Apple iPhone 3G Review and Specs
| Manufacturer | Apple |
| Model | iPhone 3G |
| Release Date | July 11th, 2008 |
| 2G Network | GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 |
| 3G Network | HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 |
| Operating System | Apple Propietary Operating System |
| Size | 4.5" x 2.4" x 0.48" (114 x 61 x 12.2 mm) |
| Weight | 4.7 oz (133 g) |
| Display Type | LCD, 16M colors |
| Display Size | 3.5 Inch |
| Display Resolution | 320 x 480 pixels |
| Ringtone Types | Polyphonic, MP3 |
| Ringtone Vibration | Yes |
| Phonebook Memory | Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall |
| Memory Slot | 8GB / 16GB Internal Memory |
| GPRS | Yes |
| HSCSD | No |
| EDGE | Yes |
| 3G | HSDPA |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11b/g |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.0, headset support only |
| Infrared Port | No |
| USB | Yes, v2.0 |
| Messaging | SMS, Email |
| Browser Type | HTML (Safari) |
| Games | No |
| Camera Pixels | 2 MP |
| Camera Resolution | 1600 x 1200 pixels |
| Battery Type | Standard battery, Li-Ion |
| Stand-by Time | Up to 300h |
| Talk Time | Up to 10h |
The New iPhone 3G will feature HSDPA 3G internet access along with a slightly new design. The 3G iPhone will be available on July 11th 2008 and will be featured with two memory settings, the 8GB version for $199 and the 16GB version for $299. The iPhone 3G will be available through AT&T and will feature WiFi 802.11 b/g internet access along with the units 3G capabilities.
Editor review
Apple iPhone 3G Succeeds Where Past Effort Failed
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
I'll be the first one to admit that I have always had a love and hate relationship with the iPhone, I thought the first version looked great in its aluminum casing, and the interface was second to none in terms of interactivy, user comprehension and style, but I simply couldn't look passed the device shortcoming, from the lack of 3G, to the useless paper weight the device become when business based email servers were needed, it just drove me crazy.
Luckily Apple realized the downfalls of the device, and hence Apple's iPhone 3G was born. A still slick device, albeit changed slightly in manufacturing Pocket PC that finally features the connectivity needed by business professionals, while ushering Apple into the high speed data world ala 3G internet connectivity and GPS capable use. So lets take a look shall we.
iPhone 3G Build Factor
Its an Apple device so as expected its well built. The device however unlike its predecessor features a plastic compound rather than aluminum, and the plastic is glossy glossy glossy, after all the iPhone is about alot of flash. I liked the original look but the new build isn't bad either and the plastic compound is very strong, and more importantly Apple chose Function over Form, in the sense that 3G Radios, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi and other radios need to pass through the device and plastic compounds are more conducisve to the overall functionality of the unit.
The device does still feature the same screen as the original iPhone, but I'm thinking no one minds the high resolution VGA screen that pushes out 480 x 320 pixels of resolution on a 3.5 inch screen. The iPhone 3G also remains pretty bare in the sense that the front side screen is the main attraction.
The unit does feature a slightly curved back side, which looks nice on the slightly thicker device, my one qualm is that when typing on the screen if you have it say on your desk, it wobbles.
The body change was smart on Apple's part in the sense that you can't use your original iPhone dock, which i'm sure will make many customer none to happy.
Also I should mention that the devices 3.5mm headphone jack makes connecting your favoirte headphones a breeze, and its finally right up against the device, not disturbing the flow of the unit.
Basically the device has a slightly different build factor but not much has changed, but like I mentioned before the form factor has always been great, there really has been no need to change.
iPhone 3G Features
Lets start with the most obvious, the 3G model finally features well...ummm...3G Data speeds! I was surprised when the first device didn't have this offering, in fact I was more than surprised, I was a little pissed off. The data speeds are nice and fast on AT&T at least in my area, its definately a huge noticeable difference over the original iPhone, and it makes downloading apps from that Apple Store that much easier. 3G did eat up the battery at a faster rate, Apple says 5 hours, I say closer to 4 hours 30 minutes, but either way that's impressive enough considering all the other radios and add-on's that could be eating up the memory but are not. In terms of 3G speeds, I was noticing 310-520Kpbs in the Midwest region of the United States, although some overseas reviewers have clocked 700-850kbps where data networks are more technologically advanced. Either way the speeds are very impressive.
Call Quality is also a huge upgraded feature on the iPhone 3G. This was one area I hated the original in and love Apple for improving on. I found 3G calls to come in very clear while GSM calls also showed a vast improvement over the original iPhone call quality. One qualm I have with this feature is that Apple has yet to integrate real time network monitoring into their devices, which means the iPhone 3G can't tell if you would get better calling on 3G than GSM or vice versa, for this you have to switch between the two on your own, its a bit of a pain, but at least its a move in the right direction. 3G Voice it should be mentioned will also eat up your battery.
I also liked that the unit now has proximity sensors so it can tell when you put the device up to your ear which was a cool addition.
The units GPS is also a nice addition that offers new technology as well. Aside from connection via traditional Assisted GPS (A-GPS) the iPhone also uses a technology from Skyhook that acquires location based information via WiFi. Combining all the dimensions of connectivity allows the iPhone to connect to GPS signals in a matter of 1-2 seconds, very impressive for a phone, actually that would be very impressive on a GPS unit as well.
The new Mac OS X 2nd Release has also added some nice features to the unit, i'll discuss these in a later post. One thing I will say is that the Apple App store makes downloading 3rd party applications a breeze, some programs start as low at $.99 and increase from there, either way its a nice addition and makes the phone more expandable in its depth.
Finally I liked that the unit supports corporate email functions, specifically the ability to use Microsoft Exchange Servers, this addresses my biggest iPhone concern, the lack of business connectivity. Add this ability in with the SDK kit Apple released several months back and the iPhone is finally moving towards market integration and its about time.
DISPLAY
Just a quick reminder from the build information posted in the first section of this review. The screen is the same as offered on the iPhone's original incarnation. Its still 3.5 inches and still offers the same bright display that is unparralled by any other in the industry, the ability to control screen resolutions, brightness and responsivness are still as welcomed as they were on the original iPhone thanks to the wonderful work Apple has done on the interface.
CAMERA
It's okay, there's not really much more to say about the camera, it takes slightly brighter pictures than the original, but given the number of 8MP camera phones hitting the market such as the Samsung i850, or heck even the 3.2 mega pixels on the HTC Touch Diamond, I found it hard to get excited about slightly better picture taking on the device while also still lacking a flash function.
One option I like on the camera is the message that now pops up asking if you'd like to geo tag your photos, which can be useful if you like to keep track both mentally and physically in terms of where your photo's were taken and then maybe share them with your friends at a later time.
Overall its not a camera phone, its everything else, but its not a camera phone, i'm sure Apple will read the complaints and put a 100 mega pixel camera that will fold your laundry for you on the next phone, but not this time.
CONNECTIVITY
3G, WiFi, GPS, Data Sync Via Data Sync Cable, GPRS/EDGE. Really it offers it all and very competently, obviously it syncs well to the PC thanks to Apple's computing no how, and the 3G as mentioned earlier is nice and fast which adds a new level of connectivity to the iPhone 3G. Overall there's not alot I need to say other than it offers pretty much every level of connectivity you need, no infrared, but IR techology is dead on cell phones so who cares.
INTERNET
The biggest internet difference is the 3G connectivity, the Safari browser remains as good as ever, I actually think it may be rendering pages a little faster than the prior release. Overall though its the same as it was, which isn't bad, and its definately ahead of the competitors in the cellular market.
CONCLUSION
I'm sure i'll be writing plenty more about the Apple iPhone 3G in the coming months, it really is neat to watch how quickly Apple has played catch up in the market, and in terms of some functions have actually surpassed the competition. Is the iPhone 3G perfect? Absolutely not, but its alot more close to perfect than say the Palm Centro and Palm has been in the industry for a long time. While Apple may be playing catch up it sure does seem like alot of phones like the Samsung Instinct and the LG Dare are playing a scared game of offense to keep up.
So my final question to everyone and more specifically to Apple is....Whats next for the iPhone?
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| Overall rating: |
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9.3 |
| Styling: |
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10.0 |
| Ease of Use: |
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10.0 |
| Display: |
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10.0 |
| Voice Quality: |
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8.0 |
| Battery Life: |
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9.0 |
| Quality/Build: |
|
9.0 |
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