Review: Apple iPhone 3G
Posted on July 14, 2008
Filed Under Phones |
Well it’s finally here, and thanks to our time zone we’ll be the first country in the world to be able to buy the next generation Apple iPhone.
This is the first legitimate release of the iPhone in New Zealand, though of course many people have been importing the first version then unlocking it to use on Vodafone’s network.
Well, now there’s no more unlocking needed. The iPhone 3G goes on sale tomorrow at 12:01 through Vodafone in New Zealand.
Just a word of warning – the iPhone will set you back some serious cash. Click here to see just how much.
The iPhone 3G adds two major features noticeably lacking in the first version - 3G connections and GPS. The other major differences - access to more applications and support for business email - all come down as a software update to the first iPhone anyway, so there actually isn’t a lot of difference between the two.
If you haven’t seen the iPhone before, click here for a rundown of its features. If you’re familiar with the iPhone click here to see what hasn’t changed or here to see if it’s worth upgrading, or read on to see what’s new.
SO WHAT’S CHANGED?
Change #1 - 3G
Obviously the biggest difference is the 3G connection, which was noticeably lacking in the original version. This frees you up to use the internet and email away from WiFi networks.
In New Zealand this is a big deal, because we don’t have a lot of WiFi about like, say, San Francisco.
The 3G connection is HSDPA, which means high-speed downloads, 3.6 Mbps in theory. In practice you’ll get less than that. To compare it with your existing connection, in central Wellington the Stuff.co.nz homepage takes about 30-40 seconds to download completely. If you’re impatient you can stop it before it finishes of course.
Web surfing is where the iPhone stands head and shoulders above its competition. You can easily view and surf the real web (not just pages built for mobile phones). As before, zooming in and out is through a pinching motion on the touchscreen.
There is one problem, though. Vodafone relies on 900 MHz to supply 3G coverage in smaller centres. The iPhone doesn’t support the 900MHz 3G standard (it supports 850MHz 3G), so you won’t get 3G coverage for your iPhone outside Vodafone’s 2100MHz network, which mainly covers the country’s large cities. For more details, click here.
Change #2 - Plastic back
The iPhone 3G has a plastic instead of a metal back. Apple says this gives better reception than the metal back (call quality is better) and also makes the phone lighter.
This is actually the only noticeable exterior difference between the old and new versions (the new one is also slightly more rounded and thicker). Otherwise most people will have trouble telling the models apart.
Change #3 – More connections
The new iPhone has support for 3 3G bands (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) and GPS, on top of the first iPhone’s 4 GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) bands, WiFi (802.11b, g), and Bluetooth 2.0. The GPS lets it home down on your location much more accurately than the first iPhone, which used triangulation though the cellphone network to tell you where you were approximately.
The Google Maps function is integrated with the GPS, so it automatically loads up where you are if it finds a signal. The camera also links to the GPS so you can geotag your photos (store where you took them in each file’s metadata).
You won’t be able to use the GPS to navigate while you drive, but it will give you directions from where you are to where you want to be.
Change #4 - Back-end business support
The iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange, which means access to your corporate network and push email.
The first iPhone will also be able to support this once it downloads the free iPhone 2.0 software update. More details here.
Change #5 - Applications
Apple is going full-out with applications, both free and for-sale. You can download hundreds of these through iTunes or its App Store from today.
There are quite a few games that use the iPhone’s gyroscope to steer cars or other stuff. There’s also mobile blogging through Typepad, and an application called Loopt that shows you where you friends are on Google Maps.
Another neat one is Band, which lets you play and record musical instruments.
More on the apps is available on Apple’s website here. Like with push email, the first iPhone will have access to the same functionality once it downloads the 2.0 software update.
Other changes
It seems faster, for one, and day-to-day use is noticeably quicker. The speaker is better thanks to some vents at the bottom, the buttons on the side are chrome instead of black.
Another great change is the headphone jack, which is no longer recessed, so it can fit standard connections.
When web surfing or on email, pressing and holding on an image lets you save it to the hard drive. There is support for more languages.
Another neat feature - turn the calculator function sideways, and it becomes a scientific calculator.
Thanks to the software update, the iPhone also supports a subscription service called MobileMe, a Web 2.0 application which stores your email, contacts, calendar, and even files and photos on the internet. Change something on your computer, and the next time you turn on your iPhone it’ll be different there too. Subscriptions cost US$99 per year.
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED (BUT MAYBE SHOULD HAVE)
The iPhone 3G still has a 2 megapixel camera. Maybe Apple is trying to keep the cost down but with Sony and Nokia upping the megapixels on their smartphones every year, it is a noticeable difference.
That said, how many megapixels do you really need? If you’ll only be viewing the photos on your iPhone or on your computer, 2MP is sufficient. Photo quality on the iPhone 3G was good. But there is no internal camera for videoconferencing.
Still no video camera either, which is a definite minus, and no zoom or flash on the camera. And no multimedia messaging, so you can’t send pxt or video by SMS. You can, as Apple points out, use email instead, but it’s strange not to have the function in a phone with a camera like this.
There’s no slot for external memory cards, but with 8GB or 16GB on board, most people won’t need it. Still, it would have been nice, especially for transferring photos to the phone directly from a camera.
You can still only view and save PDF and Office files, not edit them. No cut and paste either. And you can’t buy songs from iTunes store through the 3G network, only through WiFi. You can, however, buy apps up to 10MB through iTunes over 3G.
Syncing music, video, contacts, calendar, and photos is always done through the iTunes software, so you can’t manually add things drag-and-drop style.
No 802.11n WiFi either, if you’re an early adopter.
The iPhone 3G’s Bluetooth can sync to earpieces and other phone add-ons, but not to computers or other mobiles.
The iPhone’s Safari web browser doesn’t support Flash or Java – meaning you can’t do the quizes on Stuff - but does support Javascript.
Finally, while you can eject the sim card with a paperclip, you can’t replace the battery without taking out a few screws, which will void the warranty.
All these things – but mainly the lack of MMS and video, stop me giving it five stars. It is an excellent device, but for the price there should be just a bit more.
Click here to read the iPhone 3G’s technical specs.
IS IT WORTH UPGRADING IF I HAVE THE FIRST IPHONE?
A lot of iPhone fans in New Zealand will have to have this phone, and if you’re an iPhone user on a data plan you should be able to get a deal that makes it good value.
Most of the changes between the two versions are minor enough that an upgrade isn’t a given though. If the changes I’ve outlined above tickle your feathers, then obviously yes. If you want 3G web surfing or GPS, then the iPhone 3G will be good value.
Remember, some of the changes will come through on the next software update for the first iPhone anyway, like the Apps store and push email.
If you’ll mainly do your web surfing through WiFi networks, it’s probably worth sticking with what you have.
The other consideration, of course, is whether you want to stop worrying about unlocking the phone everytime you accidentally update the iPhone software.
WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE AN IPHONE? SHOULD I BUY ONE?
The iPhone 3G is the best phone for surfing the web on the move. If that’s something you’re into, then definitely it’s worth checking out, especially if you’re a mobile data user already on account. If you’re not, then it depends. The iPhone 3G is great device, intuitive to use, very pretty to look at, and the touchscreen is the best out there.
As for being a “revolutionary” device, as some have said, don’t believe it. Everything the iPhone does other smartphones will do, everything important anyway, and some will even do more. The iPhone is easier and more fun to use though. Apple have done a great job designing the software and hardware and it’s never a hassle to use – which for smartphones really is saying something. Things work without mucking around.
THE PRICES
The biggest downside to the iPhone 3G in New Zealand is the price of Vodafone’s data plans, which are high compared to other countries.
iPhone 3G prices start at $199 up front for the 8GB version, but you’ll have to sign up to a two-year plan charging $250 a month (includes 1GB of data, plus voice calls and texts).
The cheapest two-year plan costs $80 a month (for 250MB of data). On this plan the 8GB version will cost $549. Over the two years of the plan, this’ll set you back about $800 more than the equivalent iPhone and data plan in Australia.
You can also buy the iPhone outright for $979 for the 8GB version, but you must sign up to one of Vodafone’s You Choose plans for calling and texting. There’s no data included in this, so you won’t be able to use the 3G network to surf the web or download emails.
This isn’t such a bad deal though, if you mainly plan on using a WiFi connection for your web surfing. Still, if that’s the case, you may be better off with an iPod Touch (click here to read a review of the iPod Touch).
Vodafone isn’t selling the iPhone prepay.
Click here to see more details of Vodafone’s plans.
The iPhone 3G goes on sale at Vodafone shops at 12:01 Friday morning. It will be available in 16GB (black and white) and 8GB (black only).
INTRODUCING THE IPHONE
The iPhone is one of the most reviewed gadgets in the world, but if you’ve yet to read a review, here’s a quick rundown of what it’s about.
The centrepiece is the 3.5-inch touchscreen. Everything about the iPhone centres on this screen. The iPhone 3G only has one button on its face (which takes you back to the main menu). On the left side is a silent-mode switch, volume up and volume down. On the top is the hold button, which doubles as on/off when you press it for a few seconds. And that’s it. No keypad, and no keyboard.
This kind of minimalism looks super-cool but it isn’t for everyone. Business people wanting email on the go may want stick to their BlackBerrys. The iPhone does have a virtual keyboard that, as virtual keyboards go, is great, but for my money it’s not as fast or accurate as a thumb Qwerty, especially for those of us “blessed” with meaty hands.
With practice you can get quite fast with it though, especially with Apple’s software helping correct common misspellings, so it depends on how fast you want to (or can) type. I know iPhone users who swear they can type faster with their virtual keyboard than a BlackBerry after a month or two, so it will depend on personal preference.
Punctuation on the iPhone is through a secondary keyboard, which slows you down.
Virtual keyboards are also difficult to use while you’re on the bus or train.
A touchscreen also means you have to look at it to do everything. This is annoying, especially for the iPod function, because it means you have to whip it out of your pocket to change tracks.
Until you get used to it too, it’s easy to make mistakes on the touchscreen, especially when web surfing. A stray brush or tap will take you someplace you didn’t want to be.
The screen (for the technically minded, 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi) shows colours brightly and video smoothly and the touchscreen responds well to commands. It also can tell which way you’re holding it, so you can switch to a widescreen view (great for surfing the web or watching video) just by turning it sideways.
The iPhone is easy to use. It does a lot but it’s all quite simple to find your way around. All the main functions (clock, photes, phone, text, maps, settings, YouTube, etc) are on the main screen, so it’s just a matter of touching an icon. Adding or changing things is dead easy. It only took me 30 seconds to set it up to use my Gmail acount.
Holding your finger down on a menu icon lets you move it around. There are multiple screens to put icons on (you can switch between them by swishing your finger), plus four quick launch icons on the bottom.
One neat feature is if you make a mistake typing in a field, you can press what you’ve typed to zoom in and move the cursor to make a quick change.
The iPhone 3G’s Safari web browser leaves little to criticise, and it’s still the best way to surf the web on the go. The bookmarks sync with Internet Explorer but not Firefox. Boo that.
The built-in iPod supports MP3 and AAC audio formats but not Windows’ WMA. There’s a built-in YouTube application to watch clips from that website, but you can’t see comments.
Battery life for the iPhone 3G is 12.5 days standby, 5 hours 3G talktime, 10 hours 2G talktime and 24 hours music – all slightly better or the same as the original.
And that’s about it.
So whether the iPhone 3G is the phone for you depends mainly on if you want web surfing and email on the go - and if you can afford Vodafone’s data plans. If you surf the web mainly from home, you’d probably be better off with the much cheaper iPod Touch.
If you’ve unlocked the first iPhone to work in New Zealand, download the latest update to give yourself access to the Apps store and business email. Then decide if you want to dish out for 3G, GPS, and the iPhone 3G’s other extras.
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The data plan has increased $10 per month from the older iphone, but AT&T will likely still lose money with the plan:
http://www.geldpress.com/2008/07/att-lose-money-iphone/