Do you really need an iPhone 3G? We give you 5 reasons it’s the world’s best cell phone—and 5 reasons to wait to buy one or just keep rocking your 2G iPhone.

We admit it—after hearing Steve Jobs’s keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9, we all wanted an iPhone 3G. Badly. There’s plenty to like about the iPhone’s second coming, but we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t show you both sides of Apple’s newest smartphone, the good and the bad. In fact, the original working title of this article was “10 Reasons You Need an iPhone Now,” but in researching the story, we couldn’t look past the device’s clear downsides.

So in the spirit of the proverbial angel and devil that sit on either shoulder when you’re weighing a decision, we present both the good and the bad news about the iPhone 3G, so you can you make the most informed choice possible.

{Good}
5 Reasons to Buy an iPhone 3G

First let us say that despite a few misgivings (see p26), many of us at Mac|Life opted to buy iPhone 3Gs in the end. These five reasons in favor of the device ultimately proved too compelling to ignore.

{Reason 1}
3G: Because faster is better.

A lot of people got very excited about a 3G iPhone, but for some, the question remained: What exactly is 3G? On a purely technical level, AT&T’s 3G network is a third-generation HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) data network. AT&T’s 3G network has been available for users of a variety of smartphones and other 3G-capable handsets. With the release of the iPhone 3G, iPhone users are gaining feature parity with users of other smartphones on AT&T’s network. As Steve Jobs illustrated during the WWDC keynote, AT&T’s 3G network can be quite fast, often several times the speed of its previous EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) network, and coming remarkably close to speeds you might expect from a Wi-Fi network.

AT&T’s older EDGE network gives you download speeds in the neighborhood of 100Kbps, although it can vary widely. In our recent tests with an original iPhone, we were able to connect to the EDGE network at 29Kbps on the low end, all the way up to just over 100Kbps, although AT&T claims EDGE speeds up to 135Kbps. On the 3G network, AT&T is boasting speeds up to 1.4Mbps. While real-world usage varies considerably, the 3G network offers an undoubtedly improved Web-browsing experience.

All this speed means several things. Email and Web browsing is easier on the iPhone 3G. Beyond that, however, the improved network makes the iPhone an attractive platform for developers, as well as for cellular carriers overseas, where 3G networks are often more well-developed than they are in the United States. The bottom line is an increase in user base that promotes more innovation on the iPhone as a platform, resulting in better user experiences for all iPhone owners, in addition to the faster Net connection.

{Reason 2}
Game On: Because nobody hates fun.

The iPhone 3G plays sophisticated games with 3D hardware-accelerated graphics and 3D positional audio—think PlayStation 2 or GameCube quality, beyond anything possible on the tiny screens and wimpy processors of most mobile phones. The iPhone has a touchscreen like the handheld Nintendo DS, plus an accelerometer for gesture-based controls, like the Nintendo Wii controller. Players can tilt the phone to steer race cars, tap the screen to shoot enemies, drag body parts to build Spore creatures, and so on.

Cro-Mag Rally ($9.99 in the App Store) lets you steer your caveman’s car by tilting the iPhone around.

The iPhone’s unique features should lead to some creative game development too. Since it’s got an Internet connection, it’s plausible that a game could send data back to a central server and then down to a companion game on your computer, combining at-home and on-the-go experiences. The iPhone’s camera and GPS could also combine gaming with social networking based on players’ real-time locations.

The current handheld game devices, the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable, also offer Wi-Fi, and the PSP can play MP3s and make VoIP calls with Skype—and of course, there’s no monthly fee to AT&T. But each is still another gadget to carry around, plus you have to drag along removable game discs and cartridges, which range from $20 to $40 a pop. 

Pangea Software’s Enigmo ($9.99 in the App Store) won Best iPhone Game at the 2008 Apple Design Awards.

iPhone game prices vary too, but Super Monkey Ball, Enigmo, Wingnuts Moto Racer, and Cro-Mag Rally cost just $9.99, and Tap Tap Revenge, Blip Solitaire, and Arcade are free. Some developers could give away games to build a user base and monetize by showing in-game ads, but even if that model never catches on, the lack of physical game discs or cartridges to manufacture and ship should help keep prices low. We expect a rash of accelerometer-based action titles and multitouch casual games to litter the App Store’s Most Popular lists by the time you read this, perfect for quick bursts of gaming in waiting rooms and train stations everywhere.