With the iPhone 3G, Apple appears to have fixed some call-quality performance issues we had with the previous model–in our initial tests, the volume is louder with less background buzz than before. The 3G reception could be improved, however. Music and video quality were largely unchanged, but we didn’t have many complaints in that department to begin with.
Price may well remain our largest concern. New AT&T customers and most current AT&T customers can buy the iPhone 3G for $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. If you don’t qualify for that price–check your AT&T account to find out–you’ll pay $399 and $499 respectively. Either way, you’ll pay $15 more per month ($74.99 total) for a plan comparable with the original iPhone ($59 per month). So, while you’ll pay less outright to buy the handset, you’ll make it up over the course of a standard two-year AT&T contract.
So should you buy an iPhone 3G? If you haven’t bought an iPhone yet, and have been holding out for a new model, now is the time. If you’re a current iPhone owner and you’re yearning for a faster cellular network, then you should take the plunge. But if you’re an iPhone owner who won’t use 3G (or can’t; check your coverage at AT&T), then you should stick with your current model. The iPhone 2.0 software update provides Exchange server support, third-party apps support, and many new features without the added cost.
Design:
You’d be hard-pressed to notice any design differences on the front of the iPhone 3G. The minor changes–the silver rim is thinner and the silver mesh behind the speaker–are so minimal we didn’t notice them for a few hours after picking up the device. Turn the phone on its side, however, and you’ll see more changes. Apple has replaced the aluminum silver back with a plastic face in either white or black. The black version (our review model) is attractive, but we admit that we miss the original silver, which shows fewer fingerprints and smudges than the shiny black version. The white model is not our cup of tea.
The iPhone 3G’s edges are slightly tapered to accommodate the curved back, making the device thinner around its perimeter than its predecessor, but a hair thicker (0.48 inch versus 0.46 inch) in the gut. Unfortunately, the curved back makes the iPhone 3G wobble slightly if you use it while resting on a table–which quickly becomes annoying. The phone’s height and width measurements (5.5 inches by 2.4 inches) remain the same, though it weighs just a tiny bit less (4.7 ounces versus 4.8 ounces).
At 3.5 inches and 480×320 pixels, the display is the same size as its predecessor, but displays slightly more dots per inch (163 vs.160), and still cranks out brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements. The layout of the home screen is identical to that on the first version, though you’ll see two new icons from the outset: A Contacts icon takes you directly to your phone book, and the App Store icon opens the iTunes App Store. The display’s glass surface, accelerometer feature, touch interface, and secondary menus remain the same.
The iPhone’s 3G controls reveal a few changes, but none will surprise a current iPhone user. The Home button sits below the display, while the volume rocker and ringer mute switch rest on the left spine. The Power/sleep button rests on top of the phone in its normal position. All controls are now silver instead of black. The SIM card slot hasn’t moved either, and Apple now includes a SIM removal tool in the box. The bottom of the iPhone houses the speaker, the microphone, and the charger port, but you’ll also notice two tiny screws on either side of the charger jack. Think maybe you’ll be able to replace your own battery now? Bummer: The battery is still not user-replaceable, so we don’t recommend trying it (although we hear the battery is no longer soldered down). We’re very pleased that the iPhone 3G’s 3.5mm headset jack now sits flush with the surface of the phone allowing you to use any 3.5mm headset you like; you’re no longer restricted to a headset that can fit in the previous phone’s inane recessed jack.
In the box you’ll find the syncing cable, a display cleaning cloth, a headset, user documentation, the aforementioned SIM removal tool, and an electrical outlet plug. The plug is pleasantly smaller than on the original iPhone’s, but it’s compatible with a standard USB cable. On the downside, you don’t get a syncing dock. If you want one, you have to shell out $30 for it (boo!), and Apple made sure the iPhone 3G won’t fit in the first iPhone’s dock.
Features:
The iPhone 3G hangs on to all the original iPhone features and throws in a few more, so we’ll concentrate on what’s new. Lucky for first-gen iPhone owners, most of the impressive array of additions–save 3G support and enhanced GPS–come along with the free 2.0 software update. For more on the organizer features, stocks and weather widgets, YouTube app, notepad, threaded texting, and visual voicemail.
3G:
The iPhone 3G’s support for AT&T’s wireless UMTS/HSDPA wireless broadband network comes too late for original iPhone buyers who grew frustrated with the slow Web-surfing speeds over the 2.5G EDGE network, but it makes for a much more satisfying second-generation device. Safari consistently delivered speeds of about 300Kbps to 500Kbps and even faster at times in our tests. That’s a huge jump over the typical EDGE speeds of less than 100Kbps. Web pages that used to take minutes took only seconds to load via 3G.
In preliminary testing, the iPhone 3G blew away its predecessor. When using the 3G network, WorldofWarcraft.com (a very bandwidth-heavy Web site) loaded as quickly as 38 seconds and as slowly as 47 seconds. In contrast, the same site loaded anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 minutes and 45 seconds on the original iPhone using EDGE. We also tried accessing WorldofWarcraft.com on the iPhone 3G using EDGE. Its fastest speed also was 2 minutes but the slowest speed was a painful 3 minutes 30 seconds. The mobile site of CNET.com loaded in just 12 seconds on the 3G network but up to 23 seconds using EDGE.
Of course, the 3G experience is all relative. Your experience will depend on many factors including 3G coverage in your area, the number of people on the network at a given time, and the kind of pages you’re trying to access–as a rule, busier pages will load more slowly. Also, it’s absolutely essential that you test 3G coverage in your area using another AT&T 3G handset before buying the new iPhone. AT&T can give you guidance, but there’s no substitute for real-world experience. Outside of the United States, the iPhone’s tri-band (850/1900/2100) UMTS/HSDPA support will deliver 3G coverage around the world. One final point is that 3G will suck juice from your phone, so you should consider switching it off (there’s an options in the Settings menu) when you’re not using it. At that point, the handset will default to EDGE.
GPS:
While the current iPhone location services find your position by triangulating among nearby cell phone towers and satellites, the iPhone 3G uses Assisted GPS supplemented by satellites, which better pinpoints your location. It also offers live tracking so that you can monitor your progress as you drive (or walk) along. We tested the GPS feature both in a car and on foot. When on foot, the tracking service from satellites was quite accurate. It pinpointed our location almost exactly, and the small blue dot that represented our location followed us as we moved along. What’s more, we didn’t lose the connection as we walked between tall buildings or under an overpass. Naturally, the satellite connection dropped out as we entered buildings, but it switched automatically to find the closest cellular phone tower or hot spot. That method isn’t quite as accurate–at times it could only show a circle spanning several city blocks–but you get the general idea of where you are. There were times where we had to ask the iPhone to pinpoint our location again, particularly as we left buildings and switched back to a satellite connection. When riding in a car, the GPS wasn’t quite as specific. The blue dot tended to jump block by block or as we came to stoplights.
Even with these additions, however, the iPhone’s GPS features can’t compete with standalone GPS devices. Google Maps provides point-to-point directions on the iPhone 3G, but the phone doesn’t support turn-by-turn directions in real time, and it’s unclear whether that capability will come later from third-party applications. Apple’s SDK prohibits location-based services “designed or marketed for real-time route guidance,” but that doesn’t mean we’ll never see them.
The iPhone’s iPod:
We can’t blame Apple for leaving the iPhone’s iPod functions unchanged. In the year since the original iPhone, no competitor has been able to match the iPhone’s aptitude as a music and video player. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Apple’s online iTunes store continues to reign as a top destination for music, video, and podcast downloads.
As with the first-generation iPhone, the iPod icon on the iPhone 3G’s main menu reveals a submenu of any content transferred from your computer’s iTunes media library, including music, videos, and podcasts. The iPhone’s remarkably responsive touch screen and its intuitive navigation allow you to swiftly scroll through lengthy song lists or leisurely browse your music collection in an attractive Cover Flow view. By default, the iPod menu includes shortcut icons for Playlists, Artists, Songs, and Video; however, these shortcuts can be easily swapped for other options that may be more useful to you, such as Podcasts, Albums, Audiobooks, Compilations, Composers, or Genres.
If you hunger for new music but lack the patience to download songs at home, the iPhone’s iTunes Wi-Fi Store lets you browse new music and download purchases directly to your phone. As the name implies, the iTunes Wi-Fi Store unfortunately works only over your iPhone’s Wi-Fi Internet connection, which is surprising, considering that downloads over 3G would strengthen the iPhone’s appeal as on-demand music player.
The arrival of third-party applications to the iPhone has ushered in several new music-related capabilities, including a few free music applications we consider essential. For instance, radio fans can take advantage of AOL Radio and Pandora to stream music directly to the iPhone over both Wi-Fi and 3G connections. An in-house Apple application, Remote, transforms your iPhone into a full-featured remote control for your computer’s iTunes music library or a separate Apple TV system.
The iPhone 3G does an admirable job supporting MP3, AAC, Audible, Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF audio files, as well as MPEG-4 or H.264 video files. Predictably, the iPhone does not support Windows Media file types such as WMA audio or WMV video, or more boutique formats like DIVX, FLAC, or Ogg Vorbis.
With the exception of songs downloaded directly to the phone using the iTunes Wi-Fi music store, loading audio and video content onto the iPhone 3G requires Apple’s iTunes software. Unlike the initial release of the first-generation iPhone, you can now manually sync music files to your iPhone if you prefer not to have content automatically load from your iTunes library. The iPhone 3G’s sound quality and EQ enhancement features are indistinguishable from the first-generation version’s and certainly good enough to make your existing MP3 player redundant. The iPhone 3G’s built-in speakers crank out noticeably louder–but still musically unacceptable–sound. To squeeze the most from the iPhone’s sound quality, we recommend investing in a pair of higher quality headphones or earbuds than those that come with the device.
The iPhone 3G’s near-perfect storm of video features includes iTunes movie rental compatibility, excellent video podcast support, a dedicated YouTube player, autobookmarking, full-screen resizing, and support for embedded closed captions and chapter bookmarks. The iPhone’s critical shortcoming as a Web-enabled portable video player is its lack of support for the Internet’s ubiquitous Flash video content. Smaller video gripes include our dislike of the iPhone’s reflective screen and the lack of a flip-out kickstand. The iPhone 3G’s video quality offers no surprises, displaying crisp and colorful 480×320 video on its 3.5-inch screen. The phone tends toward negative blacks and low contrast when viewing the iPhone 3G at off angles, but the overall video experience is one of the best you’ll find on a mobile phone.
With all of the iPhone 3G’s cool new audio and radio applications, it’s disappointing that Apple couldn’t find a way to roll wireless A2DP stereo Bluetooth audio streaming into the device. In time, we hope third-party manufacturers will find a way to help users stream music from their iPhones to their Bluetooth-enabled speakers, headphones, and car stereos.
Camera:
We were hoping that the iPhone 3G would throw in an improved camera, but we got the same 2-megapixel shooter as in the original model, although with a slight improvement in the photo quality. Colors looked natural, there was little image noise, and interior shots had enough light. The camera’s white balance can’t handle bright sunlight, but that’s not unusual for a camera phone. See our iPhone 3G camera slide show for a full gallery of shots. Camera features remain equally minimal, and the blatant lack of multimedia messaging and video recording continue to rub us the wrong way.
Contacts search:
A search bar now appears above your contacts list. Typing in any portion of the name will take you immediately to that person.
Language support:
The iPhone 3G also brings language support and typing keyboards in French, Canadian French, U.K. English, German, Japanese (QWERTY and Kana), Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, and Polish. You can select as many languages you want by opening the “International” selection under the General tab of the main Settings menu. For Chinese, you choose from Pinyin or a graffiti-style application for writing characters. As you enter characters, suggestions will appear to the right. To change between menus, choose from the small globe icon next to the space bar.
What else is new?
The IPhone 3G offers a host of additional new features, from the noteworthy to the trivial. For the enterprise, there’s remote wipe (to erase data in case of a stolen or lost phone) and integration with Cisco IPSec VPN for remote network access. You’ll also find calendar colors and a new interface for entering passwords. (Now the screen temporarily displays the last character you entered so you can verify that you haven’t mistyped.) We found the new ability to take screen captures (by holding the Home button and pressing the power/sleep key) especially useful. Screenshots end up in the camera’s photo gallery.
What’s missing?
We’ve mentioned already that Apple has stubbornly left out multimedia messaging, stereo Bluetooth, and video recording. But we also wish we’d gotten a landscape keyboard for messaging, cut and paste, voice dialing, Flash support for the Web browser, tactile feedback for the touch screen and a memory card (or at least a 32GB model). Hopefully, Apple will add these features in time. True, they might also come as third-party applications, but Apple should really be the source for them. We’d also like the capability to send calendar appointments to contacts and an easier way to transfer files to the iPhone. Because there’s no way to transfer them via iTunes, you’ll have to e-mail files to yourself to access them on the iPhone. And even then, there’s no accessible mass file storage.
Call quality:
When we reviewed the original iPhone, we withheld our Editors’ Choice Award largely over middling call quality because of low volume and a slight background hum. The iPhone 3G corrects most of these problems–our tests revealed louder volume and clearer audio. We also noticed that we could hear better at a variety of angles, whereas the first iPhone had a sensitive sweet spot. Also, while it was difficult to hear the original iPhone in noisy environments, we had better luck with this model. Reception didn’t vary between GSM and HSDPA calls. We’ve heard a lot of reports that iPhone 3G users are experiencing a lot of dropped calls. Though we haven’t experienced any issues on our review phone thus far, we have been on the receiving end of dropped calls while talking on a landline to an iPhone 3G owner.
We also tested the phone in a rural part of Sonoma County, California. Not surprisingly, our 3G connection was nonexistent, but we managed to keep a basic EDGE connection most of the time. We found that by turning off the 3G feature the phone stopped trying to find a high-speed connection, which resulted in a more reliable signal.
iPhone 3G also improves speakerphone calls. The phone’s external speaker creates louder output, and callers said they can hear us better. Voices don’t sound quite as natural, but that’s typical on a speakerphone. Automated calling systems could understand us via regular or speakerphone calls. We also tested the iPhone 3G with the Aliph Jawbone 2 and enjoyed good audio quality. What’s more, the handset autopairs with the Jawbone 2 so you don’t need a passcode. As previously mentioned, iPhone 3G’s lack of a stereo Bluetooth profile is disappointing.
The AT&T signal remained strong during much of our testing, though the 3G connection wavered in buildings. We have heard of some users complaining of poor 3G reception, even in urban areas. We noticed a few problems during our testing, specifically with the iPhone 3G’s ability to switch back and forth between 3G and EDGE. The hand-off was sloppy at times, as the iPhone 3G continued trying to connect to the 3G network even when the signal was too low. But on the flip side, it was quicker about jumping back onto 3G when that network became available. According to FCC radiation tests, the iPhone 3G’s highest digital SAR is 1.38 watts per kilogram.
Battery life:
Apple rates the iPhone 3G’s battery at 5 hours of talk time over 3G and 10 hours over AT&T’s standard cellular network; 6 hours of Internet time on Wi-Fi, or 5 hours over 3G; 7 hours of video playback; 24 hours of music playback; and a standby time of 12.5 days. In our first round of testing we were able to squeeze 4.95 hours of 3G talk time and 8.75 hours talk time over EDGE. We’ll continue to run further tests over the next few days.
For music and video playback, our CNET Labs testing found the iPhone 3G’s battery capable of 25.5 hours of audio playback and 2.7 hours of video playback, with 3G set to active. By comparison, the first-generation iPhone achieved 31.4 hours of music playback and 6 hours of video, although it didn’t have the strain of 3G to contend with. A comparable 3G multimedia phone, like the Samsung Instinct, scored only 18 hours of audio playback, but eked out an impressive 4.3 hours of video playback. We suspect further testing will show that the iPhone 3G is capable of longer video playback when its 3G connection is switched off.
Lab tests have also revealed improvements to the iPhone’s file transfer speed. A single 500MB file that once took the iPhone 1.6 minutes to transfer now takes the iPhone 3G just 1.4 minutes. The same test run on the Samsung Instinct took 4.28 minutes.
Though our official lab tests aren’t bad so far, real-world use will be a better judge of the iPhone 3G’s endurance. And on that front, we’ve noticed that the iPhone 3G’s battery life does seem to drop faster than on the original model, particularly while using the 3G network or GPS. That’s to be expected, but we noticed that after a couple hours of use, the battery life dropped by about 30 percent. Large color displays like the iPhone’s tend to be battery drainers as well, so you should expect to use more juice when you’re constantly switching between applications.
Apple iPhone 3G is the latest creation from the Apple itself. The look and design of the iPhone is sleek, modern, and cutting edge. The screen resolution and brilliant color displays are accurate, crisp and stunning in every mode. It also have very good quality sound. However, Apple iPhone 3G still isnt meant for the business oriented device….In fact, it is far from it..
Let say you on the middle way on the road,at the airport, in the mall, or in the random street, etc..then what are you supposed to do once it run out of power? Of course you can prolong the battery life if you tone down the brightness, disable bluetooth, turn off wi-fi, limit your 3G usage and etc but hey, you are paying $200~300 for a bunch of feature and you need to manually turn it on/off all the time, so what is the point?
Secondly, the advanced and modern iPhone 3G actually dont have the basic feature such as to-do-list..Yeah, I bet you going to wonder what is the Apple was thinking for not putting the basic feature…Seriously, I have no idea. I know that some of the people who manage their life around the to-do-list and I guess it is a huge drawback for them when they got the iPhone 3G.
If you thought that isn’t a big deal for not having the basic feature for iPhone 3G, well, get ready to disappointed with another news…MMS (Multimedia messaging) is completely absent…not only that,The SMS “Text message” application is very inadequate and extremely limited compared to the capabilities of even low end phones. I guess it is explained all. Should I go further? I guess not.
Let talk about the Activesync, It seem that Activesync have a lot of limitations on syncing mails and contacts. It would pose a problem if you have multiple emails for home or works and need more flexibility. It kinda weird when you think of it, most of the low end cellphone usually allow the user to sync activesync with other wireless account at the same time and it work everything together nicely..so why cant the iPhone 3G ?
In other word, iPhone 3G isnt live up to the hype. It have missing so much functionality that I really don’t know that I should recommend you guys to have it. Maybe it for a personal user, it’s going to be great, but for actual business use, it falls short in many areas…especially the battery’s life and limited Bluetooth connectivity.
