Apple iPhone 3G - 16GB, black (AT&T)
Record Maker
Though the iPhone 3G isn’t necessarily blazing new territory, it is paving that territory, refining the available technologies, while placing at utmost importance the overall design of its body and interface. The reduced price tag, expanded memory and incorporated 3G technology are truly new, and are likely to represent a new direction for the industry. On another note, the iPhone 3G, like its iPhone predecessor, is taking a big chunk out of many different markets, offering a solid mix of business, entertainment and everyday use.
Deal Breaker
No deal breakers here, but sadly, multimedia messaging, voice dialing and video recording are missing.
Introduction
The question of whether or not the new and improved iPhone 3G deserves all of the glowing reviews and accolades it has been receiving is a simple one to answer: it does. What the iPhone 3G has, it has in spades. With improved connectivity, durability, speed, reception and refinements in its button positioning and material design, the 3G iPhone is miles ahead of its predecessor, and even further ahead of its competitors. But best of all, it comes with a much reduced price tag, and increased memory capacity.
Appeal and Flexibility
While the iPhone 3G isn’t the first 3G phone, it does make better use of the technology than other devices before it. Aside from its four 3G radio bands, the iPhone 3G includes three GSM radio bands, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, providing seamless access and use from virtually anywhere. But the iPhone 3G really shines in its improved software performance.
The iPhone 3G supports the 2.0 software, an upgrade that promises new additional features such as iWork document support, contacts search and the capability to view PowerPoint presentations. Also included in the software are parental controls, a scientific calculator and user-friendly bulk-delete option. The supported Microsoft Exchange Server also offers email, contact and date planner, remote wipe, global contacts access and auto-discovery, enhancing its work-use crossover appeal even further.
Though the many users that contracted with ATT with the first iPhone release last fall are likely to be upset, new users are certain to be pleased by the reduction in price. But users beware: the 2-year AT&T contract will cost more over time than the first generation iPhone, so while it’s lighter up front, it does carry heavier baggage.
Design Features
Like all Apple products, the iPhone 3G is a work of art, and stands somewhere between fashion-forward accessory and jack-of-all-trades handheld tool. The body maintains its overall design from its previous versions, but with key differences in the material used. The buttons are chromed for further protection against damage, while the touchscreen itself has had some cosmetic changes to provide for better protection and easier touchscreen use. The aluminum backing has been replaced by an ultra-light, black plastic skin, which helps to defray the cost of the product, while reducing overall weight.
A key difference between the iPhone 3G and the previous iPhones is the location of the headphone jack. While other iPhones had a recessed headphone jack, the new iPhone 3G's headphone jack remains flush with the body, enabling users to hook up any 3.5mm headphones they want.
The iPhone 3G supports three 3G bands, 850, 1900 and 2100, allowing it impressive speed and connectivity. In fact, in speed demonstrations, the speed of the iPhone 3G has proven to triple the speed of the previous iPhone. But it isn’t certain if these speeds will be a standard when many iPhone 3Gs are using the same network.
The GPS features offered by the iPhone 3G are a cut above others, using Assisted GPS with the help of satellites. The 3G iPhone’s GPS can also be used for live tracking, making it a very useful tool for pedestrian or automotive navigation. Better still, the iPhone 3G offers photo geotagging. Turn-by-turn directions by third-party apps are promised to follow very soon.
The battery life of the iPhone 3G also boasts strong improvements over the previous iPhone, providing more than 10 hours of 2G talk time, five hours of 3G talk time, five hours of 3G internet time, six hours of Wi-Fi internet time, seven hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback. These improvements are likely to keep the charger at home, allowing for by all accounts, all-day use.
The iPhone 3G also offers support for more than 15 languages, and includes a spray can styled applicator for writing characters in Asian languages.
Improvement
The body of the iPhone 3G remains virtually the same as the previous iPhone. However, with its ultra-light plastic backing, the new iPhone 3G does weigh in slightly lighter. The edges of the iPhone 3G are also now tapered to provide leverage and easier use of the interface. Most importantly, the same ultra-light plastic backing solves many of the battery changing questions and problems that occurred with the first model.
While picture resolution and audio quality remain the same, expanded memory capacities and better connectivity provide for more media storage and entertainment options. And with third-party gaming applications soon to come, the iPhone 3G is likely to have further use and crossover appeal within handheld gaming.
The most important improvement of course is the incorporation of 3G technology. Cell phones and handhelds have provided internet connectivity for the better part of the last five years. But with server, bandwidth, hardware and software problems, the results were often hazardous at best and restricted to ring tone downloads and sports scores. The iPhone 3G makes up for years of error, providing speedy and stable internet connection.
The iPhone 3G also includes a SIM card removal tool and power adapter, making up for many of the problems that faced the earlier iPhone.
What's Missing
To the surprise of many, the new iPhone 3G still fails to make use of many of the multimedia options that Apple itself champions. Multimedia messaging, voice dialing and video recording—options which are standard in most cell phones—are painfully absent. Also in need of work is the built-in camera, which is a pretty bare-boned feature. While most iPhone users are unlikely to be dissuaded by the shortcomings of its built-in camera, it would be nice to see improvements made in later versions.
Summary
Though the iPhone 3G isn’t by any means revolutionary, it does up the ante by doing an incredible job of refining available technologies, improving upon the previous iPhone design and challenging the various business and entertainment multimedia cell phone markets. Hopefully the future will see an iPhone that taps into the multimedia, video and audio capabilities pioneered by Apple. But until then, the iPhone 3G should do an excellent job of tiding you over.
