It has been a very Mac few months for me. First I take the plunge on a mac book pro, then I get an iPhone 3g and here I am with a shiny new 3G S I picked up the first day it was on offer. Why did I plunk down some hard earned cash for the new phone? Well not really to have the new phone (thought that is a nice side effect). I recently joined the ranks of iPhone developers and hope to release some apps and perhaps if I am fortunate make that money back (and more???). When developing for the iPhone it helps if you have some dedicated testing equipment. I decided I wanted to be able to play with the phone specific features so I got the new phone so I could make my old one a test unit.
Initial thoughts:
For those holding on to a current 3g phone and wondering if they should take the plunge? Well the short answer from me is that for most folks there really isn't a reason to go plunk down for the new phone immediately. This is definitely an evolutionary step for the iPhone and the changes are mostly small. Is it faster? Yes, but while noticeable it isn't an earth shattering increase. The speed up is most apparent in more intense applications. Video loads noticeably faster, it is easier to swipe between images, resize etc... Heavy gamers will likely find more benefit here than typical phone users. Also you get a higher quality camera and are finally allowed to record video without resorting to a jailbreak solution.
Think of it this way... the difference between the 3g and the 3g s is similar to the difference between a Subaru WRX and WRX STI, Mustang GT and Shelby Mustang, 3 series BMW and the M variant. In other words it is the same phone with a turbo charger and some bells and whistles. For day to day 'driving' its the same experience and the changes don't show up until you push the limits.
Bottom line, If you are buying new then get the 3g s. It is worth the 100 dollar difference to step up from the 8gb 3g. And if a 100 bucks makes that big a difference to you then I would ask why you are picking up a phone with a 360 dollar a year data plan commitment on top of your phone line/ msg'ing options. For existing 3g owners... wait till your can renew and honestly it might be worth it to wait for the next step. Most likely Apple will go dual core on the CPU and the difference should be far more dramatic.
The Bad: Sure the iPhone is a great device... but it still has its warts.
Still no micro SD expansion slot? Seriously Apple solve this one. Make a dual SIM/SD holder in the top or something. This is so ridiculously overdue it is silly.
plastic body. Don't get me wrong I don't think this is low quality or chintzy. I just think Apple is missing a bet here with materials. Make this phone a 'unibody' phone with an aluminum or other metal (titanium?) block design. It is stronger and more solid in the mac book line.. why wouldn't it be for the phone? It is less prone to scratching and would do more to set the phone apart. Perhaps there will be an iPhone Pro ? While we are on the subject... drop the damn gloss. It looks great on TV and when it is sitting there all untouched. But these puppies live in your oily greasy hands and in 2 minutes that wondrous glossy look becomes a smeared smudgey mess. Design a phone that looks as good after a good day of use as it does fresh out of the box.
Battery capacity. A basic phone will generally be usable for days. An iPhone charge lasts you more than a day only if you use it like a phone. Heavy usage tops out around 3-4 hours, longer in non screen intensive uses like listening to music. I have no real sense yet if the 3g s eeks a bit more life out of its battery than the 3g or not but I doubt it is a significant difference if there is any. Most likely it is much hungrier when you actually use the new capabilities that make it stand apart. Capacity in comparison to other smart phones is solid... this is a problem across the whole genre of phones.
Push Notifications / lack of true multitasking: The iPhone is in many cases a conundrum. Take AIM chat sessions for example. You cannot chat and check e-mail at the same time, or browse the web while your favorite event based app of choice (say mlb) monitors something going on. I applaud Apple's dedication to ensuring the iPhone interface maintains a uniform level of responsiveness but I still can't get over the fact they will not let users opt out of this artificial application limitation. The new push notification system is a poor substitute for multitasking apps.
iPod dock/charging connector: Normally I am all for consistency. And the iPod dock connector provides so much in the way of accessories I have a hard time saying this thing should go. But it should go. Mini/micro-USB should be on the table. Smaller hole to get gunk in and works with more things. Docks and accessories can be used with adaptors until they catch up. As a bonus they should include the ability to be a usb host. If Apple wants to come up with a new proprietary connector that gets my vote I recommend a mag safe style mobile connector for data and power.
E-mail inbox management: Sure OS 3 brings search to e-mail but damnit, every other freaking e-mail client in the world allows you to sort your inbox by date received, to/from, subject etc... so why in *_(#*$&_(*@&#_$(* does the iPhone e-mail client still not allow for this? Unified e-mail inbox and/or the ability to switch directly between inboxes (as opposed to swiping back to the list and back into the inbox), tagging or some form of folder management capability and NO cap on how many e-mails are accessible on the device. Multiple item selection needs to allow for multiple actions such as mark read/unread etc... not just delete.
AT&T Restrictions: The iPhone has brought the smartphone and its attendant data hungry nature to the masses. It takes a lot of backbone guts to serve millions of iFart apps, twitters and facebook pokes. AT&T can be forgiven for underestimating the data appetite of iPhone users to begin with. But we are now 2+ years down the road and the iPhone still isn't allowed to send MMS messages because AT&T is afraid the traffic will melt their servers. Apple provided them with a phone that has sold 17 million units of which a large percentage are new AT&T customers holding expensive unlimited data plans. The revenue from those customers should be enough to have built a dedicated iPhone infrastructure by now. Don't get me started on the debacle that is MMS and Tethering.
The So So:
Compass. Not real sure if this is going to amount to anything. But it works as advertised. Most obvious area of use is static pointing information to integrate with GPS usage.
New screen coating. I'll grant this is better than the 3g screen as far as cleaning it goes (less smearing when cleaning) but it is still finger print city. Get the apple anti-glare smudge resistant screen protectors. They are REALLY finger print resistant and make swiping, scrolling much easier. There is a slight loss in sharpness but at least in my opinion it is very very worth it. It is far better at being smudge resistant than it is at preventing glare.
Voice Control: If you ask me this is a feature box they can final check when compared to most other phones on the market. In my opinion this is something they were right to disregard initially. Voice control is a cool concept that remains a gimick due to how finicky it is. One day perhaps this will be sorted out. But considering massive purpose built computing rigs can't do this well I just don't see it showing up in mobile technology anytime soon.
The Good:
OS 3 brings a slew of new goodies that are not specific to the 3g s but the addition of cut and paste and a device search capability are both very welcome additions to the iPhone... and both are needlessly late. Another small change but extremely welcome is the addition of many more applications that make use of the landscape keyboard. I can type fast enough in this orientation to take meeting notes as long as it consists of relatively simple bulleted information. I hold out hope that one day they will design landscape modes for every thing in the root OS.
Tethering is now built into the OS rather than only possible via jailbreaking and ugly network sharing hacks. Just pair and go ala typical Apple easy peasy operation. Granted AT&T still has this nerfed but the capability is there. It should have been there to start with as it is on other phones of this calibre.
Class leading Capacitive touch screen. The hardest to swallow aspect of the new iPhone was and still remains its touch screen based interface. The spec bumps just make it even more responsive and the 3g was already pretty snappy on all things touch related.
Tight Design. Devices worth the better part of $1000 should not have the feel of dime store trinkets as do many high end phones. These phones are solid and the buttons are sparse but useful. You will use all the buttons on the device routinely which is not always the case in other phones.
The camera spec boost: I am not a huge fan of cell phone cameras. But I have found a lot of use for mine as a poor mans scanner. White board session snaps in particular are the 'killer ap' as far as my needs go. 2mp is barely adequate. 3mp is very capable. Of all the spec jumps this is the one that will be most useful for me in comparison to what I would have been stuck with on the 3g.
Third Party Software: The app store is to Apple's success with the iPhone as Office is to Microsoft's success in the desktop OS world.
Conclusion:
Contrary to popular belief (or at least Apple marketing) the iPhone is not a revolutionary handset. There is not one thing that it does that another handset was not capable of a year or two before even the iPhone 1 showed up on the scene. Web browsing, mobile applications, GPS, e-mail etc... had all be done. But none of them managed to break out of the geek crowd to mainstream audience. Particularly with regards to unlimited level data plans. Many folks bought smart phones purely for stand alone PDA capability without bundled data plans. The iPhone managed to take that existing capability and wrap it all up in a package that sold 17 million individual units with the large majority of those being people new to mobile data usage. In that sense the iPhone was revolutionary. But it got there by building a better mousetrap... not by inventing the idea in the first place. The 3G S is a very very nice mouse trap and it is a very nice step forward from its predecessor. But ultimately it is just keeping the fire alive... not taking it to new heights.
