It's more evolution than revolution, but it's the best iPhone yet.
In 10 years, we’ll all sit around our 50-inch Apple TV entertainment/computing center and remember the good old days, when we stood in line every summer to buy the latest and greatest iPhone. While the Apple robot upgrades our iPhone 9GSSV with the new welding feature (welding will be huge in the future--just you wait), we’ll remember the exact moment when the iPhone went from being a smartphone to a computer with a phone feature. That moment was this June 19, 2009, when the iPhone 3GS made its way into our lives.
Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS emphasizing that the S stood for Speed. A marketing ploy? Sure. But, unlike that hatchback you bought in the ’90s with the S badge, this S actually delivers.
Go, Speed iPhone, go!
As soon as you start launching applications, you’ll notice the difference between the iPhone 3GS and its predecessor, the iPhone 3G. Games that had slight stutters on the 3G now blaze along with nary a hiccup. One of the biggest complaints about the iPhone’s camera--that it took forever to launch and by the time it was ready to snap a shot, Bigfoot was already on his way to terrorize another group of campers--is gone. (For proof, check out these speed test results below.)
The Need for Speed
Real-world usage should be your first consideration if you’re thinking of upgrading to the 3GS. Combined with iPhone 3.0 OS and its landscape keyboard option, the 3GS will help you shed that netbook envy you may have been experiencing over the past year. Gone is the typing latency that would occasionally plague the first two iPhones. And zippier Safari loads mean you’ll spend less time reaching for your MacBook and more time on the couch looking up random Simpsons trivia. It’s this speed that gives the iPhone 3GS the ability to make all the other features possible.
(click to enlarge)
You Ought to be in Pictures. The Camera app delivers higher-resolution images thanks to the 3GS’s 3-megapixel camera. The 2-megapixel camera in the previous iPhones was serviceable, but nothing to cheer about. If the lighting was right and your subjects stood still, you could get some nice shots. The new camera--while still not the best camera phone out there--is a huge improvement, and you can tell in side-by-side images taken by the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Partly responsible for the improved quality is the new Camera app, which auto-focuses, auto-exposes, and auto-white-balances with the tap of a finger. We tested the camera in different lighting settings. We still experienced a slight blueing of images during especially bright days. Auto-focus brought a depth to our photos that we weren’t able to produce with the iPhone 3G. The added macro focus means we’ll finally be able to take decent photos of our GI Joe collection.
The 3GS offers in-phone video "editing" via the Trim feature, but once a frame is trimmed, it's gone for good. We hear Apple may fix this in OS 3.1.
For the filmmakers out there, the updated Camera app also shoots video and allows you to trim the video and upload it to YouTube or your MobileMe account or send via email. The video quality doesn’t measure up to the quality of the Flip Mino and is a little soft in comparison with other portable video cameras on the market, but it can do what those can’t: trim and upload directly to YouTube or email while on the go. Sadly, trimming video is a destructive affair. In other words, make sure you don’t want those last few seconds of video before you trim it. Because once it’s trimmed, it’s gone forever, unless you’ve synced with your computer or you’ve emailed yourself the file, which doesn’t work with videos that are too long anyway (the longest video clip we were able to email was 47 seconds). Once uploaded, you’re presented with the ability to view your “films” within iPhoto or share them with your friends and family. With today’s throngs of citizen journalists on the loose, this could be the feature that sells the iPhone 3GS.
Voice Your Concerns. While iPhone sour-grapes-eaters complained about its lack of voice control, those who have actually used voice dialing on other phones know that voice control is never without glitches. Often, after failed attempts telling a phone to “Call Aunt Ruth,” you give up and find her phone number in your contact list by hand. Apple brought voice control not only to the 3GS’s phone function, but also to iTunes (through the OS 3.0 update), with better results than we remember on old-school cell phones. But the feature is still far from perfect. We were impressed with Voice Control’s ability to recognize the difference between the names Michael and Micah, while we walked outside on a windy day using the included headset. We had less luck with song and artist selection, though, only successfully playing certain songs or artists using Voice Control about 70 percent of the time. That rate jumped to about 95 percent inside in a quiet room. While driving, though, the whole process becomes comical. Repeated requests for TV on the Radio yielded Radiohead, and, for some reason, asking for the Bellrays got us Suede. Phone calls were slightly better while driving, but the technology still requires some work for when you need it most--outside in noisy environs or in the car, especially now that many states require hands-free cell phone use.
The nice Voice Control robot tells you when you have multiple phone numbers for the same contact so you can reach them at the right number.
Hide and Seek. OK, so a compass isn’t what we were clamoring for when we thought about a new iPhone. A compass is what you give to your wacky mountain-man cousin or a kid who’s just joined the scouts; it’s not something you look for on a piece of electronics. The app itself does exactly what you would expect: It points north. You can choose between magnetic north and true north. If you don’t know the difference, you better hope your high school earth-sciences teacher has retired by now. The Compass app’s killer feature is when you tap the locate button in the lower-left corner. It opens the Maps app and displays your location. Tap the locate button a second time, and the map orients to show which direction you’re facing. As you turn, it turns. Suddenly the compass is the greatest thing ever for finding the best taqueria in town.
Oil Slick. No one wants to admit that they have greasy skin. The 3GS’s fingerprint-resistant oleophobic display helps displace the greasy fingerprints you’ve been leaving on your iPhone’s screen. It doesn’t completely eliminate fingerprints, of course, but it does a good job minimizing the finger- and faceprint goo as compared to the 3G. The 3GS’s screen does feel a tad bit more slick than those of previous iPhone models, but we quickly got used to it and enjoyed our less oily iPhone screens. The new screen coating means it’s easier to clean with a vigorous rub against the leg of your jeans too.
The bottom line. The newest iPhone is a must-have upgrade for owners of the first-gen iPhone and those new to the iPhone world. For iPhone 3G owners, its new features, while exciting, don’t feel substantial enough for anyone beyond the Apple fanatic (namely us and our readers) to upgrade. Just be sure to give us a heads up when you post that video on YouTube of you dancing to Thriller. --Roberto Baldwin
iPhone 3GS
COMPANY: Apple
CONTACT: www.apple.com
PRICE: 16GB, $199*, 32GB, $299* (*new AT&T customers and eligible current customers)
REQUIREMENTS: iTunes 8.2
FAST!!! Video shooting, editing, and uploading means you'll see more videos of stupid people doing stupid things. Hooray!
Longer battery life doesn't extend to 3G data/voice usage. New features may not be compelling enough to upgrade to 3G owners.
