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You coveted your iPhone, you might have waited in a long line to purchase it, you may have debated long and hard with yourself about whether it was worth forking over a day’s pay or more for any phone, and you certainly thought your iPhone was the coolest phone in the world … right up until you heard the dreaded news that Apple planned to release a new model. Now your year-old iPhone is looking oddly antiquated and you’re lusting hard for an upgrade.
But is it really worth trading in an almost new iPhone for the brand new iPhone 3G? Before you join the queues on July 11th, tamp down that must-have-brand-new-stuff craving for a moment and decide whether the iPhone 3G’s features will make a real difference in your life -- we’ve broken the key features down for you below. The earliest adopters may also want to factor in that their iPhone’s one year warranty will be expiring soon, if it hasn’t already, and depending on how hard a life your iPhone has led being out of warranty may be your cue to buy something new. And the patient people among us may want to think about whether they’ll get an even better phone if they wait calmly until the next release, see our list of missing features below -- chances are at least some of them will be making an appearance in a year or so.
OMG, It’s So Cheap!: Well, yeah, but only in comparison to the exciting prices charged for the first generation of iPhones, and in reality you’ll end up spending more in the long run. The iPhone 3G has a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 8GB model and $299 (US) for the 16GB model. But your iPhone 3G data plan will now be $10 a month more, so factor in an additional $240 over the course of that mandatory two year contract. Not to mention, the extra $5 you have to plunk down for the 200 SMS messages that were included in the first generation iPhone data plan. And you can’t scamper off with your inactivated iPhone 3G and do some tricky hacker stuff to bypass the approved wireless providers like you could back in the good old days, now your new iPhone will need to be activated in the store when you purchase it.
The Need For Speed: As its name rather obviously indicates, the iPhone 3G’s big deal feature is 3G networking. And a fine feature it is. 3G is noticeably faster than the EDGE networking used by the previous iPhone, actual real world speeds will vary based on location and other conditions, but in general, iPhone 3G users will be moving data at about twice as fast as owners of the older iPhone. Shaving a dozen or so seconds off transmission time is always a thrill to the technically inclined, but this is assuming that you live in an area where AT&T’s 3G network is available -- at the moment 3G is available in most major metropolitan areas, or as AT&T likes to put it “in over 13,000 cities and towns and along nearly 40,000 miles of highway.” If 3G service isn’t available, the iPhone 3G will connect to the EDGE network.
Where Am I?: Information hungry geeks and the directionally challenged will appreciate the “real” GPS in the iPhone 3G. Current iPhone location services use data from nearby cell phone towers and satellites to make an informed guess about where you are, satellite-based GPS is more precise in most cases. That said, triangulation-based services can update position information faster and work well indoors and out, GPS doesn’t always work indoors (and yes, you do sometimes want to use location services indoors, to find the nearest whatever it is before you leave the building).All that said, the mapping application most people crave is one that speaks turn-by-turn directional information, currently only possible with GPS service. The iPhone 3G doesn’t come with a turn-by-turn directions application but third party applications are under development, hopefully. The iPhone 3G’s GPS will also enable photo geotagging, a nice feature if you can’t figure out where you were from just looking at those bleary, out of focus photos you snapped with your iPhone’s crappy camera.
Thrills for Suits: Both iPhones will receive the new iPhone 2.0 software which boasts enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide over-the-air push email, contact and calendar syncing as well as remote wipe and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks. This is a big whoop for people who work in the corporate world.
Applications in Abundance: You can feed both iPhones at the App Store, where you can make with the virtual grabby hands from what promises to be a good selection of games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel applications.
Mini MobileMe: Both iPhones offer a new internet service dubbed MobileMe which uses cloud computing to push email, contacts, and calendars from online servers to applications residing on iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs. This means that changes made on one device -- new contacts, to-dos or calendar entries -- are automatically updated in the software running on your other devices. And photos snapped with the iPhone's camera can be posted directly to a MobileMe Gallery to share with friends and family. Not exactly a groundbreaking feature, people who are already accustomed to these capabilities on devices like Blackberries, but very cool for iPhone users who want to keep their personal data current across a variety of platforms.
But Wait, There Should be More!: The iPhone 3G is missing some features that are now standard even on budget mobile phones, such as multimedia messaging (MMS), voice dialing, Instant Messaging, a keyboard (admit it -- you want a keyboard), the capability to cut and paste, Flash support, additional Bluetooth profiles and user-replaceable batteries. And its camera is still the same low-end 2 Megapixel model, when other phones boast cameras of 3-5 Megapixel's with software that actually allows people to take decent pictures with their mobile phones. Chances are that some of these things will be included in iPhone 3G version 2.0 (except for the user replaceable batteries, Apple has a deep emotional attachment to the closed box model) as well as more expansive onboard storage, so if these things matter to you consider waiting for the next release.
Are you going to swap out your current iPhone for the iPhone 3G? Share your reasons below.
COMMENTS:
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Wait. No 3G where I work or
Submitted by Titus (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-03 15:35
Wait. No 3G where I work or live, and dont need GPS. I can read a map. Also I cant see paying any more a month to AT&T then I am already paying :(
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-03 19:22
$599 is a day's pay for the average iphone owner? that's 150K/yr... who knew? they must pay the maclife writers a lot!!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 07:57
Yeah, that's the first thing that struck me too. That's more like a week's pay for most everyone I know.
Just subtle clues to the state of the world, I guess...
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-03 19:36
Nope, I won't upgrade at this time. I got my iPhone about 6 months ago and see no compelling reason to upgrade to the latest. Especially since AT&T will be charging more to use the new phone.
I'll wait until my current iPhone breaks AND for the next version if it has some additional features.
Submitted by JW (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 06:08
Why upgrade for services that I won't Be using! No 3G in my area and they don't expect it any time soon. Maybe by the next release of the iphone it will be in my area. Don't need GPS at a cost of more money. I am already invested in two iphones that a bunch of money. I'll wait till next release. Thanks
Submitted by Imagine Engine (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 06:28
For Canadians I believe theirs a lot of value in the iPhone 3G as well useful technology. Though what will stop a lot of consumers in Canada from buying the iPhone is Rogers reluctancy to offer unlimited data plans. This may soon change due to their two major competitors Telus and Bell have recently started to offer unlimited data plans starting at $30.00 for use on smartphones. I just hope Rogers doesn't try to avoid offering unlimited data due to the iPhone is only a GSM device. Otherwise it could hurt Apple's sales in Canada.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 09:17
I don't want a keyboard on my phone. The lack of a physical keyboard, in my opinion, is what makes this such a revolutionary device. So YOU admit it, you're just trying to throw in one more reason against upgrading, right? Weak. All your other reasons were valid, but this was shocking to read.
Also, you might want to double-check your unit of measurement for the built-in camera. I'm not familiar with measuring the CCD size in megabytes.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 11:16
The keyboard is the reason I gave up my iPhone after about 6 months -- I could not stand the touch keyboard and much prefer my QWERTY keyboard which is faster and more accurate. In all 6 months of owning the iPhone I never got better than 80 percent accuracy and about 10% the speed of my Blackjack -- Yeah, it's a crappier phone with terrible music management (the draw of the iPhone in the first place) but the real keyboard lets me do 50 wpm when writing e-Mail, and my texts are always accurate. No more iPhones for me until they do have a real keyboard.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2008-07-06 22:43
I am sorry did you just say you got 50 wpm on a cell phone keyboard of any kind? I call B.S. either you are exceptionally exaggerating or you have the worlds most freakishly fast thumbs. i for one quite like the touch screen keyboard on my Ipod touch, one of the reasons I will be buying an iPhone when it comes to canada in a week. I often write emails on it and it seems just fine to me, with rarely an error in typing.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 15:23
3G data is typically TEN TIMES FASTER than EDGE.
If the iPhone only gets 2X then it's the worlds worst 3G implementation.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 15:35
I like my iPod touch, and would love it if it had speakers and internet, but there is no way I'm going to pay that much money to a phone company for a cell phone - no matter how cool it is. At the keynote, Steve Jobs said that he was making the iPhone cheaper for people. Turns out he's more of a liar than I thought. They even get paid by AT&T for every iPhone they sell.
And I wouldn't want a keyboard, either. Just another thing to bulk it up.
Submitted by Jay Benson (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-04 22:05
Great article and right on point... until you mentioned the keyboard and the battery. No keyboard provides the device more flexibility with programs and makes the iPhone that much more exciting for developers. Not only this, but it is what separates the iPhone from everyone else and makes it a revolutionary device. A device ahead of the curve much like the original iMac, that did not include a floppy drive. When the iMac came out did you encourage people not to buy because it didn't carry a floppy drive? The battery comment simply shows your ignorance and lack of knowledge on the subject of all things iPod and iPhone. 'Nuff said. Your other reasons for not upgrading right now are spot on. I have a 16 GB iPhone and it makes no sense to upgrade now to another 16 GB iPhone for a few seconds shaved off my internet suffering time. The time will come when upgrading will be a no brainer (better camera, more storage and etc.), but now is not that time. If I could not upgrade the software this would be a different story. However, I will be able to upgrade and I will go on loving my iPhone and enjoying it for the revolutionary device that it is. Long live the iPhone! Without a stupid keyboard!!!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2008-07-05 07:40
I'm sorry your reason for NOT upgrading to the new iphone as far as the keyboard is concerned is just plain STUPID! The iPhone is revolutionary with it's touch keyboard. Most physical keyboards on blackberry's and other phones are just plain AWFULL to use. To many modifier keys to press just to get a different letter or symbol versus the iPhones brainless interface that makes typing on it a breeze like on a real keyboard. And the software can modify that keyboard to specialized applications. You can't do that with a physical keyboard. I think many of you are forgetting that there will be NEW software that you will be able to install which might take care of those other reasons for not upgrading as well. 3G speeds should match all the others out there. Camera, who cares. If you want to do professional photography, buy a REAL DIGITAL CAMERA for god sakes!
Submitted by Crackedpot (not verified) on Sat, 2008-07-05 12:17
No. Actually I don't want a "keyboard". In fact, I'm using the keyboard on the iPhone now. The only other one I would want to use is my apple wireless since the iPhone does have bluetooth. I would also like to use the mouse and the tv out and use it as a "real" computer. We can already use it to present slides or photos and video (even youtube).
Submitted by Embarrassed for Michelle (not verified) on Sun, 2008-07-06 07:59
Wait, this is a pro-Mac site, and Michelle here is a "Mac-Lifer"? I do like how she adeptly summarizes the iPhone 3G facts we already know. But, then to insult Mac fans but insisting that we want a keyboard. I suppose she still wants a channel knob on her widescreen TV? She probably prints all her emails too. Come on Mac-Life, let Michelle go to graze with the other MS losers in Vista Land.
Submitted by Leo (not verified) on Sun, 2008-07-06 09:56
Dear Michelle, how do you dare to say we all want a keyboard? I have been a PC user until may when I bought my first MacBook Air and iPhone, God bless Apple designing these two pieces as simple and esay to use as the are, specially iphone with its stunning no physical keyboard...
Submitted by Michelle (not verified) on Tue, 2008-07-08 16:50
OK, so obviously not everyone wants a keyboard. :-)
But I still think a keyboard in addition to the touchscreen would be spiffy. Should have clarified that I meant *in addition to* in the article. I know people who crave a keyboard, others who think a keyboard is a major step backwards.
Thanks for the comments on the story, everyone!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2008-07-07 07:35
I wanted to give a different perspective. I don't have an iphone. I got a Razr but waited a whole year so I could get an iphone with 3G. Problem is, that's really the only thing that's upgraded and if you aren't in a 3G area then you're still using EDGE. This release is disappointing in practically every way. I guess the trusty RAZR will have to do until next July...
Submitted by Dave S (not verified) on Mon, 2008-07-07 13:46
For me the most compelling reason to switch would be if the iPhone's biggest shortcoming were taken care of. The audio quality of the telephone is by far the worst part of the iPhone. It is too difficult to hear and the speakerphone is terrible. Bluetooth reception is also lackluster.
Steve said audio quality is much improved, but I am waiting for someone like Uncle Walt to review the phone before making a decision.
By the way, the cost increase is not simply more for data. All the voice plans are more costly as well. I have a 1400 minute per month family plan and two phones. I pay $133+ taxes per month (I bought roadside assistance for my wife's phone at $3). The same plan plus data and 200 texts would cost me $180. That is why I probably won't switch.
Generally happy iPhone user since 6/30/07.
Submitted by Daniel (not verified) on Mon, 2008-07-07 15:05
My service area lacks 3G connection, so basically the new iPhone wouldn't do a lot for me. Also this whole 10 bucks more a month with no texting is a scam.
One thing though. What's wrong with the iPhone's camera. 2.0 mp is plenty for any cell phone. I just returned from Europe where I occasionally left my canon in my bag when going on excursions. Thankfully I had my iPhone with me. The pictures I've captured are spectacular. In fact after comparing them with some of my companions p&s 8 mp cameras, my iPhone pics are clearer even when blown up to the background of our laptops. MPs are not what matters. Now if apple could give 3x opticle zoom, that'd be impressive.
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