Worth it or not? That’s the question most people are pondering given the high upgrade cost if they already have a contract iPhone 3G here in the UK. Perhaps the most economical option is to sell the existing iPhone 3G and buy a 3GS on Pay As You Go, which is the option I plumped for…
Queues outside my local O2 store this morning were a fraction of those last July when the 3G was released. Within half an hour I was walking away with the white 16GB 3GS iPhone.
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No queues at Carphone Warehouse for iPhone 3GS launch
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5 people ahead of me for iPhone 3GS at 9.02am
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The long queue on iPhone 3G launch
Setup was ludicrously simple affair, insert old SIM, activate in iTunes and then restore from previous back up (I had no problems restoring from my 3G backup). Within about 5 minutes all my settings, email accounts, text messages etc were transferred. It was then just a matter of synch-ing my apps to get them all over onto the new phone. So, after a few hours, here are my initial impressions:
Speed
It’s faster, of that there is no doubt. Everything is snappier from contacts to launching email and apps. There’s none of those occasional pauses in text messages and the like whilst you wait for the screen to catch up with your inputs. Safari (web browsing) is infinitely faster, not loading the pages, (as obviously that is connection dependent) but navigating the page, zooming in and out etc is instant and effectively faultless now. For users who surf the net a lot on their iPhone, this is likely to be big selling point. You soon get used to this though so if it was just the speed increase in this new iteration, it would be hard to recommend upgrading to all but a select few. Thankfully it’s not.
Camera
The camera is a considerable improvement. The picture quality is far better than the 3G. The touch auto focus/exposure works great for quick snaps and the images don’t have the same graininess that all my 3G images seemed to suffer. A built in LED flash would have been nice (and I’m sure the engineers considered this but discounted it eventually for some reason).
Video recording
Brilliant. This was the one feature of the N95 I have missed since using an iPhone as my primary handset. What’s more, video recording on the 3GS is easier and better quality than on any other phone I have used. The sound quality deserves special mention. It really is superb. That said, iPhone 3GS video is only 640 x 480 resolution @ 30 frames per second (although early reports suggest the iPhone 3GS uses a Samsung branded system-on-a-chip (SoC) featuring a multi-format codec with untapped HD video playback and capture capabilities). However, even with a lower resolution than a Flip (or similar), coupled with the built in editing capability the iPhone 3GS arguably eliminates the need for any other portable video camera for impromptu recording.
Voice recognition
I’ve seen many initial reviews critisise this feature but I’ve found it quite brilliant. Even with my regional UK accent I’ve had no problems calling people from my phone book, even the Indian names amongst them (which I’d anticipated it may have struggled with). This feature alone is going to make it worthwhile for me. Being able to dial in the car this way is a major bonus. I just hope everyone finds the voice recognition as accurate. Here’s two tips I’ve picked up already:
- You can initiate voice commands even when the iPhone 3GS is locked. Just hold down the Home key and the Voice recognition screen appears. Nice.
- For any names it struggles with, edit the contact entry to the full name. For example, change ‘Simon’ to ‘Simon Frain’. Saying the full name provides far greater accuracy.
- ‘Play songs by’ is an incredibly powerful way of selecting songs in the iPod. It saves you selecting an album as it selects all songs by that band. E.g. “Play songs by the Prodigy” means just that, the first Prodigy track starts playing but only Prodigy songs are selected so when I skip forward or back, I still only get songs by The Prodigy. Amazing!
Digital Compass
This, when coupled with Google Maps, is a revelation. Tap the ‘locate’ cross hairs once in Maps to find your current location and then tap it again to add the digital compass. What looks like a torch beam appears and as you turn the map orientates with you. It’s very smooth and very accurate. I’m never going to get lost mountain biking again (fingers crossed). If you spend any amount of time visiting new cities etc you will find this a major help - as long as you don’t get mugged using it!
Screen coating
The 3GS enjoys a new screen coating, aimed to minimise finger prints on the touch screen. I found these prints diminished considerably on the iPhone 3G by adding an InvisibleSHIELD (it’s a transparent film that, with a little patience, sticks to the phone) but without it, there were always paw prints. The 3GS is a little better and keeping prints at bay but I’ve found it the least impressive of the new features. Whilst the prints certainly wipe off quicker it’s not a massive difference.
iPhone 3GS Headphones
The iPhone 3GS gets new headphones as standard. The headphones that shipped with the iPhone 3G had a button built in that let you click once for pause, twice to skip a track or three times to skip back a track. That functionality remains but the iPhone 3GS headphones also include a volume up and down button so you no longer have to reach in your pocket when you want to adjust the volume. A minor change but a welcome one.
Battery
Watch this space, not been using it long enough yet to establish the difference.
Worth it?
Yes, even at this early stage I believe so. The features that have been added, along with OS 3.0 mean that some of the last ‘but it hasn’t got…’ arguments are now redundant. For many it’s a big upgrade cost and that’s certainly a consideration. If you don’t use the camera or Google Maps much you could also argue for waiting till your contact runs out. However, if you’re looking for an all-in-one device that is that best mobile email, music player and video recorder available, stump up the cash and go for the iPhone 3GS.
