[IrishJK09]

I figured I would give my personal review of the iPhone 3G. I am splitting it into two parts, the first being the hardware and the second being the software. I am doing it this way because they are separate entities; the iPhone 3G represents a new hardware device, but the software is a new platform and is available to both owners of the 3G and the first gen.

Hardware

In the overrated words of Borat... "Veerry Niiiice."

Point blank simple, it feels good in the hand. Your opinion may vary, but from where I sit, the plastic backing is a step up. I personally bought the white one, so the smudge problems of the black don't affect me, and that said, it looks good, it feels good, and it is tough. This isn't a simple, cheap plastic. No sir. It is the same type of plastic that they make the MacBooks out of. Some other changes are the size. The 3G is also bit wider and a hair longer when compared to the first gen, plus it is a tiny bit thicker in the middle, but tapered at the edges. It doesn't feel bigger though, it feels more comfortable.

Of course, hardware is more than just the look, how does it perform? Well, the radios have all been improved, and coupling that with the plastic back (no more metal interference), it has greatly improved reception when compared to the first gen iPhone. I steadily get 4-5 bars where my first gen would only give me 1-3, and that makes me happy.

What about the GPS? It is fast and it is spot on accurate. It finds where you are in a matter of seconds, and as long as you aren't buried in a building, it is accurate to a matter of feet. As of now, there is no turn by turn application available, and the Google Maps implementation is more suited for finding you and keeping you on course, rather than giving you real time route guidance. Word has it that TomTom and TeleNav are working on real-time turn by turn solutions though, so we will have to wait and see how it plays out.

I hope these rumors turn out to betrue, because while Google Maps is good for finding you to start a route, it tends to lag behind while driving. That is a Maps problem though, and the right software coupled with the very accurate GPS is bound to be great... If it comes.

There isn't much to be said about the screen really. It is the same as the first, but with some minor tweaks. You may have heard about the "yellow screen" on your trips around the intra-webs, and it is true, the screen is more yellowish. This isn't a bug, defect or glitch however. No, it was intentionally made warmer to give better color definition and not make things look so "cold."

It worked.

Everything seems to just POP off the screen at you and the clarity is great, not to mention it is also brighter (you can set the 2G and the 3G phones to the same brightness setting on the slider and it will be brighter on the 3G).

Battery life is my only hardware-ish complaint ("ish" because software can have an effect on it too). I am holding off final judgement until I have broken mine in over a week or so, but as of now, there is a lot to be desired. It isn't "bad" per-say, it is more like disappointing when compared to the first gen.

With 3G turned on, I hit the 20% warning after about 4 hours and 20 minutes of mixed use (some calls, mail, sms and web). Hold on, don't freak out. I am talking about a steady 4.2 hours of USE, not 4.2 hours of being off charge. The 4.2 hours in question were performed on day 2 of owning it, so it was pretty much glued to my hand as I played, shopped the App Store and tested things. I would imagine that had it not been 11pm when I got the 20% warning, and had I continued playing, it would have died out completely at around 5-5.5 hours of use. This is actually right in line with Apple's claims of 3G talk time, so I guess I can't complain.

Now, I would like to put it in perspective. 5-5.5 hours of real use on a 3G phone is actually in the upper echelon. I used to have a 3G At&t Tilt, and that thing would give me the 10% warning at 3.5 hours, on a good day. 3G is simply a battery hog. There isn't much Apple could have done more than what they did, and by comparison, what they pulled off is actually pretty decent.

My only problem is that I used the first gen iPhone. The first gen wouldn't give me a 20% warning until about 5.5-6 hours, and on some days, I could get 7 actual hours of use before dying. Compared to that, it is disappointing, compared to the rest of the 3G field, it is pretty strong.

You also have the option of switching to 2G mode. This definitely helps battery life a great deal, and puts it back on the level of the 2G iPhone. I generally do this and only switch to 3G if I NEED to browse for something and am away from WiFi.

I mentioned battery problems being software related as well, and I will get to that in part 2 of the review....

Anyway, that about wraps up the hardware review. All in all, I am very pleased and have no regrets about upgrading.

[IrishJK09]

Software

Now, for the other part of the whole... Firmware 2.0. The big mac daddy of iPhone upgrades. Did it float like a butterfly and sting like a bee in the style of Ali, or were its wings clipped before it left the gate?

Neither.

It is a great, great update, there is no question about it. It shows signs of being rushed to meet deadlines though...

The biggest and best addition is the App Store and app Installation. In 3 days there is already near 1k apps available. In 3 months it will likely double. In a year? Who knows...

The current catalog contains some great stuff, some poor stuff, and a lot in the middle. Simply put? Some of them are finely tuned, some need a tune up.

We are experiencing first hand a wave of 1.0 apps however, so this is to be expected. I will say that the great ones I have found so far are unrivaled in the mobile world though, and they more than make up for the less than stellar stuff. I figure that in 6 months, the App Store will be better fleshed out, and will have a lot more of the great stuff. Regardless though, it is still awesome and still has a bunch of awesome stuff available inside of its virtual walls.

There have been other changes, but most are minor. The Settings menu has been changed up, Maps has received some new icons, a few of the apps have received new icons, if you tilt the phone to landscape while using the calculator, it will turn into a basic scientific calulator; and a few other minor things. None of them are worth writing much about however, and the big hitter of firmware 2.0 has always been the App Store and app installation anyway, so there honestly wasn't much else to expect outside of those things.

The other big addition is Exchange support. I don't have access to an Exchange server, so I can't speak on this, and I won't. I will also leave MobileMe out because that is yet another separate animal that needs yet another review dedicated to it and it alone. (Summary of MobileMe just for the curious though... F'in AWESOME!)

Ok, from my opening statement, it was pretty obvious that I had negative things to say as well... and I do.

The first is the lag. The device occasionally slows up a bit. It isn't huge, but it is noticeable and it can be irritating. The two biggest offenders of this are the standalone Address Book and the SMS app. If you open Address Book from inside the Phone app, it loads quickly and you can start scrolling immediately. On the flipside, if you open the standalone Address Book app from your home screen, it can take a good 3-4 seconds to load, OR it will load right away, but you can't start scrolling for 3-4 seconds. Like I said, not a big deal, but still irritating.

The SMS is a bigger deal, still not huge, but bigger nonetheless. Sporadically, when you open SMS, choose an active conversation and go to enter text, it will get suuuuper sloooow. You will type letters and it will take 3 seconds before they show up. You can theoretically type an entire message like this and it will show up properly, only it will do it 3 seconds late. This can be fixed by force quitting the SMS app (hold the Home button for about 10 seconds while in the app until the Home Screen comes back up), but it still shouldn't happen, not even sporadically.

My other complaint is the battery meter. In addition to my comments in the hardware review section, there is a software related battery problem, and it is the meter. The problem is that it isn't always accurate. It will occasionally get show that you are getting low, and the next time you wake the device up, it has gone back UP a bit (example: it showed mine at about 1/4-1/3 battery, I then turned WiFi off, put the phone to sleep, woke it up 1-2 minutes later when I got a new mail, and it showed 1/2-2/3 battery left).

It's almost like the battery meter is predictive based on what you are doing. Kind of like it showed me at 1/3 battery because I had WiFi on, so it was showing me how much time I had left based on my current usage, and when I turned WiFi off, it readjusted to show me how much I could eek out of it with WiFi off. That would be AWESOME, but my better sense tells me that the battery meter inconsistencies are not due to something cool like that, but instead due to a software bug.

All in all the software is a very nice addition. The SMS lag, Address Book lag, and funky battery meter are definitely thorns in its side though. Those are the kinds of things that make me feel it was rushed a bit towards the end to meet deadlines. iPhone firmware 1.0 had issues like this as well though, and they were remedied quickly, so I don't expect anything less for iPhone 2.0 firmware.

On the software side, the good definitely outweighs the bad. By a wide margin.

(I reviewed the software separate mostly because it is available to first gen iPhone users as well as 3G users. The problems mentioned are not specific to the 3G device and the 3G device should not be singled out in blame, and I wanted to make that clear. All the problems I spoke about are affecting owners of BOTH generations. The good news is that means it can all be fixed relatively easily, and most likely will be in a quick fashion)

[IrishJK09]

Scores

Hardware = 9.0
Software = 8.0

iPhone 3G as a whole = 9.0

[reeneebob]

I am loving the app store.

Now, I have to say thank god for the iPod Touch - because it is allowing me to adore the new stuff for the iPhone without having to sell my soul to Rogers...otherwise I may have very well have cancelled my Berry and gone to Rogers.

The one thing that is killing me is the white 16 Gb model. I have a hardcore adoration for white electronics...and it's sooooooo tempting. I really hope Apple brings out a white Touch.

[Duvi]

The White version is definitely a sexii beast..


Great review CrazE... I pretty much have the same experience with 2.0 software.

[IrishJK09]

Yes, it most definitely is Jayden.

I feel bad for you up there in Canada reeneebob... It sounds like someone needs to step in and control Rogers.