So the brand new iPhone will be flying out of the doors this Friday. But as we part with our cash and sign a lengthy mobile phone contract, will it be any better than the current Jesus phone, which had to have a little nudge before it sold out?

We have previously reviewed the old iPhone and while its looks turned a few heads, its features left some wanting. But veteran technology journalist Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal has managed to get one of the new second-generation iPhones and reviewed it for the WSJ.

According to Mossberg, while overall the phone is worthy of much praise, he still had a few problems with the handset. First, the battery, should it fail, will set you back $86 to replace and a few features taken for granted on other phones are still missing.

"Unfortunately, most of the standard cellphone features that were missing from the first iPhone are still missing. There's still no voice dialing, video recording, copy-and-paste, memory-card slot, Bluetooth stereo audio or phone-to-phone photo sending (MMS)," he said.

Apparently, he has found a neat trick to prolong battery life: if you are not in a 3G area or you simply don't want to use it for mega-fast mobile broadband, you can turn the feature off and double your battery life from five hours to ten.

And while the ability to connect to corporate Exchange servers would be a big draw to those wishing to get off the Blackberry addiction, syncing your office contacts has a nasty side-effect.

"While you can have both personal and Exchange email accounts on the new iPhone, if you synchronize with Exchange calendars and contacts, your personal calendar and contacts are erased," he said.

Mossberg said that anyone that has been waiting for the new iPhone to come out, now is the time to "take the plunge". But he warned that if you already have an iPhone and can get data access using Wi-Fi, "you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it's worth getting the new hardware."

More on the video here.