iPhone provides basic email services. Like every other part of iPhone, it's surprisingly easy to use; iPhone provides implicit guidance every step of the way. Composing, filing and deleting email is simple. The message list includes a two-line preview of each message's content. (This can be changed from zero to five lines.)

iPhone's "intelligent keyboard" is outstanding. It uses predictive techniques both to improve keystroke accuracy and to correct typos. Predictive text has gotten a bad rap in the past, but iPhone's implementation is excellent. Our iPhone correctly interpreted words so badly mistyped that we doubt a human could have correctly guessed the intended word. It even learns new words you enter, and automatically adds your contact names to its dictionary.

There are a few omissions — no BCC option, and you can't create mail folders, even if you're using IMAP mail. Nor can you delete multiple messages in one swoop. But it does support SSL and encrypted authentication, helping to ensure security.