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Recently on AllThingsD, Walt Mossberg gave the new iPhone a favorable review.  He begin by talking about the biggest weaknesses of the first iPhone, “[The] first iPhone had two big drawbacks: It was expensive, and it couldn’t access the fastest cellular-phone networks.”  Clearly these were the two biggest concerns for Apple in the next incarnation.  This is why they reduced the cost of the iPhone dramatically and gave it the 3G access everyone had been clamoring for.  Speaking specifically about the 3G network, Mossberg said, “I found that doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older AT&T network…”

He did criticize the iPhone in two major respects.  First he complained that the battery life of the phone is severely reduced by the 3G hardware.  This is why Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, delayed implementation of the 3G network in the first place.  Now it seems their solution was not good enough to compensate for the energy hungry chip.  Mossberg says the lack of a replaceable battery increases this as an overall problem.

His second major criticism is unsurprising: the data plan.  AT&T’s $10 price hike on the monthly data fee has negated the overall savings that the device discount would have provided.  In fact in most cases, it is more expensive than the first generation of phone.

One new tidbit, that this tech writer had been previously unaware of, is that Microsoft Exchange will not work in tandem with a personal computer account.  Apparently Exchange will wipe over a PC based account when both are present.  I don’t use Exchange personally, but I assume that this will cause a problem with some users.  It is reminiscent of the incompatibility between Mac and Windows accounts on an iPod.

The Mossberg review is fairly extensive, so If you want the whole story, I suggest reading over it in detail.  His general impression was that the interface, body, weight, and network speed are all somewhat improved, if not greatly improved.  The battery life and cost are the biggest detractors, but the promise of 3rd party apps may take the iPhone to another level in the smartphone market.