So I’ve had my iPhone 3Gs for a little over a week now and I am extremely pleased with it. Basically, what Apple have done is to (finally) iron out the niggles that were present in both previous incarnations of the device. The ’s’ of the name refers to ’speed’ which is improved in two ways: by the inclusion of a better processor and more ram, and by the inclusion of a hsdpa transmitter.
OS speed
The thing that is immediately noticeable with the 3Gs is the improved OS navigation speed and application load times. Contacts, for example, loads with only the slightest moment of blank screen before the fields get populated, unlike the 1st gen phone where you could easily write a letter in the time it took Contacts to find an address. You’ll experience the same speed increase across most apps, everything just ‘happens’ in a much more acceptable timeframe which makes using the phone a joy, as opposed to the frustratingly underwhelming experience it was before.
HSDPA
I had a brief moment of uncertainty the night before the 3Gs was released because yes, I had read the schpeel and yes, I had watched the WWDC where they had announced the phone to the world – but somehow, I had not taken in the very important mention of hsdpa. Basically, hsdpa is what broadband is to dial-up in the wireless data transfer field – it gives you proper data transfer speeds compared to the mobile surfing experience most of us are used to. Most new smartphones feature hsdpa so it was very important for me that the new iPhone could handle hsdpa as well but for some reason I had assumed that it did not because the phone was still being called a ‘3G’ phone (actually hsdpa is technically a version of 3G which is probably why Apple chose to keep the term 3G in the phone name). Anyway, it transpired that not only does the 3Gs support hsdpa but it supports 7.2Mb speed hsdpa which is twice as fast as O2s current 3.6Mb hspda network. Having become used to the iPhone falling short of the mark in many respects (it took Apple 18 months to sort out cut, copy and paste for goodness sake!) it was a very pleasant surprise for the iPhone to be ahead of the game on this one.
iPhone 3.0
Around the same time as the launch of the iPhone 3Gs, Apple released their 3.0 version of the phone operating system. This software revision was announced by Apple back in January and has been eagerly awaited by iPhone users ever since because it promised to address many of the gross failings of the iPhone since generation 1. Most notably, 3.0 promised the ability to copy, cut and paste text and images, as well as the inclusion of MMS support, forwarding, phone-wide search capability and numerous other improvements. To be honest, I’m surprised that Apple got away with taking so long to release the 3.0 software because most of the improvements do nothing more than allow the iPhone to execute some very basic phone tasks that anyone who uses a phone has come to expect from even the most basic Nokia. However, now the iPhone can do all these things, Apple have really succeeded in placing the iPhone back on top of the smartphone league table. Combine this with the simply staggering number of applications available for the iPhone (many of which are free and most of which cost less than £1) and anyone wanting to compete in the smartphone arena has a long, hard struggle ahead of them if they want to become a serious contender (having said that, I would have at least looked at the Palm Pre were it available in the UK).
Other stuff
I’m not going to go into a full review of the 3Gs, there are plenty of these dotted around the interweb – but things you should know are this:
If you’re new to the smartphone idea and you’re thinking about getting an iPhone – now is the time to do it. The iPhone 3Gs is, in my opinion, the first iPhone that is actually fully functional and, as a result, is a pleasure to use. If you’re already an iPhone owner and are able to upgrade, I would say this: the speed bump is noticeable against both the 1st gen iPhone and the 3G – however, the speed increase is less dramatic if you already own a 3G model. Unless having a compass on your phone or having a somewhat hit and miss voice activation feature is essential to you, I would think hard about upgrading from a 3G to a 3Gs. Apple have filed patent documents for an iPhone featuring a forward looking camera, faster processor and a wireless-n card – all of which would imply some form of video calling functionality is around the corner, so if you’re able to wait another 6 months before upgrading your 3G, you will doubtless grab yourself something of an even higher spec than the 3Gs.