First, an anecdote: when the iPhone first launched in 2007 I took it on a tour of Central Europe, namely Budapest and Warsaw. Communism had just fallen and the dreams of these benighted nations were dashed. But as I pulled the iPhone from its protective cozy, the eyes of those present were filled with hope again, hope that there was something better out there, something magical. That something was called the iPhone and it was this promise, the promise of a Jobsian escape from the gristmill of history. All of this in a cigarette-pack-sized cellphone.
Fast forward two years. With the release of the iPhone 3G S we can safely say that the bloom is off the rose. The 3G S looks exactly like the iPhone 3G in every way. There is no outward identification and, in those intervening years, Hungary, Poland, the UK, Russia – heck, everybody – got the iPhone. Pulling one of these out is like pulling out something like a tin of Altoids – a bit against the grain but common enough to discourage gawking. So we must answer a few questions in this review. They are:
* What are the major improvements?
* Who is this phone for?
* Should you buy one/should you upgrade?
And so we begin.
What are the major improvements?
Unless you live on the veldt with your family of Stone Age bushmen, I expect that you have a working understanding of the current iPhone 3G. To recap, it is a touchscreen, multi-touch phone – which means it supports multiple finger gestures including “pinching” to zoom in and out. It has a color screen, an earphone jack, and little else in terms of external characteristics. There is a silence switch and volume controls and it still uses the standard iPod jack found on every iPod since the dawn of time. It supports podcast playback with skip-back and fast forward play modes.
This is a 3G phone which means you get about 200 Kbps up and 500 Kbps down on AT&T’s network. Your mileage may vary while roaming. You’ll pay $60 to $120 a month for unlimited data and a bucket of minutes. The phone itself costs $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB, which presupposes you’re coming in as a new AT&T subscriber. Costs for upgrading are dependent on your current status at AT&T.
Now for the improvements. The main improvement is VGA video recording and upload. This is a huge deal. Before the iPhone, cell phone cameras were an add-on, something that you used in a pinch when you didn’t have anything else. Now the camera is a must-have and Internet syncing comes standard on almost every phone out there. It was the iPhone that started this charge and with the ability to upload video to YouTube, they are about to own the casual video market.
In short, the ability to upload video is great. You can shoot some video of junior at the park, compress it, and begin the upload in about a minute. The upload itself takes considerably longer – don’t try to upload anything over a few minutes using 3G – but it runs in the background and uploads, slowly but surely. Other casual video cameras, like the Flip, are done for.
The photos it takes are also quite nice. Here are a few I took in bright sunlight:
[PSGallery=2nyx58o35c]
Other than that, you’re looking at nearly identical hardware with a slight speed bump, more working memory and storage, and a magnetometer. Everything else about this phone – cut, paste, search, etc. – appears on the iPhone 3.0 firmware update, accessible to the entire range of iPhone devices. Hmm… why is this familiar?
That’s right: Apple is going MacBook on their phone line. They’re upgrading the hardware in a very specific and almost imperceptible way. Just as the current crop of MacBook Pros are almost indiscernibly different from the previous crop, this iPhone is indiscernible from its older brother. Why? Because Apple makes “Apple” hardware. It doesn’t take to flights of fancy like Dell or HP and it doesn’t feel the need to change trade dress from one iteration to the next. The next iPhone might look different but this is an evolutionary step designed more to showcase 3.0 than anything Apple designers can come up with. It’s almost as if Apple was keeping the lid on Snow Leopard improvements and instead focusing considerable energy on the iPhone OS.
The phone also has a magnetometer and can act as a compass, which makes for great walking directions and future turn-by-turn apps, but there are none to test right now so I can’t add this into the “compelling” file. UPDATE – I used this while walking in London and it’s a great addition. You essentially prevent yourself from wandering off in the wrong direction.
I also left out Nike+iPod because I hadn’t used it in a while. In short, this supports Nike+iPod. You can measure your stride, distance, and speed while running.
So this is really a video-recording iPhone. It’s faster, sure, but that is not the point here. This cements Apple’s position in media sharing.
Who is this phone for?
It is now a phone for everyone. My buddy, a programmer for a financial house, has been using a Blackberry for years. He wants to switch to an iPhone and now with search, he can. My mom wants to see pictures of her grandkids – she could feasibly get an iPhone 3G for $99 – the same price she paid for the pink Motorola RAZR she was carrying.
But if you are an early adopter and Apple lover, you may need to pass up this version. It does little your current iPhone 3G can’t do and unless you really love sharing video, you’d be hard-pressed to justify the upgrade costs.
The Apple hardware upgrade model works like this: take last year’s model, update the speeds and feeds, and add one compelling extra. The MBPs have gone unibody with an SD card slot. That SD card slot is vaguely interesting and you’ll stare at your old MBP thinking “Darn, I wish I had an SD card slot.” And you’ll sell your old MBP and buy the new one. The next iteration will have two more USB ports. Or a Blu-ray drive. Or a vibrator. You get the picture.
So here’s the iPhone upgrade – kind better performance with VIDEO. Is video worth the extra $200-$300? Potentially, if you’re a video buff. But could you wait until the upgrade is truly compelling? Sure.
Should you buy one/should you upgrade?
If you’ve read this far, you’re still unsure whether to upgrade. I, as an Apple fanboi, am sitting this iteration out. The wife has expressed interest in the video but I worry that the next iPhone iteration, which will probably come next year, will contain more compelling upgrades and that all the muss and fuss related to upgrading – not to mention the cost – will be repeated for the next model… and the next… and the next. Obviously, this is Apple’s plan and I’ll probably ignore my own advice sooner or later, but Apple power users can get away with avoiding the 3G S upgrade for the next few months.
I know you won’t listen to me, so go ahead and upgrade.
As for non-AT&T customers and customers looking to upgrade at the standard pricing or customers upgrading from the first-gen iPhone should run, not walk, to the AT&T store. This is the best phone on the market, bar none, and will change the way you think about phones. Praise not high enough? The iPhone has changed mobile telephony forever and the sooner you hop on the iPhone train the better. Everyone else is now playing catch up and unless you know you have very specific reasons for sticking with RIM, WinMo, or Symbian, you need to check the phone out. I don’t add Android or WebOS/Pre to that list because those platforms have not been tested nor are they particularly earth-shattering – yet.
Bottom Line
Current 3G owners could potentially sit this upgrade out. New users thinking about a feature phone on AT&T should go iPhone. No matter what the guy at the mall kiosk says, no matter how many phones he pulls out with a little keyboard, the iPhone is better. You say you need a physical keyboard? You don’t. I started using the iPhone after using a Sidekick for a few years and I haven’t missed the physical keyboard one bit.
In short, make the move.
(….) Communism had just fallen in 2007 in Budapest and Warsaw. … ? hello, john?
Wow, try 1989
yeah, I pretty much stopped reading after I read that.
I figure if he can’t come close to knowing/guessing (or at least using the Google to find out) when communism in eastern europe fell, how accurate could the rest of his post be?!
maybe he even wasn’t in those cities. Some coming to europe get this easiely wrong. maybe cuba, too much rum, cigars and women and a dream of castro falling?
some people need to learn to pick up on humor
I read the commie reference as humor, although calling Poland and Hungary “central Europe” made me think twice…
I think it was poetic license. It established the atmosphere.
Lern Allison, lern! Poland is a country in Central Europe, not in Asia, nor Africa! It isn’t also one of a city of the USA. Shocking?
Yeah! Apple invented the “CE Communism fall” application in 2007 and now i is ported to the new IPhone 3G! Thank you Apple!
I thought he was trying to make a joke, but as I kept reading I realized he was just dumb.
I hope that 1 million new iphone owners are not as dumb and ignorant as OP.
The iphone is for morons.
$2099 for a phone. Have fun with that POS.
If you buy any *regular* phone for $99, and let’s assume you have a $60 monthly bill. The total for 2 years is already $1540. don’t tell me you have a “go” phone created for 11 year-olds.
video rec is enough reason. vga 30fps, u dont need upgrade for next 5 years..
1 million units shifted in its first weekend. This is supposed to be a recession?
The Samsung Jet has taken 2m in Pre-orders so demand seems bouyant for Smartphones and Featurephones.
Apple but the user at the centre of the experience and not the technology. There are other more highly specified phones but none come close to the total package that is phone plus applications.
The competition needs to get into shape – this game is nowhere near won.
Do yiou have any proof Apple sold 1 million units to end consumers?
Making deals with carriers to sell 1 million units to carriers has got nothing to do with actually selling the phones to end consumers.
You can sell 1 million to a bunch of carriers worldwide and those will only reach end consumers after several weeks and months.
Communism had “just fallen” in 2007?! ;-)
i’m a bit hazy on the history, but that’s my understanding.
Well… the communist era ended in 1989, that’s 18 years before the iPhone…
Guys, it’s just a joke. Extra hyperbole to jokingly talk about the revolution (or not) that came with the iPhone.
Some people here need new sarcasm detectors, for real.
@Chris O.
The next gen iPhone will have one
Sarcasmeter FTW
don’t think it was a joke actually…
Keep forgetting that it’s blogging (and not actually journalism with fact-checkers, editors, etc.)
D’oh.
I suppose at a push you could argue that a lot of the guys you’d have been interacting with will be the first generation of adults to have more or less grown up without communism. That can certainly account for a general feeling of optimism.
Come on, its not that hard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1989
2007!?
and the poor benighted masses in those countries don’t even speak English as a mother tongue…
Time to get out a bit more.
ahahahaha! yeah :D
Are you for real???
Well, after all the noise world wide about the falling of the Communism back in 1989, I’d say your history is not “hazy”, but rather unexsistant. Well, you’ve got right that Hungary is located in Central Europe, though. Oh, and for the record, Poland and Hungary weren’t communist but socialist nations.
In any case you may want to consider research before publishing, and mentioning your sources, just in case.
A bit? Where have you been for the last 20 yers?
BTW: how reliable can be your review if you are dumber than a a 5th Grader?
Spot on here MG. Nice article and there’s nothing wrong with admitting your a fanboi!!!
I wonder though how Apple will take the iPhone forward in the future without upsetting developers.
Uh, I believe Biggs wrote the post.
Do you guys get paid by Steve Jobs to write this stuff? This is not a review, it’s an advertorial.
we got $58 and a copy of AppleWorks!
Wow thats cheap. How about making Palm Pre the best smartphone available and I will get $60 and free snow leapord dvd. How is that?
I bought a Pre and had it back to Sprint 72 hours later. The thing was made for girl hands… it’s an iPhone Nano, at best… without the apps.
I ‘ll give you $80
are you sure !! only $58 ?
Stunning oversimplification.
Did you try the 3GS exclusive voice commands? Between those and the new in-line control, it’s now possible to do all the basic phone operations without even touching the phone. I think that’s worth a mention. I only hope they integrate Google’s voice search somehow.
And I’m surprised that many are underrating the stunning speed increase. The main Apple apps (Mail, Safari, iPod, Maps, etc.) open nearly instantly, as opposed to the routine multi-second lags I was accustomed to! You can open far more Safari windows while all of the pages remain in cache (i.e. no reloading necessary). Leading edge apps like Tweetdeck and 3D games that are a bit sluggish on older models run smoothly, easily. The speed alone was worth the upgrade for me.
I tried the voice commands but they’re not helpful unless you drive a lot. I’m not going to talk to myself at the gym.
let’s just say that video is the defining hardware feature of this release.
Speaking of which, the Nike+ is a nice addition too.
I guess that’s a user preference thing – especially for people not on my favorites, I find talking a lot more efficient and simple (no menus) than unlocking the phone and flicking through my list of contacts. I don’t mind doing it in public because the software seems to understand naturally spoken English pretty easily (i.e. no need to talk loud or over-enunciate) and I don’t see why anyone else would care what I say into a cell phone ;).
Oh please. Having mail take 2 seconds to open instead of 3 and a half isn’t worth an upgrade. Unless you love graphic intensive games or fringe applications that require the speed it isn’t worth it.
I have probably 80 applications and there are probably 5 that I wish would open faster.
If you want to upgrade, upgrade. Nothing wrong with wanting the latest and greatest. But pointing to the speed as ‘reason’ to upgrade is comical.
I agree with the article, unless you really want video, or have the first gen iphone, or don’t have an iphone, this version is easily skipped.
I don’t know about you, but I use the critical iPhone apps when I’m on the go, in public, meeting with friends and colleagues, etc. Seconds can be valuable when I’m finishing a conversation and opening the calendar to enter a future meeting, looking up a destination in Maps on the way out the door, or getting a snapshot of a group of friends. It’s already been nice to not have to ask people to “give me a second” while something loads and give more focus to whatever I’m doing “IRL”.
“Having mail take 2 seconds to open instead of 3 and a half isn’t worth an upgrade.”
What about having all your webpages finishing their loading in 10 seconds instead of 20 secs ?
Wait until Developers actually write optimized code to take advantage of the new iPhone 3GS hardware – then I think the speed bullet point will have more impact.
I wholeheartedly agree with Eric. The speed improvements are without a doubt the #1 improvement on this phone. The most striking? No. Video catches more people’s attention. But the most useful? Yes.
The speed was one of the largest hindrances of my 1st and 2nd gen iPhones. The amount of time it would take to launch a long stream of SMS messages (5+ seconds) was painful, not to mention launching heavy programs like iPod, 3d games, and even calendars that were full of appointments.
Now, launching and moving through programs is effortless and painless. As a moderately active user (8am – 10pm = 20% battery remaining), I figure I’ll be saving myself ~5min/day simply in speed improvements. That equates to 2.5hours/month, 30 hours/yr in productivity… I’m not even going to mention how many times over that pays for itself.
Add onto that the POTENTIAL of the new hardware. It can record 720p video and is capable of videoconferencing (now, if only Apple turns these features on). But even if they don’t, new programs that utilize the compass (mapping important information on top of live camera images), RAM & processor (3d shadowing — games competing with PSP and beyond), etc. — we haven’t even begun to see the potential. Give it 3-6 months, and you will want to upgrade when your 3G can’t handle the blockbuster software designed for the 3G S.
the speed upgrade is reason enough NOT to take this advice. it drastically changes the way you use the phone. no more waiting, no more ‘gee, do i open this app and wait?’ now you just do. the NYT app is lightening and no more crashes. maps? rawk! email? (iphone email blows) but at least it doesn’t bog the phone. i could go on. and video is really cool. i haven’t really tried voice command yet but i don’t put much faith in voice command.
short and pretty…. totally worth the next year you’ll get out of using this fast as shit phone…
“the best phone out there”? depends on your criteria. certainly not in terms of technical advancement. camera is inferior (5-12mp is available on other smartphones), no blue tooth file sharing, etc. as someone else said, that wasn’t a review it was a commercial for iphone.
That 12mp camera is going to be really useful with optics the size of a fly’s eye. The iPhone is a fantastic game-changing device. So much more pleasurable to own than any phone I’ve had so far.
I also wouldn’t consider this a review…but it’s no commercial. This was honest commentary. And most people considering the iPhone upgrade or migration, will find this simple analysis helpful.
That said, for me, a serious techie, the video is not the most compelling new feature (though very welcome)…I want the speed increase…and more importantly, the doubled RAM! Of course, to fully take advantage of all that RAM, I’ll need my 3GS jailbroken (background apps, voip over 3G, etc). Thus, I will wait to upgrade my slow iP3G…until the iPhone Dev Team delivers the key to the new suped up hardware. When that happens, I’ll jump on the fanboi wagon for sure.
LOL
“No matter what the guy at the mall kiosk says, no matter how many phones he pulls out with a little keyboard, the iPhone is better.”
ummm so I am guessing this also rules out the Pre???
Have you used a Pre with synergy, multitasking, and oh yeah working MMS???
Seriously try to step out of Steve Jobs pants for a second and see that the smartphone market is growing and evolving. I might have agreed with the aforementioned quote 2 years ago but like any good capitalistic industry it expands and adapts.
I appreciate the iphone as a groundbreaking phone and what it has done for the industry but just because it was first does not mean it will always be the best. For example should I still be driving a crank Ford Model T still????
I usually like the articles on here but why publish something that is as biased as Nazi propaganda.
Ding ding! Godwin’s law!
If the shoe fits……
@John Amazing.
“For example should I still be driving a crank Ford Model T still????”
Yes, the iphone is like a model t compared to the pre! You are brilliant sir! Brilliant I say!
Have you used a Pre with sucky battery life, no tethering, cheese-slicer, and with no SDK and next to zero third-party applications???
Tried it. Don’t want it. The Pre is a second-rate phone tied to a third-rate network.
+1
Battery rate is improving for most users at an amazing clip, the cheese slicing abilities are exaggerated and I’ve never felt like i could get cut by the keyboard, the SDK hasn’t been released yet and there are 30 applications which are quite useful.
I guess the Pre still has to prove itself over time but I really hope it kills the tech-blogs orgy lovefest over the iPhone. It’s getting tired. I realize it’s tech-blogs cash cow to mention the iphone as often as it can in articles but all this reporting over every minutia is getting ridiculous.
I disagree that video is the only notable feature. The compass is nice, voice command is nice, and the speed bump is quite noticable (400MHz to 600MHz and double the RAM? I could mentally liken that to the introduction of RISC architecture… plus double the storage capacity up to 32GB)
Also, with the ability to re-sell your original 3G for $150+ on sites like gazelle.com, nextworth.com, and buymytronics.com, the upgrade cost is totally worth it… as long as you can stomach being tied to AT&T for another two years.
I think I am going to sit this one out. I don’t own an iPhone (my wife does), and I was waiting for this model, but it doesn’t have enough of an improvement over the last one, IMO.
I will make do with my blackberry one more year, and wait for the next iPhone. I do believe, however, that the simplicity with which video can be put on YouTube is game changing.
Your mom might want to keep the Motorola RAZR. Unless she doesn’t mind being saddled to an expensive data plan for two years.
a valid point. the pros and cons are manifold, but for someone who wants to share media this is the way to do it.
You can cancel the data package as long as you are not using an iPhone.
Ie. have your SIM in another phone
BINGO
blackberry bold. i don’t need games, i have things to do and at worst an RSS reader to read when i’m out places. i’ll never use the ipod video because i have an ipod touch and i don’t want to drain phone battery life. i am not vain enough to believe that my life needs to be instantly broadcast on youtube (and bold does video uploading just fine anyway).
and what do i get POSITIVELY from my BB? simple: Blackberry Messenger has changed the way i communicate in a very real way, every day, with all of my friends on BBs. way more than an overhyped Mobile 2.0 techcrunch sort of thing. i talk and arrange more plans with my Blackberry owning friends because of how incredible a tool BBM is.
Again, a personal preference… but I like using my iPhone to connect & communicate with people of all origins and not discriminate based on their choice of mobile hardware/provider.
i’m not discriminating. it’s harder to communicate with my iphone friends than with my bbm friends. if your friend only communicated via his landline (carried no cell phone), it wouldn’t end your friendship, but it would build a barrier to making him a person you look for on Friday night at 7.
I don’t have a blackberry, but why is BB Messenger any better than the slew of full-featured IM client’s on the iPhone? And keep in mind push notifications are enabled in OS 3.0, so I don’t see the advantage of multitasking anymore at this point.
Add in the fact that you could get rid of that iPod Touch and have one device for everything and you are kind of making a point FOR the iPhone, not against it IMO.
wherever i go, i have my phone. when i’m on an airplane, i need my ipod. when i get off the plane, my ipod is typically dead, or nearly dead, since i enjoy passing the time with a movie or tv shows for 5-6 hours. i then need my phone on the ground, often for many consecutive hours. no good.
BBM is not IM. you need to use BBM with your friend network to understand how amazing it is – i didn’t buy it either until i had my blackberry for a few months.
“I don’t see the advantage of multitasking anymore at this point”
yeah, you wouldn’t because you’ve never experienced true multitasking in a phone. Just wait, you’ll come out of your apple coma and realize you’ve been duped.
“blackberry bold. i don’t need games”
you forgot “i don’t (or rarely) browse the internet, i have big pockets for my huge BB and my iPod touch, i love syncing 2 pieces of hardware instead of one, i love micro trackballs, micro keyboards” etc etc.
i get everything i need on the internet on my blackberry. my bb is far shorter than an iPhone in terms of vertical height, which i notice far more in a pocket than the extra perhaps 1 millimeter of depth.
i don’t carry my ipod touch around with me, because i don’t live in new york so i have a car where it can be sync’ed into an excellent stereo system.
when i’m at the beach or on a plane, i have large bose headphones, and even if you prefer earbuds, do you seriously carry around earbuds with your phone at all times? that would triple your thickness and well surpass a blackberry’s size.
touch screen versus trackball really doesn’t matter since i don’t play games – it’s as easy, and i’m guessing easier, for me to type in “J Sm” and have “John Smith” come up as it is for you to swipe swipe swipe down to the S’s of your address book.
and the keyboard is excellent on the bold.
personally, it’s no comparison for me i couldn’t do without arguably my most important means of mobile communication, which is Blackberry Messenger. but there are hosts of other reasons why this iPhone informercial should not have been in my RSS reader.
p.s. i tether my laptop for free.
@ John Biggs:
You state there is no cosmetic difference between the 3G and the 3G S. You are wrong.
3G – Silver Apple logo and grey “iPhone” text on bottom of phone.
3G S – Silver Apple logo and Silver “iPhone” test on the bottom of phone.
A small and subtle difference but none the less, a difference.
That’s the difference between leaded and unleaded paint.
I was sad to see that you don’t even mention those of us still on the 2g. For us this is a huge upgrade, as we get to jump two gens. It would have been nice to see a row for us.
I just upgraded and am VERY happy with my new phone. It really is all about speed.
“or customers upgrading from the first-gen iPhone should run, not walk”… Oh yes, loving the copy and paste, finally.
“I just upgraded and am VERY happy with my new phone. It really is all about speed.”
No shit. Compared with the outdated turd you were using it IS a huge deal.
Duh.
…. there is no such thing as a “2G” iPhone.
Android subscribers are exempt from your list because they’ve weighed the options and made a conscious decision to escape the Apple ecosystem.
I wanted to ask where you and Apple are registered and if you are going to write your own vows for the ceremony.
LOL, well put.
AT&T pretty much made up my mind for me as to whether I should buy the 3G S. Is it worth $199? I think so. But if you aren’t a new customer and aren’t eligible for the upgrade, spending $299 is just ridiculous.
Having watched the same apps load, side by side between the 3G and the 3G S it’s far from a small speed upgrade…
iCal 2 seconds.
Mail 1 second.
Typical apps, the speed bump simply isn’t a big deal.
Nice review, and I’d tend to agree. The fact that many iPhone 3G first-day buyers can’t get it at the $199 and $299 prices also make it much less appealing to upgrade.
John, you are right that the iPhone was a revolutionary product, but saying it was the iphone that made cameras on phones a necessity is a very American view. In Europe and, I imagine, Asia, cameras have been considered essential for years. MMS, snapshots, even citizen journalism and video are considered quite normal here, and nothing to shout about.
Please identify the “market” for the statement “the best phone on the market” as the iPhone is well below functionality and hardware in many areas compared to other devices available to everyone in the world, assuming you research your device before purchasing.
Additionally, the statement “It was the iPhone that started this charge” assuming in regards to the video capability and upload/usage is also false, since still many other devices have been capable of this for some time now!
Thanks for correcting the post or amending it assuming journalistic integrity will take its place. :)
I love my iPhone and all my Apple products, don’t get me wrong, BUT, there are most definitely other devices out there that wipe the iPhone off the map in regards to functionality and “introductions of “first”" and have been available long before the iThings became available. The biggest thing it has going for it at the moment, is Apple’s wallet… big money, marketing… something other devices spend more in product then commercialization.
In case you need any proof (for statements I’ve made)… please review the Nokia N95 (from start to present) and you’ll see what I mean. That, being only ONE device available on the market.
Cheers. :)
I find it hilarious that people still to this day refuse to acknowledge the iPhone as defining what a mobile phone can, and should do. Every major smart phone, or media player for that matter, has imitated its design and UI functionality. Period.
I agree Dante. Any smart phone that only takes 3 years to have copy and paste functionality is defining what a mobile phone can, and should do.
I haven’t gotten my hands on one yet to see the speed difference first hand, but I’m honestly considering upgrading from my 3G. Hopefully I’ll get to use my friend’s in the next couple of days and make a decision then.
Video recording – big deal for me
Compass – big deal for me (I’m Muslim, so it’s useful to know where to pray)
Better browser – number 1 function for me
But if I upgrade now then I know I’ll be upgrading yearly for the foreseeable future, and I don’t know if I want to make that financial commitment.
Damn you Apple!
I could totally see an Apple ad for the iPhone 3GS’s compass being used to determine which way to pray.
Of course, they would have to find some way to give other faiths equal billing in said fictitious iphone ad, but cool idea, though.
welcome to the plight of the brainwashed
I will say the speed bump is worth the upgrade. You’ll be amazed at how many seconds you wasted waiting for the phone to do something.
1 second to open mail, 1 second to reply, 2 seconds to send, 1 second to open safari, 1 second to open a new page, etc.
With the 3GS, all your routine tasks are almost instantaneous. Give it a try and then decide.
My opinion – this is the phone FOR power users.
oh, and Omar, the device’s data connection (based on AT&T availability) is not actually faster.
see below stories:
gizmodo: http://tr.im/pmhB
engadget: http://tr.im/pmhO
The main reason it “might” appear that it’s speedier is due to the slightly faster processor (600mhz) not choking on the data is previously obtained at the same speeds on later iDevices
I’ll agree that there probably isn’t a need to upgrade but I wouldn’t say the video is the biggest upgrade. How about the ability to use AT&T’s new network? Look at these numbers – http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3587 It basically cut browsing time in half. I’d say thats a pretty huge upgrade. Even if you don’t surf the net much on your phone that speed is seen across all your downloads and application updates.
Money is no object. I just buy new technology becasue I can. I want to keep feeding the R & D engine at Apple. The new iPhone makes me feel cool…and it’s ALL about ME.
Ohh and I can’t spell either…
Julia Roberts …posing as Paully?
ha ha ha. hilarious. especially “benighted nations”. read a book instead of watching another historical emmerich’s movie…
Enough with fanboyism. You are journalists, grow up or find something else to do.
No they arent. They are blogger. They are opinion based people who would likely be working tech support if they didnt have the blog industry to prop them up. And as such, they are allowed to be fan bois, billy mays, propagandizers all they want.
If you dont like the message, quit reading the book.
No, they are just Mactard scum.
I think the speed bump has been significantly under-played here. I went from a first-gen phone to the 3G S and the speed change is SIGNIFICANT. I’m not just talking about browsing the web over edge vs 3g either. Applications load twice as fast (easily) in nearly every case and web browsing is snappy (wifi or 3g). It is a night and day difference.
Furthermore, while there is currently nothing (app wise) out there taking full advantage of the better graphics (GL 2.0) and faster proc, there inevitably will be. When framerates go from a paltry 12fps to 20+ fps that’s when everyone will be clamoring for the faster speeds.
I actually was semi serious…(I am not a journalist)… The recession has not hit everyone.
Fanboi or not…Apple will get premium dollars from me and millions like me. I will spend over $600.00 when the 3Gs becomes readily available. As a matter of fact…I might get two… Why? It is “percieved” as the BEST!
Get a life
Paully, assuming money was not an object I would buy the next and the next and so on and so on, just to play with it and push it! ‘course, that’s me, I push technology to its limits for comparison factors! :)
However, I’d buy the “unlocked” wherever, whenever it came out, NEVER an locked version of anything unless I simply wanted to prove I could unlock it. ;)
Sorry, couldn’t get past the “communism had just fallen” thing. Why should I read a post by someone that’s too stupid, or lazy, to not get basic facts right? If it was supposed to be a joke, I guess I just missed the humor.
You dont have to read it. Did someone say you should?
I love my iphone, my whole family has apple products. I’d love to get a mac to do video editing n create books. I am so excited about the video feature, paid n waiting for my new one to come in……costing me, but I am giving up cable n my landline, plus starbucks….lol xxx
dang dude you’re a mac yuppie to the extreme. congrats
“slight speed bump”
600 Mhz vs 400 MHz = 50%
That is not slight. I have the new phone. It is much faster.
I’m no mathematician, but isn’t a 50% speed jump 800mhz from 400mhz? Just curious. It may be a different calculation for moore’s law. :)
400 + 400 = 800
100% faster
Not to mention that the new processor is more efficient per clock cycle so the speed pump is even more pronounced (and it’s actually under clocked compared to what it can easily do which is in the mid 800 range).
Slap a muffin fan, no -
a watercooled, piggyback set-up on it and overclock it!!! (to suck that battery dry even faster!)
Ha… @thecolor…abacus: fail.
800 -> 400 would be 50%
400 -> 800 would be 100%
Guys, 2001 and one called, they want the “MHz is the only factor to speed” argument back.
It’s a new chipset from the 2G/3G. Just like a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo is much faster than a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4.
Data plan too expensive, AT&T stinks and this one isn’t enough of an improvement over the last version really. Buzzz.
I went Blackberry and haven’t looked back.
Best phone? Says who? I mean technically it is still behind many of the smartphones in the market. Do you really have to shout the loudest because the “powerphone” users just don’t care about the iPhone?
Man, iPhone IS NOT the best phone. There are a lot of problems with it – battery life, no multitasking, no physical keyboard, mediocre specs.
Of course, it’s a miracle when compared to Razr.
But against other smartphones it’s nothing that special
You are incorrect, and have lost your credibility. The iPhone by leaps and bounds IS the best phone on the market today. If you are saying anything else, you have ulterior motives.
Michael: It really depends, actually. For business users constantly on the go and using their phone as their mobile PC, the iPhone isn’t the best phone on the market.
For users who have the freshest Nike’s and the sickets New Era hats … the iPhone is the jank yo!
Will we see this same review for the Pre?
Oh, no, wait….We hate the Pre.
Right?
The Palm Pre is conclusively fueling a disruptive culture, providing the ideas and will for a regime change in Iran, North Korea, Lybia and 2 counties in Rhode Islands…
C’mon John!!!! Steve-0 got a new iLiver!!! Get out of kissing Apple’s iAss and be cool, dude!!!!
WTF?
Na, didn’t you hear there’s just too many people with iPhones to not jump on the bandwagon. Especially if you’re a tech-blog and want the millions of hits that come with worshiping Apple and all it’s glossy products.
The biggest difference between the MBP and the iPhones is clearly the HUGE price difference. You can casually upgrade for $199, and even if it has only a few upgrades, it’s worth it for a device you use every hour of everyday.
In addition you didn’t mention the increased battery life. Everybody can benefit from this as well!
“Before the iPhone, cell phone cameras were an add-on”
Are you on crack? I’ve had a phone with a better camera than the 3GS has for the last 3 years. Are you going to claim that Steve Jobs invented the automobile next.
You give fanboi’s a bad name…
I think this boils down to Apple’s recognition and power as a media brand even before they entered the Mobile Phone space. It’s the ease of use (iTunes for all data management) and the power and fluidity of the OS that keeps the appeal fresh. Not to mention the envy you get from seeing a dozen iPhone’s just in the short time it takes to get to work every day. Apple makes it seems like you can’t live without this phone.
John, could i get some of that stuff that you were smoking before you wrote this advertorial?
“…when the iPhone first launched in 2007 I took it on a tour of Central Europe, namely Budapest and Warsaw. Communism had just fallen…”
“…Before the iPhone, cell phone cameras were an add-on, something that you used in a pinch when…”
John, how can fanboi’s for that matter even take you seriously after this?
John, honestly, you need to get out a little bit more…
/me slaps John Biggs around a bit with a large trout
Much Love,
Ex-2007 Communist
“Sent from my Waterproof 8 Megapixel Xenon Flashed Cam / Video Phone with Built In 800×600 Projector, Dolby SRS Surround Sound, FM Transmitted SmartPhone”
The revolutionary features of the original iPhone was its Cool Interface, Web Browser and The App Store.
But apart from those Three Mobile Ground Breakers, the rest of the specs for the iPhone was pretty average when compared with current Mobile Phones.
Only now with the current iPhone 3GS, we have finally got Video Recording and Copy and Paste.
The Camera has also improved, but compared to a wide range of current Mobile Smartphones, the iPhone 3GS is nothing special.
It looks as if we might have to wait until 2015 before we get a 10 Megapixel Camera and Flash!
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Hey Joe –
I guess next time you post a plug, you’ll make sure to type s-l-o-w-e-r and leave a space in front (and at the end) of your URL so that it will be posted as a ‘live link,’ huh?
Yeah, lack of comment editing sucks.
iPhone may not have multi task features like palm pre… But seriously who needs a multi tasking in a phone. With Push technology iPhone solves a lot of feature that multi tasking or background processing can do. Besides I agree about physical keyboard thing. After using iPhone for less than a year, I really don’t miss it.
Best thing about iPhone, those 50000 apps. I guess a Palm pre user would feel bit isolated initially as he wont have those apps that iPhone has.
I really wish I could start a blog with the quotes from apple cult members who say they “don’t need multitasking”. It would be really nice to have when Apple releases a multitasking iPhone and all you kool-aid drinkers plop down another couple hundred for it.
What is the “cost of upgrade” if I can get the 3Gs 16gb for $199 and sell my 3G 16gb on Ebay for $250+ ?
Never mind that communism ended a good 15+ before the iPhone’s release. The real irony is that this reviewer symbolizes the iPhone as the best democratic and capitalist answer to cell phones. Yes, the iPhone design and UX were quite unique and innovative in 2007 and they are still leading the industry in those categories. But let’s not forget that Apple did not invent the smartphone and Nokia or Sony/Ericsson have been at it a it a bit longer. A lot of people, especially outside of the US have had 3G, Wifi, GPS, Video recording, camera with flash and plenty of other things way before Apple put it in the iPhone. Have a look at what people in Japan are doing with their cell phones these days. Granted Apple is good at integrating existing innovations into beautiful products that even a 2 year old can understand and use. But how long can they maintain this?
The real magic, though, is how people so blindly accept to play by Apple’s rules. In a sense, people adopting Apple’s products are encouraging their “communist” practices. I’m sorry but why do I have to be forced to use iTunes or their App store to load music or install applications. It is for the same reason why Apple lost the war with the PC in the 80s and it might head in the same direction in the near future. Application developers are happy now as they are making good money but Android and Symbian will come out on top. In the meantime I’m perfectly happy into installing applications into my phone just by plugging a cable or over the internet. Sure I might not have the latest pull-my-fart-beer-can application available but please tell me what are the killer apps that are only available on the iPhone?
This ‘article’ is a new low for TC. I should have stopped with the 1st paragraph about fall of the communism circa 2007. As pointed out, the author should do himself a favor and read the Wikipedia article. Being off by roughly 20 years it’s not ‘hazy on the history’ – it’s pathetic.
Yet, the major flaw of the text is its complete misunderstanding of product management of both MBP and iPhone.
If the author is a person that can hold at most one piece of information in his brain, then I understand why iPhone 3GS=video and new MBP=SD slot in his mind. It’s a medical condition and I shouldn’t make fun of it.
On the bright side, his ‘advice’ is rather ignored by buyers since 56% of the guys that bought the iPhone 3GS this past weekend are replacing their old iPhones, not waiting it out. Oh, I get it – those guys must not be the ‘power users’.
I usually sit out every other update so having bought the original iPhone, I’ve been waiting for this upgrade and, although I dithered briefly over the “what-ifs”, went ahead and will let the update chips fall where they may in 2010.