The New iPhone 3G Review

A good friend of mine has kindly written a review of the new Apple iPhone 3G for the blog. He had to endure both Apple's utter failure at activation time and Windows screwing up and somehow deleting his review when he was nearly done with the review, but finally, through all of the trials and tribulations, the review is complete, and here it is. Enjoy, and please provide your input, as always! (Pictures are forthcoming)

iPhone 3G - Introduction

 

The first iPhone was a huge deal. Everyone thought of it as the biggest development in the mobile phone world, and in part, it was. It brought touch screen to a whole new level, the best browser to mobile, all within a small, sleek package. But, nevertheless, it was incomplete. The first iPhone had to forgo several key features many new phones of 2007 already had: real GPS, third-party applications that could be added without having to hack and possibly brick your phone, and most importantly, 3G internet access. Even with these missing features, the iPhone was still a hit, and I still love my first generation iPhone, however, I don’t use it. After having the iPhone 3G for nearly a week now, I can say without a doubt, that it is easily superior to that of the first generation iPhone.

The Look – New and Improved

 

In my view, the design changes of the new iPhone, while small, constituted an overall positive response – from me at least. Slightly curvier, slightly taller, the new iPhone seems to be either loved or hated, mainly because of its new plastic backing. Pesonally, I found it to be a welcomed change. I live in the San Francisco area of California, and during the winter, holding the first generation of the iPhone wasn’t the most welcoming feel, since the aluminum picked whole lot of nothing until at least 20 minutes of use, and even then, it was fairly cool to the touch. The plastic now is fairly neutral. Not too warm, not too cool. And I must say, the new black backing looks more fitting for the entire device, instead of the black front and silver backing with black section backing as on the first generation. However, the new backing picks up finger prints better than the FBI. The picture illustrates how well is does so.

 

What We Know – Operations

 

There are some things on the iPhone that have not changed: The overall operating system has remained the same, so if you’re wanting to change a setting, or access a certain program, the interface will not slow one down trying to figure out where to go. When you tap Phone Icon, it is virtually the same options that were there before; nothing new or exciting to report there. Same goes for the iPod Icon. There wasn’t really much missing from these two areas of the phone, so it’s understandable why we didn’t see anything new with firmware 2.0. Safari has all the same options, as well. Its improvement will be noted later, since that’s really the connection it’s using, and not the browser itself. The Mail app itself is virtually the same within, unless you have Push enabled, which I do not, so that will not be part of this review. Again, the only change in Mail is the speed of downloads, which, again, isn’t related to that of the application.

 

The Biggest Changes – Operations

 

The biggest change in features would all be within Settings. Yawn. Seriously, though, there are many more options to customize your phone now. ‘General’ allows you switch off 3G connections and GPS, in case you’re running low on battery or simply not needing the two on at the time being. ‘Restrictions’ seem to be more for the parents of adolescents with iPhones. It allows one to disable access to Explicit songs (only those purchased from iTunes, all other songs aren’t marked), Safari, YouTube, iTunes app, and Installing Applications. The only real use from these I can see are blocking Safari and iTunes, to keep overzealous kids from running up a huuuge data bill (if you’re not using an AT&T Data Plan) and buying lots of songs over iTunes. Otherwise, I don’t see a point to the other application blockers. ‘Main, Contacts, Calendars’ adds a few features. The biggest, in my option, is ‘Import SIM Contacts.’ Before, with the first generation iPhone, you’d get a completely new SIM card I the phone, and if you had SIM contacts on your old phone, you were kind of out of luck. But now, they’ve included an easy way to Import those contacts from your older SIM card. ‘Phone’ now has the options to allow you to change your Voicemail Password and enable a SIM PIN. The final change to Settings is that applications that have settings to play with will now show up at the bottom, such as the NYTimes app.

 

What We Know – Hardware

 

Overall, the hardware of the iPhone hasn’t changed substantially. There’s still your WiFi. And flash hard drive. And touch screen. It’s not really until we talk about new hardware, and that’s where things get exciting.

 

The Biggest Changes – Hardware

 

The biggest change for the iPhone 3G’s hardware is, as everyone could have already guessed it: 3G. It’s not really a surprising fact that this is what most people were waiting for. My old phone had 3G. And it was from 2005. However, it was CDMA-based, and me being one of those GSM whores, was glad to get away from it and to the first generation iPhone. Nevertheless, I missed my fast(er) data downloads. Thankfully, the iPhone 3G has brought the power of 3G back to me, and this time, it’s GSM-based. Overall, the speed of AT&T’s 3G network is satisfying. It’s not speed of true high speed, IE, my high speed at home, but it’s far better than EDGE and I’m extremely happy with it. The next biggest change, and another change I’m very thrilled about, is the GPS. Making my way around the San Francisco area can be a pain in butt sometimes, and now that I have GPS, it makes it very easy to ensure I am on the right track, and the only thing keeping me from my destination, is the traffic. The accuracy of the iPhone 3G’s GPS is very good, usually within feet of my actual location, and while it doesn’t have turn-by-turn directions (yet. TomTom app anyone?), I’m still very pleased with this. The microphone and speaker are also improved, and speaker phone calls are much clearer than before. I do enjoy using the feature, but before, it wasn’t the best set up, but now, it works like a charm. And I nearly forgot this one, but it’s a big change: the headphone jack. Yes, that’s right! Finally, no longer a recessed jack! It’s such a simply change, but it’s indeed a welcome one!

 

Call Quality

 

In a word: Stunning. Okay, well, maybe not that big of a word, but still, it’s a huge change from that of my original iPhone. 3G calls are far clearer and cleaner than that of the EDGE calls, and when I’m in EDGE-only territory, even those calls come in stronger. I’m sure this is a balance between the new network connection and the new plastic backing of the iPhone, allowing better reception to get to the phone. Service at my university would sometimes drop completely because of the building design and the first generation iPhone’s mini-bomb shelter-of-a-backing, however, I now receive signal nearly anywhere on campus, and while it may not be as strong as if I were outside, a signal is a signal, and I’ll take what I can get. Maybe skylights in the buildings to solve the other half of the problem…

 

Applications

 

One of the biggest additions to the iPhone is the App Store, and its applications! While still young, the App Store already has a nice swath of apps to pick from, many of which are completely free. From social networking giant Facebook to news giant New York Times, there’s an app out there for everyone, and this is only the beginning. The paid apps are mainly overblown, currently, but I’m sure that future paid apps will be better, once we have more to select from and some nice competition between companies. Overall, for a first-run of this store, it’s well organized and set up; a very good addition to the iPhone. Also, there is one app I just need to give praise to: Remote. This is without doubt one of the coolest apps out there. It allows you to control your iTunes library and Apple TV over WiFi, with full cover art and virtually instant surfing of content, with pause, skip to next track, volume control, etc. Hosting a party? Make sure you have this free app to make it easier and more impressive. Without a doubt, this is an ingenious addition by Apple.

 

Activation

 

Okay, this is my first and really only rant about the new iPhone, at least, in terms of getting it set up. As you can guess, I think the iPhone 3G is wonderful. However, the activation process (on Apple’s end) was HORRIBLE. I understand I got this on the first day it came out, and yes, I understand I was one of the first in line, and I put myself into the fray of first-day-mania, but come on. You’re launching one of the biggest products of the year and you don’t have your servers ready for the influx of activations, purchasing of songs and apps, and updates of the first gen phones? It took my nearly four hours to get my new phone working. Nevertheless, props to AT&T for making my purchasing and account update section of the process easy and painless!

 

Increased Charges

 

I’ve heard tons of people complaining that they’re charging more for this version’s iPhone Data Plan than that of the old version. Maybe people don’t understand the difference, but 3G will do that to your data plan. Please get over it. It now costs the same as any other device’s data plan at AT&T, so really, you were getting a discount before. Perhaps I’m not as uppity about it since I have a Corporate discount and therefore pay less for all unlimited services than just that of the first gen-basic plan, alone, but I still wouldn’t freak out about an extra $10 a month. They’re not forcing you to get the new phone if you don’t like it.

 

 

The Lacking

 

Yes, even as feature filled, the iPhone 3G is still lacking several features. Picture messaging, for one, would be nice to have. I know we have email options, but it would be nice to simply enter in a phone number and send the pictures off. Forwarding of text messages would be another feature I’d like to have. I text with a lot of people, and being able to forward texts would save me time trying to explain what someone else was talking about/planning/complaining/etc. Video capture, seriously. This is getting a bit annoying, and I really shouldn’t be needing to ask this, but: why don’t we have video recording support out of the box?! I shouldn’t have to hack my iPhone to get what is a basic feature on other phones! Finally, but the most important: COPY AND PASTE. Seriously Apple, multitouch has sooo many options to enable copy and paste. Why have we not seen this in a software update AGES ago? Anyway, that’s really about it for my rant about what’s missing.

 

Final Words and Future

 

The iPhone 3G is the next evolutionary step for the iPhone, and it’s indeed a great step, from the lower price (thanks to subsidies), applications, 3G, to GPS tracking, the iPhone 3G was indeed worth the upgrade, and I am glad to one of the early adopters of it. But, of course, this leaves me wondering what they’ll do on the next iPhone. They have a bit to live up to, as the new iPhone has what we wanted and needed, and is fully on par (and above) with all phones currently, so whatever Apple is planning for us next will have to win the masses over, and I expect they’ll do just that. I look forward to seeing what the future hold for this great device.

 

Until the next iPhone,

 

Jon-Michael Noe

Comments

[Janice Lois]

This is a great phone having a lot of features and work on our finger tips.