Introuduction
I had been using the older iPhone since september last year, and I have had a very pleasant experience with it. So when I came to know about the possible launch of the 3G version, I decided to sell off mine around couple months back. I sold it off just the price I got it for , since it I had unlocked it. Btw this was not the one I had bought in September, I bought this one in Jan, I gave the other one to my father, who still uses it in Delhi.
I also did a review for that phone which can be found here -
http://www.techenclave.com/reviews-and-previews/apple-iphone-97835.html
[BREAK=Initiallization, Price & Specs]
Getting it!
So I finally got my hands on the iPhone 3G yesterday. I had to wait in line for over 2hours to get it, and thats after a week of its launch. I was calling the apple store practically everyday to find out if they had it or not, and everyday I was hearing the same answer "We had some, but they sold out in the morning" I was kind of pissed since I would get off work around 5pm and couldn't possible be there in the morning. But on Friday I got lucky called them in the afternoon and they had some, ran straight from work to get it, waited in line for 2hrs
, and finally brought it home around 7pm.
Pricing
The official pricing is based on several factors in the US, I'll explain briefly how it works.
It is a trend here that we have to start a contract while getting a mobile service, unlike India where we only get a contract, we get a mobile phone free with it here, most free phones can be otherwise bought for in between Rs 4k -Rs 6k in India, for the slightly expensive ones we have to pay more. There is also pay as you go like prepaid in India, but it comes out to be more expensive to use, in fact a lot more expensive to use.
Also after a certain period i.e. 1-1.5yrs you become eligible to get a newer phone while using the contract, if you do get a new phone a new contract starts from that time onwards and henceforth.
For new contracts & eligible upgrades (for older ATT customers) the pricing is -
8gb $199 + taxes in CA it comes out to be $230
16gb $399 + taxes in CA comes out to be $340
No commitment pricing (a att rep confirmed that they are available without contracts, but I cant confirm this yet)
8Gb $599 + tax
16Gb $699 + tax
For People who are not eligible the pricing is $200 more on each model, so just add $200 to final prices to see how much each model costs.
Specifications
This is a straight quote from Apple.
Source has been mentioned in References.
[BREAK= Packaging Pictures & Contents]
Packaging
Since I had been using the older iPhone for such a long time, the transition to the new phone wasn't surprising.
I got the white 16gb model, it comes in a white box which is a little shorter in height than the older black box in which the older iPhone came. With the smaller box we also loose out the dock which used to come with the older phone. I guess a cost cut measure, you now have to pay to get that dock, which in my opinion has redundant - I'll explain why.
The white phone comes in a white box and the black one in black box. The white phone can only be had in 16gb models, and the black one comes in both.
Opening the Box
Thats how the old packing used to look as well, so no changes here except the fact that its all white from inside! Also the newer box looks more solid as compared with the older one.
Contents
This is what the phone comes with -
The charger is now smaller than the older one and there is no dock in the package. The small pin shown is the sim ejection tool or whatever they call it, push it in and it pops out the sim tray.
I mentioned the dock getting redundant, its because the older dock could do 2 things, firstly it could be used to charge or sync with the computer - this could be done with the supplied cable as well, by directly connecting it to the iphone, secondly the dock had a 3.5mm jack which you could connect to any standard headphone jack, doubling it for connection with any regular sound system. The newer iphone already comes with a 3.5mm jack, so now you can connect any regular headphones. This one part was criticized in the last edition and apple did hear!
[BREAK=Aesthetics, Functionality & Features]
Aesthetics
The Gorgeous 3.5" screen makes a comeback here -it is 160ppi the resolution is 480x320, and this is one of the things that sets apart this phone from many others. Its touchscreen and it comes with a glass cover, making it much better than the traditional touch screens on which you have to press them to make it work. It is finger print vulnerable, and hence sticking a after market screen protector is something that everyone should do.
The back side is new and it doesn't look bad, although I feel the older steel finish was much rugged but that doesn't mean this one is flimsy its not, it looks to be pretty strong, but well a drop would really tell how strong it is.:ashamed:
The left hand side of the phone is the same as the old phone it has a switch which puts the phone to silent, and a volume controller as well. I like the simple vibration switch its much easy to just flip it rather than to select a profile on any regular nokia or similar.
On the top view we see the power button, the sim tray, and the 3.5mm headphone hole (female connector to be precise )
All the buttons if we notice are silver in color, I couldn't figure if they were actually steel or just plastic, probably plastic I guess. Looks a little cheapo stuff, but goes well with the white color.
The bottom of the phone has dock connector, and grill for speaker and the microphone.
Functionality & Features
This is a youtube video playing (and yes I'm a schumacher fan!), its pretty much the same as the older iPhone and it runs the new firmware which also gets released for the older iPhones, the2.0. The firmware comes with significant changes , it has a Appstore icon which can be seen in the first picture.
The rest of the features which come with this firmware are as quoted from engadget -
This is pretty significant I think and it does address some shortcoming of the previous firmwares.
However having said that the iPhone still lacks some considerable things which got left out again! I will highlight them in the end.
Here are is quick run of features that were there in the older iphone, this comes from my previous review and is edited/changed in accordance with the new phone
[BREAK=Interface & Applications]
Interface & Applications
Apple has been know for developing innovative and simple interfaces ,and has done just that in the iphone,the interface is simple and works smart.The applications and along with the options icon are on main screen ,or shall is the only screen,it is like modeless cause u can access every feature and return to the main screen with home button.
Speaking of which there are only 4 physical buttons on the phone,the power/sleep , volume control, vibration/ringer and the home button.The home button is on the bottom center of the phone while the vibration and volume buttons are on the left side, and the power button on the top right as shown in the pics.
The home button will pull you back to the main screen no matter what your doing.
The Safari Browser
The browser is one of best mobile browsers I have seen ,I have surfed on mobile for some time,starting with the wap browser back from 6600 days,and have used ie mobile and opera on my htc too,but both are much more limited than safari ,it has been able to open my university login page upto the last details,it also opens google video's and plays it like the you tube app,though this only works on google other streaming site dont seem to work as well.But again this is more than what i expected of a mobile browser.You can double tap to zoom the screen and stretch your fingers to literally zoom in or zoom out the screen the same thing works with pictures as well.
The other apps included are:-
Sensory Perception
There is a proximity sensor which regulates the light and power scheme of the phone depending on phones distance from the ear.So when your like giving a phone number to someone else from your phone book and you take the phone off from the ear you have to press a button every time so that the phone display lits up, at least the sensor avoids this ,the phone automatically lits up as soon as you take it away from your ear.
The other sensor is the "accelerometer" as soon as you tilt the phone the screen changes from landscape to portrait and so forth also the display can be seen from anyside left or right either way.Both these features were present on the older iphone as well.
Keyboard
The iphone doesnt have a physical keyboard,but uses a on screen keyboard and we all know, any foray in this direction by any phone maker have not been successful.But Apple has taken this step in right direction the keyboard is not something to drool over in the phone.The keys are placed nicely but you cant type as fast as you would on a physical keyboard.Its a hit and miss sometimes but you can easily correct it.And i feel its a matter of usage once i become used to it.But again I would say a physical keyboard is better anytime. But having been used it for so long, its definitely better than a non qwerty keyboard.
3G
This is a healthy addition to the new iphone, this was one of the reason that it faced the criticism on its lauch, this is one feature which a lot of manufacturers already have in their phone, and it meant more for the iphone because of the web ability that the phone has. No one can realize in how much need the iPhone was until you use the features, as many say that 3G is just a notion and is not as fast, its BS, it is almost as fast as my wifi connection. I downloaded a song on the phone and it never halted for even a second. Web pages open up much,much faster as compared to the older phone. For actual speed I would rather ask people to open up engadgets review where they have a video showing the same.
However all that good, one of the reason which I suppose apple avoided to integrate 3G was because of the battery life, it does go down significantly if we use the iPhone to surf a lot using 3G. BUt the world doesn't end there, you can switch it off from settings to save battery life, and it will use regular EDGE for internet access.
Battery
Haven't been able to test the phone a lot yet, however the battery does seem to do a pretty job so far, I haven't charged the phone yet and I got it yesterday around the same time, so its been about 24hrs and its still living on the factory charge, I did surf the web, heard some songs, used the gps, watched some videos on you tube, made some calls. So not bad, I would though write some more as I use the phone more. Although engadget has posted their results with the phone and they seem to be satisfied with their results.
Here are the supplemental results
iPhone 3G review supplemental: battery life and MobileMe tests - Engadget
More Battery Testing
After using the phone for this time, I'm so far satisfied with the performance, I'll present some numbers that I observed since the last charge I did yesterday, Stand by time is 24hrs approx, Usage has been 4 hours, and that included some 1-1.5hrs of calling, surfing net on wifi (that drains battery as much as 3g if not more), watching some youtube videos, listening to music for the rest. The battery left is around 40% which I dont think is bad, but 3G was on for not long, I'd say 4-6hrs tops it, but I wonder having 3G on or off makes any difference if we are not using it.
Camera
Although there hasn't been any differences that have been mentioned about the camera, but the pictures do look a little better and more vibrant as compared to the older iPhone. Here are some pics that I clicked today, the car is 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer, my friend got it the day before
The Pictures were taken around 7Pm here, so the lighting was alright, but I had to be careful any slight movement and the picture looked shaky, I guess that goes with any camera.
Call Quality, Speaker
The Call quality does seem improved as many have confirmed too on the new iPhone, I have hardly taken a lot of calls to say this with enthusiasm, but my first impression is that the call quality has improved. But again, I cant say its significant, but the improvement does seem to be there.
The integrated speaker sounds much better than before, it is fairly audible but still a little less louder than the ones on Sony Ericsson or Nokia. But we needed that dearly and has been upped from last time.
Geo Tagging
Another feature that jumps in with the inclusion of GPS is whats called geo tagging, what this means is that when you take a picture, or rather open the camera application, the phone asks you if want to allow maps to access it, if you agree the picture will be stuffed with the information that GPS will give for the location.
[BREAK=Some More Pics Comparing with All 3 variants]
Here are some new pics, that I clicked, after I gotta a chance to compare the 3 differentiable models of the iPhones launched so far.
The phone on the right is mine (16Gb White), in the middle is (8Gb Black) my roomates, and in the left is a 8Gb Orignal iPhone of a friend of mine, being pawned.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Conclusion - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The Good :-
The phone itself has made leaps and bounds in terms of entertainment on the go,if you have a 3G connection you are probably gonna have some serious fun with this phone.The interface is purely one of the best for any phone carrying so many things.
I had been using the older iPhone since september last year, and I have had a very pleasant experience with it. So when I came to know about the possible launch of the 3G version, I decided to sell off mine around couple months back. I sold it off just the price I got it for , since it I had unlocked it. Btw this was not the one I had bought in September, I bought this one in Jan, I gave the other one to my father, who still uses it in Delhi.
I also did a review for that phone which can be found here -
http://www.techenclave.com/reviews-and-previews/apple-iphone-97835.html
[BREAK=Initiallization, Price & Specs]
Getting it!
So I finally got my hands on the iPhone 3G yesterday. I had to wait in line for over 2hours to get it, and thats after a week of its launch. I was calling the apple store practically everyday to find out if they had it or not, and everyday I was hearing the same answer "We had some, but they sold out in the morning" I was kind of pissed since I would get off work around 5pm and couldn't possible be there in the morning. But on Friday I got lucky called them in the afternoon and they had some, ran straight from work to get it, waited in line for 2hrs
, and finally brought it home around 7pm.Pricing
The official pricing is based on several factors in the US, I'll explain briefly how it works.
It is a trend here that we have to start a contract while getting a mobile service, unlike India where we only get a contract, we get a mobile phone free with it here, most free phones can be otherwise bought for in between Rs 4k -Rs 6k in India, for the slightly expensive ones we have to pay more. There is also pay as you go like prepaid in India, but it comes out to be more expensive to use, in fact a lot more expensive to use.
Also after a certain period i.e. 1-1.5yrs you become eligible to get a newer phone while using the contract, if you do get a new phone a new contract starts from that time onwards and henceforth.
For new contracts & eligible upgrades (for older ATT customers) the pricing is -
8gb $199 + taxes in CA it comes out to be $230
16gb $399 + taxes in CA comes out to be $340
No commitment pricing (a att rep confirmed that they are available without contracts, but I cant confirm this yet)
8Gb $599 + tax
16Gb $699 + tax
For People who are not eligible the pricing is $200 more on each model, so just add $200 to final prices to see how much each model costs.
Specifications
This is a straight quote from Apple.
Source has been mentioned in References.
[BREAK= Packaging Pictures & Contents]
Packaging
Since I had been using the older iPhone for such a long time, the transition to the new phone wasn't surprising.
I got the white 16gb model, it comes in a white box which is a little shorter in height than the older black box in which the older iPhone came. With the smaller box we also loose out the dock which used to come with the older phone. I guess a cost cut measure, you now have to pay to get that dock, which in my opinion has redundant - I'll explain why.
The white phone comes in a white box and the black one in black box. The white phone can only be had in 16gb models, and the black one comes in both.
Opening the Box
Thats how the old packing used to look as well, so no changes here except the fact that its all white from inside! Also the newer box looks more solid as compared with the older one.
Contents
This is what the phone comes with -
- Headphone with integrated mic,
- Charger
- Connecting Cable
- Sim Ejection Tool
- & ofcourse the iPhone
The charger is now smaller than the older one and there is no dock in the package. The small pin shown is the sim ejection tool or whatever they call it, push it in and it pops out the sim tray.
I mentioned the dock getting redundant, its because the older dock could do 2 things, firstly it could be used to charge or sync with the computer - this could be done with the supplied cable as well, by directly connecting it to the iphone, secondly the dock had a 3.5mm jack which you could connect to any standard headphone jack, doubling it for connection with any regular sound system. The newer iphone already comes with a 3.5mm jack, so now you can connect any regular headphones. This one part was criticized in the last edition and apple did hear!
[BREAK=Aesthetics, Functionality & Features]
Aesthetics
The Gorgeous 3.5" screen makes a comeback here -it is 160ppi the resolution is 480x320, and this is one of the things that sets apart this phone from many others. Its touchscreen and it comes with a glass cover, making it much better than the traditional touch screens on which you have to press them to make it work. It is finger print vulnerable, and hence sticking a after market screen protector is something that everyone should do.
The back side is new and it doesn't look bad, although I feel the older steel finish was much rugged but that doesn't mean this one is flimsy its not, it looks to be pretty strong, but well a drop would really tell how strong it is.:ashamed:
The left hand side of the phone is the same as the old phone it has a switch which puts the phone to silent, and a volume controller as well. I like the simple vibration switch its much easy to just flip it rather than to select a profile on any regular nokia or similar.
On the top view we see the power button, the sim tray, and the 3.5mm headphone hole (female connector to be precise
)All the buttons if we notice are silver in color, I couldn't figure if they were actually steel or just plastic, probably plastic I guess. Looks a little cheapo stuff, but goes well with the white color.
The bottom of the phone has dock connector, and grill for speaker and the microphone.
Functionality & Features
This is a youtube video playing (and yes I'm a schumacher fan!), its pretty much the same as the older iPhone and it runs the new firmware which also gets released for the older iPhones, the2.0. The firmware comes with significant changes , it has a Appstore icon which can be seen in the first picture.
The rest of the features which come with this firmware are as quoted from engadget -
This is pretty significant I think and it does address some shortcoming of the previous firmwares.
However having said that the iPhone still lacks some considerable things which got left out again!
I will highlight them in the end.Here are is quick run of features that were there in the older iphone, this comes from my previous review and is edited/changed in accordance with the new phone
[BREAK=Interface & Applications]
Interface & Applications
Apple has been know for developing innovative and simple interfaces ,and has done just that in the iphone,the interface is simple and works smart.The applications and along with the options icon are on main screen ,or shall is the only screen,it is like modeless cause u can access every feature and return to the main screen with home button.
Speaking of which there are only 4 physical buttons on the phone,the power/sleep , volume control, vibration/ringer and the home button.The home button is on the bottom center of the phone while the vibration and volume buttons are on the left side, and the power button on the top right as shown in the pics.
The home button will pull you back to the main screen no matter what your doing.
The Safari Browser
The browser is one of best mobile browsers I have seen ,I have surfed on mobile for some time,starting with the wap browser back from 6600 days,and have used ie mobile and opera on my htc too,but both are much more limited than safari ,it has been able to open my university login page upto the last details,it also opens google video's and plays it like the you tube app,though this only works on google other streaming site dont seem to work as well.But again this is more than what i expected of a mobile browser.You can double tap to zoom the screen and stretch your fingers to literally zoom in or zoom out the screen the same thing works with pictures as well.
The other apps included are:-
- Calender - You can setup reminders and to do's for a particular day and time.
- You tube - A completely integrated app which is pretty fun to use as the video quality is pretty impressive. You can also play google video, there is a work around that you have to follow, not like otb function but works. On 3G and edge, the video quality is reduced because of more compression, it is done so cause of the slower speed however, with the addition of 3G I wished they kept it the same as for wifi (which is as we see it on the comp).
- Stocks - As the name implies,you can add stocks for different companies and they are updated when ever you open the app, you must have a net connection available though.
- GPS & Maps - A integrated google map app,just like using it from the web again you can zoom in/out using your fingers. With the Assisted GPS now part of the iphone, we see a blinking blue dot on the screen. Assisted GPS is actually a little different from a regular gps. The phone tries to locate you first by connecting to the satallite if no connection can be established it then tries to triangulate your position via cell towers and/or wifi network. This minus the gps part is already there on the older iphone with firmware 1.1.3 and above.
Btw this is where I live in us. that blue dot is exactly over my apartment. However it does have it short comings, the maps are not stored on the phone so no matter what you need the internet connection for downloading the maps on your phone in order for the gps to work. Secondly the update is slower than a regular stand alone gps. But I have heard that some company is making a app which would store maps on the phone and will also integrate voice directions (already missing in google maps), making it come closer to a stand alone device. The slower update I mentioned could also be because of the map getting downloaded, I'm not too sure though as what is the cause for this. I noticed the delay is somewhere around 3-4seconds.
- Whether - A simple whether app just as in vista,you can add different cities and they are updated as and when you open the app (net connection required)
- Clock -You can add different time zones for world time and add alarms too.
- Calculator - The older phone came with a normal calculator, however with firmware 2.0, you can now tilt the phone to reveal a scientific calculator, a nice addition I must say.
- Notes - You can add personal notes, however you can only use your keyboard.
- Mail-
- Ipod I guess this was the inspiration for the iphone ,the phone comes in two variants now 8 and 16 gig. Mine is a 16gig as mentioned above and it uses flash based memory.The iphone has a little addition in the interface against my older video ipod, (this can also be seen on the newer ipod touch and the rest video + nano versions) you can scroll albums using album art and set playlists using that as well.Otherwise its the same old ipod but with a 3.5' oomph screen .
Sensory Perception
There is a proximity sensor which regulates the light and power scheme of the phone depending on phones distance from the ear.So when your like giving a phone number to someone else from your phone book and you take the phone off from the ear you have to press a button every time so that the phone display lits up, at least the sensor avoids this ,the phone automatically lits up as soon as you take it away from your ear.
The other sensor is the "accelerometer" as soon as you tilt the phone the screen changes from landscape to portrait and so forth also the display can be seen from anyside left or right either way.Both these features were present on the older iphone as well.
Keyboard
The iphone doesnt have a physical keyboard,but uses a on screen keyboard and we all know, any foray in this direction by any phone maker have not been successful.But Apple has taken this step in right direction the keyboard is not something to drool over in the phone.The keys are placed nicely but you cant type as fast as you would on a physical keyboard.Its a hit and miss sometimes but you can easily correct it.And i feel its a matter of usage once i become used to it.But again I would say a physical keyboard is better anytime. But having been used it for so long, its definitely better than a non qwerty keyboard.
3G
This is a healthy addition to the new iphone, this was one of the reason that it faced the criticism on its lauch, this is one feature which a lot of manufacturers already have in their phone, and it meant more for the iphone because of the web ability that the phone has. No one can realize in how much need the iPhone was until you use the features, as many say that 3G is just a notion and is not as fast, its BS, it is almost as fast as my wifi connection. I downloaded a song on the phone and it never halted for even a second. Web pages open up much,much faster as compared to the older phone. For actual speed I would rather ask people to open up engadgets review where they have a video showing the same.
However all that good, one of the reason which I suppose apple avoided to integrate 3G was because of the battery life, it does go down significantly if we use the iPhone to surf a lot using 3G. BUt the world doesn't end there, you can switch it off from settings to save battery life, and it will use regular EDGE for internet access.
Battery
Haven't been able to test the phone a lot yet, however the battery does seem to do a pretty job so far, I haven't charged the phone yet and I got it yesterday around the same time, so its been about 24hrs and its still living on the factory charge, I did surf the web, heard some songs, used the gps, watched some videos on you tube, made some calls. So not bad, I would though write some more as I use the phone more. Although engadget has posted their results with the phone and they seem to be satisfied with their results.
Here are the supplemental results
iPhone 3G review supplemental: battery life and MobileMe tests - Engadget
More Battery Testing
After using the phone for this time, I'm so far satisfied with the performance, I'll present some numbers that I observed since the last charge I did yesterday, Stand by time is 24hrs approx, Usage has been 4 hours, and that included some 1-1.5hrs of calling, surfing net on wifi (that drains battery as much as 3g if not more), watching some youtube videos, listening to music for the rest. The battery left is around 40% which I dont think is bad, but 3G was on for not long, I'd say 4-6hrs tops it, but I wonder having 3G on or off makes any difference if we are not using it.
Camera
Although there hasn't been any differences that have been mentioned about the camera, but the pictures do look a little better and more vibrant as compared to the older iPhone. Here are some pics that I clicked today, the car is 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer, my friend got it the day before
The Pictures were taken around 7Pm here, so the lighting was alright, but I had to be careful any slight movement and the picture looked shaky, I guess that goes with any camera.
Call Quality, Speaker
The Call quality does seem improved as many have confirmed too on the new iPhone, I have hardly taken a lot of calls to say this with enthusiasm, but my first impression is that the call quality has improved. But again, I cant say its significant, but the improvement does seem to be there.
The integrated speaker sounds much better than before, it is fairly audible but still a little less louder than the ones on Sony Ericsson or Nokia. But we needed that dearly and has been upped from last time.
Geo Tagging
Another feature that jumps in with the inclusion of GPS is whats called geo tagging, what this means is that when you take a picture, or rather open the camera application, the phone asks you if want to allow maps to access it, if you agree the picture will be stuffed with the information that GPS will give for the location.
[BREAK=Some More Pics Comparing with All 3 variants]
Here are some new pics, that I clicked, after I gotta a chance to compare the 3 differentiable models of the iPhones launched so far.
The phone on the right is mine (16Gb White), in the middle is (8Gb Black) my roomates, and in the left is a 8Gb Orignal iPhone of a friend of mine, being pawned.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Conclusion - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The Good :-
The phone itself has made leaps and bounds in terms of entertainment on the go,if you have a 3G connection you are probably gonna have some serious fun with this phone.The interface is purely one of the best for any phone carrying so many things.
- 480 x 320 3.5-inch display
- 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
- Improved Call Quality
- Geo Tagging
- & Many More that I will add, and I haven't even talked about most of the cons, so just hold on a little longer.
- Camera - It has no software for it literally just a camera and click pictures,no zoom,no settings, nothing. And damm this is what I wrote the last time, hasn't improved, but on the quality front pictures do look better. But still cant overcome the fact that there are no settings whatsoever & Still 2MP.
- No video recorder, yet again
- No voice commands, yet again
- The keyboard is slower than a physical keyboard. well not as much
- No MMS wtf!
But still, I'm yet again, totally mesmerized with the iPhone
Comments, Suggestions & Criticism Welcome!
