There was never any doubt about the basic platform on which the iPhone is built. The original iPhone set the benchmark for touchscreen phones, and the iPhone 3G S is arguably still the best touchscreen-driven phone on the market, in terms of usability. What was lacking in the first two generations of iPhone was the feature set that power users expect from a modern phone. Now, with the 3G S, we can say that there is nothing missing and that the latest iPhone can match any smartphone on the market. That's not to say that it's the best in every department. The camera is still relatively basic when compared to the 8 megapixel camera with xenon flash on the Sony Ericsson C905 for instance. And the HTC Touch HD has a much higher resolution screen. Etc, etc. The point is that the perfect phone doesn't exist - will never exist - and as buyers we have to weigh up the options and choose the one that seems to meet our most important needs. In the past, the iPhone often failed to meet quite basic needs, and had to be excluded from the shortlist, but now it does enough to be considered a real player.
First off, there can be no doubting the sheer style, ease-of-use and fun that the iPhone 3G S delivers. It's such a slim, tactile, good-looking phone with such gorgeous graphics that we want to just kiss it - phwa! The iPhone delivers on its promise to replace three devices with one. One - it works brilliantly as a phone, and once you've started touching your friends' names in the contacts list to make a call, you'll never want to go back to a conventional phone. Two - it replaces your iPod, obviously, no contest. Three - it's definitely one of the top mobile internet devices around, with the wonderful Safari web browser and the easy scrolling and zooming of full web pages, displayed in all their glory. It's also brilliant at email. But the iPhone has more than this. It also has the App Store, which is now a mature library of thousands of applications, many of which you can download for free. Whether you want to play games, access Facebook, edit your photos or plan your finances, you can probably find an app that does what you want.
The camera is a considerable improvement on the previous iPhone. It's now up to 3 megapixels and crucially has autofocus. This works really well in fact - you just tap the screen to tell the camera where you want to focus - quite a brilliant innovation we think. Although the camera can't match most similarly-priced smartphones, it's probably good enough for 90% of users. The video camera isn't bad either, with a respectable VGA resolution and up to 30 frames per second.
The GPS system has been upgraded, with a digital compass added, which is very handy. There are other improvements across the board, such as enhanced YouTube support, voice memos and voice support, and faster apps. All these improvements make a big difference in fact.
We think that Apple have finally made a device that ticks nearly every box. The iPhone works well as a phone, brilliantly as a media player and portable internet device, and perhaps most of all as a portable mini computer internet games music camera thingy that is so good it's virtually a must-have. Once you have it, you'll ask yourself how you ever lived without it. The only problem is the price. Although it's the best value iPhone yet, it's still very expensive, and you'd be silly not to consider what else you can buy for this kind of money. Options include the HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S or Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. The bottom line is that if you have this kind of money to spend, you're really spoiled for choice. The new iPhone 4 launched last June 2010.
Features of the Apple iPhone 3GS include:
- OS X Operating System
- Assisted GPS with digital compass
- 3 megapixel camera with autofocus
- Video camera (VGA, 30 frames per second)
- Display: 480 x 320 pixels (3.5 inch) touchscreen
- Music player (AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV formats)
- Voice control, voice memos
- Messaging: SMS, MMS, email
- Memory: 16GB or 32GB flash drive
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), 3.5mm headphone jack
- WAP, EDGE, HSDPA
- Size: 116 x 62 x 12.3 mm
- Weight: 135g
- Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) plus UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
- Talktime: 5 - 12 hours
- Battery standby: 300 hours
- Audio playback: Up to 30 hours
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