iPhone 3G: 24 hours later
As the world wakes up to just another day, and those who managed to bag themselves a new Apple iPhone 3G on the launch day battling through activation problems, server meltdowns, long slow-moving queues and stock shortages get to grips with their new handsets, there’s just time for a quick appraisal of the device itself, 24 hours in.
As a user of the original iPhone until about 12pm yesterday, this probably won’t offer a complete insight for those new to the handset - to catch up, the interface and operating system is amazing and it suffers in a few departments such as an under-specced camera on today’s market and poor network speed outside of wifi areas.
As the sun is shining - a rare July occurrence these days here in the UK - let’s start with the positive.
The Good
- If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - this model really builds on the original without steamrollering over any of its defining features. So yes, you’ll find that wonderful interface completely untouched (until you start playing with it, when it’s obviously touched rather often). The physical dimensions are much the same, but the curvature of the new plastic rear casing actually makes for a more pleasant hand-hold, and the screen is as big, responsive and bright as it ever was. Little improvements here and there include the new silver grille over the earpiece and speaker outlets - hopefully more fluff-resistant than the original model, although anecdotally, I have to refute comments that the loudspeaker is significantly improved; I can barely notice the difference. Maybe it’s my ears.
- GPS - I didn’t think I’d really notice this, as Maps on the original model was already pretty hot and once a software update brought in the ability to ‘roughly’ locate yourself using various network mast triangulation and wifi zone database wizardry, it did me just fine in tight spots of lost-ness. But the GPS on the new model really takes this feature to a new level. Keeping with the adage in point one, Maps still uses masts and wifi zone info to get a rough fix, but concurrently gets in contact with something metal above the earth to home in on a much tighter, more accurate fix. And it does it in seconds rather than minutes as had been previously predicted. Needless to say it’s all done with a bit of Apple spit-and-polish (the GPS pin pulses serenely whilst it tracks you down). As soon as someone comes in with turn-by-turn navigation using this feature (the default Maps application doesn’t do this), it’s almost a game-changer.
- Applications - not unique to the iPhone 3G (apps can now be loaded onto original iPhones and iPod touches too), but seriously exciting nonetheless. At launch the selection is extremely mixed, but there’s already fantastic offerings from the likes of Apple (the iTunes remote is pure simplicity yet very very good), Twitterific, Facebook, and even Sega with a not-half-bad Super Monkey Ball game. Train journeys will never be the same again. Of course this should all have been present with the original iPhone, but let’s just be grateful we’ve got it now and look forward to the developer community really pushing this thing.
- 3G network coverage and speed - let’s face it, for UK iPhone users, EDGE was pretty poor. Coverage was limited to sporadic areas of city centres and that was about it, and even if you were lucky enough to be in EDGE coverage, the internet was still pretty painfully slow. Doubly so if you weren’t on EDGE - you’d have finished your train ride before a page had loaded (well, not quite, but you know what I mean). Thank the heavens, then, for 3G in the iPhone - the network speed it should always have had. Not only are speeds exponentially quicker on 3G, but O2’s coverage seems not half bad - certainly on my own evidence, a lot more of Birmingham is drenched in 3G goodness than EDGE.
The Bad
- 3G battery life - damn, that’s more noticeable than I’d perhaps naively hoped for. From a full charge at bed time to mid-morning, the battery was nearly half-drained - and I hadn’t even done anything with the phone (although wifi was on and mail set to pull down from Gmail every 30 mins). You’ll be more inclined to keep your charger with you wherever you go, unlike the original model which would generally withstand a couple of days of forgotten-charger-ness before throwing in the towel.
- That camera - I know, I know, it’s not the be-all and end-all. But 2 megapixels? No zoom? No autofocus? No flash? No video? What a let-down. No doubt the iPhone 3G 2.0 (rumours start here!!!!) to be released in six months time will set this straight. It feels like a massive oversight, especially with video streaming from mobile starting to make its mark and with all the potential of geotagging offered by the GPS feature. Boo Apple.
- Push email - not actually a ‘bad’ because I think from seeing demos, this feature is awesome. My problem is I can’t get the iPhone to talk to my Exchange set-up at work - but then nothing talks to my Exchange set-up at work. So a personal quibble. Hope you get more mileage out of it!
- Limited 16GB availability - just sticking my two cents in - reports from our friends in the States suggest Apple stores in the US are abundantly stocked with the higher capacity model. So I’m afraid once again, boo Apple for being stingy with stock for your devoted, and seemingly growing, customer base here in the UK and Europe.
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Sure the battery on iPhone 3G is not that great, but what can we do? We want small size phones, powerful features and lengthy battery life.
Just get a backup battery. I got mine from iPhoneck brands. Their new 3G backup battery is probably one of the better looking products in the market. Their website is http://www.iphoneck.com
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBoo Apple. Push email - not actually a ‘bad’ because I think from seeing demos, this feature is awesome. My problem is I can’t get the iPhone to talk to my Exchange set-up at work - but then nothing talks to my Exchange set-up at work. … [...]