Apple iPhone 3GS Review

Introduction:

At first it was just good enough that the Jesus phone was finally being released, and last year Apps took it to a new level.  This time around Apple is counting on under the hood improvements to continue driving iPhone sales.  The Apple iPhone 3GS is the latest and greatest, bringing a faster processor, faster internet, increased graphics and an increase in storage.  Memory has also been doubled; it’s now available in 16 and 32GB versions, though the 8GB 3G will remain on sale with a new, lower $99 price tag.  Last year we liked the 3G, but felt Apple missed the mark by simply improving on the product rather than pushing innovation.  The App Store has proven to be a huge success, but this is on the software side and 2G owners have benefited just as much.  The 3GS threatens to be the same, and with minimal software improvement from 2.0 to 3.0 we have to wonder just how much of an upgrade that little S really brings.

Design:

For anyone who has used an iPhone before there isn’t much to say about the 3GS’s design.  It looks very similar to the 3G, and without a ruler you’d never notice that it is 1mm shorter and a mere 0.1mm thinner.  Despite rumors of a matte finish the hard plastic back remains, as do the rounded edges with chrome trim.  This time around both sizes are available in black or white.  It is slightly lighter than the 3G, almost too much so in our opinion.  Plastic housing and lightness don’t give the user a reassuring feeling normally, but the glass face helps to overcome this.  For a more in-depth look at the design check out our iPhone 3G review.



You can compare the Apple iPhone 3GS with many other phones using ourSize Visualization Tool.



Overall the design is more of the same, and we’d bet that 99% of our readers wouldn’t notice if we reused last year’s pictures (for the record we didn’t…or did we?)  It’s a good design, but we would have liked to see some of the rumors come true.  A front facing camera would be nice, and a soft touch back would have been wonderful.  Apple says the materials are more fingerprint resistant this time, and while this may be true they are still very noticeable.  There isn’t really much to complain about though, it’s tried, true and iconic at this point.

User Interface and Software:

The Apple iPhone 3GS naturally ships with the latest version of iPhone OS.  The most useful upgrades are the addition of voice command and copy and paste, though these have been standard in most smartphones for years now.  The OS update is available to all iPhone owners, but voice command is only compatible with the 3GS.  Apple has a weird balancing act going on of playing catch-up on basic features (video recording also makes its official debut here) while innovating in others areas (video editing, UI, the App Store.)  The addition of stereo Bluetooth and MMS round out the “why the hell doesn’t a phone this advanced have this” features, but the “why the hell did it take this long” question still remains a mystery.  There are many more small tweaks in 3.0, for a more comprehensive list check out the unofficial iPhone User’s Guide.

The voice command is fairly routine, though does allow for music control.  This is not a unique feature, as Microsoft's Voice Command allows users to do this as well, but still handy nonetheless.  Beyond dialing from contacts or numbers, the user can also skip tracks, play an album by name or ask what song is playing.  While cool, we don't think these features are incredibly useful but some may enjoy them more than others.


The 3GS is snappier, that’s for sure.  Apple claims that everything you do is up to 2x faster with the new hardware, and we wouldn’t doubt this claim.  It is a welcome improvement, but nothing groundbreaking.  The 600MHz processor is not unmatched in the industry (the Pre runs the same CPU actually,) like the original processor was when the 2G launched.  Safari runs quicker as well, with some tests putting it over 120% better at rendering than the 3G and 20% better than the Pre, which also runs a Webkit based browser.  Here there definitely is a noticeable difference.

Voice Memos and Compass make their debut in the Apple iPhone 3GS, with the former being more useful than the latter.  The most useful part of the compass is that maps now orientate in the direction you’re facing.  Beyond this you will find the standard set of applications out of the box, with tens of thousands of others ready to be downloaded, most for a price.  We should start seeing some better games come for the 3GS due to its support of OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible hardware and a more powerful 3D chip.  This probably means that we’ll also see games compatible only with the 3GS.


Spotlight search allows the user to search their contacts, calendar, notes, mail and iPod, similar to the universal search found in the Pre.  Unlike the Pre, when the iPhone comes up empty on results the iPhone does not go out and search the web for the answer.  It also only searches mail subjects, not the entire message.  It’s a useful enough feature, but we feel Apple could have taken it further to make better use of it.


One side note, after going straight from the Pre to the Apple iPhone 3GS, the lack of multitasking is very apparent.  We’d happily carry around an extra charger in exchange for the extra functionality.  Or you know, an extra battery if that was an option.

Messaging:

Again, this is pretty much unchanged from the 3G with one very big exception.  Users can FINALLY rotate the phone for a landscape keyboard in Mail and Messaging.  While it takes up most of the screen, meaning you can’t see much of what you’re typing, it’s a feature that users have been screaming for since day one and we’re happy to see has been addressed.  It makes typing so much more pleasant, often a knock on the iPhone.

Another welcome addition is copy/paste, one of those things that should be in there from the beginning but at least Apple has finally addressed it.  Lastly, and no doubt unofficially, is the addition of four letter words to the dictionary.  No more being ducking livid!



Data and Connectivity:

We touched on it earlier, but Safari is noticeably faster.  This is due to better rendering, but eventually we’ll also be able to chalk this up to the addition of HSDPA 7.2Mbps.  Right now Chicago is the only market where ATT is trialing this, so most users won’t notice any difference and by the time ATT’s full rollout is complete (2011) there will no doubt be a few new iPhones out there.



Multimedia:

The biggest addition on this front is to the camera, which not only gets a spec bump to 3.2 megapixels with autofocus, but also finally allows for video recording.  While a pedestrian feature, Apple at least did it right with 30fps VGA and included video editing software.  It is very basic and lets you choose the start and end point, but it’s more than most phones have and we appreciate the effort.  Like many other phones the Apple iPhone 3GS lets you upload directly to YouTube, which makes the on-device editing even handier.

Apple iPhone 3GS sample videos at 640x480 pixels resolution - Sample 1, Sample 2



As mentioned the camera is now 3.2MP with autofocus.  It will automatically focus on the center, but if the user wishes they can tap on an area onscreen to change the autofocus area.  It is rather quick, happening in less than 2 seconds, and the shutter is almost instantaneous.  It may have taken a fraction of a second longer to focus in low light conditions, but really not much at all.  Results were good for what it is; colors were a bit muted and fine details- especially in the distance- were a touch blurry, but as this is not a high end camera phone the results were perfectly acceptable.




Apple has a great multimedia platform, but the gap is closing.  The video quality is good and interface easy to use, but that is no longer unique to the iPhone.  Among others, the Pre and Storm are both very good multimedia devices as well.  While they (arguably) may not be better than the iPhone, their interfaces are good enough that it won’t leave users wanting for the Apple experience, like it used to be.  We’re not saying that there is anything wrong with it, but they have definitely lost their edge.


The great YouTube client is still around, and Pandora offers a wonderful free streaming music app.  The Pre’s multitasking abilities really come through here though, while Pandora is great we’d love to be able to do other things while listening but the iPhone does not allow it.  One oddity we noticed, though two grills would indicate that the Apple iPhone 3GS has stereo speakers, they are actually mono or they only play out of the left side.

Performance:

The battery gets a modest bump from 1150mAh to 1219, but thanks to other hard and software improvements battery life has increased to 5 hours of 3G talk time and 9 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.  More talk time is great, assuming you can make a call.  While our reception seemed just fine, call quality was awful.  Despite showing full 3G signal strength callers complained that we were static-ey, cutting in and out, tinny and just generally poor.  Our end wasn’t much better; the volume was low enough that we had a hard time understanding callers even in quiet environments.  There were a few calls we had to abandon because the quality was so poor.

Conclusion:

Whether or not to get an Apple iPhone 3GS isn’t as clear-cut as it used to be; first, and for many users foremost, is the fact that it just isn’t much of an upgrade from the 3G.  If you’re a 2G owner or a new user looking to hop aboard then the decision should be easy.  The other issue complicating the issue is the competition.  All things considered, we like the Pre better.  It may not have the app support yet, but the platform is more advanced.  Symbian just announced some monster spec potential and we still haven’t given up on Android.  Hell, even HTC is making Windows Mobile look good (OK, that may be stretching it.)

Last year the addition of 3G was a very compelling reason for users to upgrade or jump ship, but this time around we don’t really see anything that will grab the user’s attention.  It may entice some 2G owners to finally give up their aluminum back, but save for the gamers 3G owners have very little reason to upgrade their hardware, in our opinion.  The new internals make for a faster experience, there is no doubt about that, but we couldn’t justify spending a minimum of $300 (and up to $500) for such a minor tweak.  Since 3.0 is available as a free download, the new hardware just isn’t that compelling to us.

We were concerned last year that Apple missed the boat, but the App Store at least brought a software revolution to the table.  Let’s face it, it’s still a great phone and will sell like crazy, but there are minimal software improvements and the hardware isn’t head and shoulders above the competition anymore.  What once was a truly innovative phone has fallen into a rut, while the competition is breaking out of the box.

Apple iPhone 3GS Video Review: