Apple's iPhone is a little bigger than you'd expect, and a little heavier than you'd expect. It feels substantial, and it looks beautiful.

The Object of Your Desire is a little bigger than a Samsung BlackJack, and a little thinner. Its edges are curved, its back is polished chrome and its front is dark glass. There's only one button on the front, at the bottom, used to bring you back to the home screen.

I got to play with it for about 15 minutes today. Ken Fisher, AT&T vice president for sales in Houston, gave me an initial demo and then handed the phone to me. Understanding how its touchscreen works comes easily -- it is as intuitive as you've heard it is. I was able to navigate most of its functions quickly, without any help or explanation.

Here are some thoughts on its primary features:

? Its multi-touch features are very impressive, and something you pick up quickly. For example, you can scroll through photos by flicking your finger side to side, or up and down. Zooming in and out is a matter of simply pinching or spreading two fingers over the image. Moving around on Google Maps is effortless -- so long as you have a fast connection -- by just dragging your finger across the screen.

Dwight Silverman : Chronicle Chronicle videographer Lindsay Meeks, captured via iPhone.

? I got to try the iPhone on a Wi-Fi network initially, and using features like Google Maps or watching YouTube videos was a joy. Then, I got to see Google Maps on the iPhone of a friend while it was connected to the Internet using AT&T's EDGE data network. It was, in a word, painful to watch.

? The virtual keyboard would definitely take some time to get used to. As you press a key, a larger image of it appears above your finger. You still have to make contact with the correct key, but having the larger character helps correct your aim. The keyboard does a good job of predicting the words you're intending to type, but if you make egregious errors, it offers no help at all.

? The camera takes decent pictures -- you can see one here of videographer Lindsay Meeks -- with its 2-megapixel camera. Sending the picture via e-mail was the only part of figuring out an iPhone function that had me stumbling. Once I walked through the process once, though, it made sense.

? The iPod part of the phone is slick. I spent most of the time in its Cover Flow view, scrolling through songs via album covers. You can play songs without a headset through the iPhone's speaker, but the sound is tinny and almost irritating. I didn't listen to music through a headset, but if it sounds like other iPods, it should be fine.

? Video resolution is excellent. I've seen reviews that complained about how poor YouTube videos look on the iPhone's screen, but that wasn't my experience -- they looked great and played smoothly.

Of course, this was only a cursory glance at the phone. I didn't get a chance to dive into its features in depth, and I didn't have time to touch some major features, such as e-mail.

But the true test of a device like this is to actually live with it. Smartphones, PDAs, handheld computers are extremely personal and need to become a part of your life. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to do that with the iPhone soon.