weeks later when I called AT&T support over questions in my bill, I’d recommend doing the same if you’re one of the people who were forced to go home without an activated phone, or you just want to get out of paying it), so I didn’t get into the store until about 10:30 despite my prime spot in line.

It took longer for me than most other people in the store, because they had problems porting my number from Sprint. First they kept getting an error saying that it required a country to be entered, even though they had no such field in the form they used. The guy who was checking me out was pretty frustrated, he’d been having similarly stupid issues all morning, so I don’t blame him. He restarted the process by rebooting their system entirely, somehow clearing the error, and then Sprint denied it for an incorrect password. I later found out that when I had called to change my PIN awhile back, the person at Sprint reversed the last two digits. They decided to give me a temporary number, but after the guy let me pick one of the ones specifically, their system froze up and he had to start over, this time just picking a random one.. which was a shame, because the last 4 digits of the one I picked were something like 4455.. which was really nice, and I thought I might just keep.

I wound up with either the last (or second to last, depending on who actually checked out first) black 16gb model.. They had got 20 8gb models (black), 10 16gb (white) models, and 10 16gb (black) models.

Things I’d do differently next time:

For starters, bring a chair. My legs started to cramp a bit at around 10. If I’m moving around I don’t have any problem being on my feet, but your knees lock up standing in one spot and not moving for long periods of time.

I’d also not bring a book, I didn’t think there’d be as much talking as there was, and I’d be able to read.. but I never even opened the cover because of all the interesting conversations happening around me.

I’d probably bring a snack and something to drink, something that could fit into my pocket and not be a hassle. One of the business people shared coffee, which was amazing.

As far as the phone, it definitely exceeded my expectations and certainly lives up to the hype I had heard prior to buying one.

I’m continually amazed at how well everything works together without any hassle.. Some of the third party applications are just fantastic, and I only see it getting better as they have time to refine and update their code to fix bugs and add more features.

I have been contemplating getting a GPS for awhile now, but now there’s no need. I can find whatever I need to with ease, and if for some reason one of the applications for finding food, gas stations, hotels, or google maps can’t find it, I can always just open up Safari and look to the internets for guidance.

I also no longer have to lug my iPod around with me, since this works with all iPod car accessories, headphones, etc.. and instead of having to use one of the not all that nice organizational devices, this thing does that too.

There are a few disappointments, though. The battery life seems to go really fast for me, even though I’ve read that it’s on par or superior to other smart phones out there.. However, when I consider how much better this is than the other smart phones I played around with, including that horrendous thing Sprint is selling, the Instinct), I’d say it’s well worth it to have to charge it as often as I do.

And really, how often are you away from your car, your computer, or a wall socket for longer than a day nowadays?