Warning – big entry ahead!
Yesterday was the big kahuna, the day I had been waiting for ever since WWDC in San Francisco; it was of course the day the iPhone 3G had its chance to say “hello” (Mac zealots, did you get the reference there?).
After all the hulabaloo earlier in the week involving O2’s system failure, they finally decided that they would be gracious enough to allow so-called loyal customers to upgrade instore as opposed to online via their flakey website. Reported stock shortages and limited venues to upgrade in, I decided that I would have to start queueing rather early to secure Cupertino’s latest must-have gadget. I set my alarm for 3:30am and indeed it did go off at that time; sadly my sleep deprived arm decided to switch off the buzzer and off I went back to sleep. I woke up again at 4:30am and promptly rushed out of the house to get to the O2 store.
Finally got there just before 5:30am and was 8th in the queue after a Chinese fella left the line. Ended up talking to two guys in front of me, both Mac fans, and we whiled away 2.5 hours talking about our favourite computer manufacturer. The queue started to swell dramatically from about 7am onwards and come 7:45am, there were at least 50 people waiting and the queue actually looped back on itself up New Street.
When 8:02am rolled around, I was one of the first batch of people allowed inside to begin the sign-up process and cue big batch of problems. The servers went down as expected since all O2, Apple, and Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK were trying to sign people up at the same time, so they turned to good old-fashioned paper, then the servers came back online so there was just a bit of to-ing and fro-ing. I asked the guy serving me how much stock they had and he said they had a batch of 40 at most in the back and that 9 of those were 16gb models. I breathed a sigh of relief but also kept an eye on my box that was sat in front of me just in case it were to mysteriously walk off on its own…
After paying for my brand new “Jesus phone”, I headed over to the Apple store to see what was happening there. They had a queue of people and to my annoyance also had the white 16gb model in stock and plenty of them! I was looking for a case and since the 3G no longer has a dock packed in, I needed one of those too. I also grabbed a copy of Mobile Me to get some push email functionality. Spoke to the nice chappy who sold me the Time Capsule several months ago and told him the score about O2 and he shared my concerns over how badly everything’s been handled. I paid for my goods and made my way to Starbucks for a well deserved coffee and also nearly ended up leaving my new toys behind under my table!
Review starts here!
Now that the dust has settled and I’ve got everything running the way I like, it’s time for my trusty review.
First up, what you get inside the box:
- iPhone 3G
- stereo earphones with inline mic
- USB dock cable
- charger (not the dinky one the US and Japan gets)
- cleaning cloth
- ejecting tool (glorified paperclip)
- 2 Apple stickers
As mentioned earlier, a dock is no longer packed to help keep costs down. I’m willing to put down money that the next iteration will lose the charger and request that people charge the iPhone via USB instead…
No SIM card was given to me so it was simply a case of moving the one from my old iPhone to the 3G.
The upgrade and transfer process of my iPhone content was completely painless, so long as you remembered to make a recent backup of your previous iPhone to iTunes first. All of my data and settings (except the time zone) were transferred over to the iPhone 3G and it was ready to rock and roll immediately once finished. As much as a joy it was for the ease of transfer, it did kinda take away from the experience that it was a new toy to play with since on the surface, it now looked and behaved exactly like my original iPhone.
Looks wise, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for the original iPhone. The front has subtley changed in width and there’s now a metal grill instead of black cloth in the earpiece. The back has changed quite dramatically, now coming in high gloss plastic in black and white flavours. The back has me absolutely paranoid and I’m handling it with kid gloves constantly, though early reports claim its actually quite hardy despite initial appearance. I will definitely have to get myself one of those Invisible wrap-around shields for my own piece of mind! It does however feel really nice in your hand, much more so than the original due to the curved back and the plastic being warm to the touch. It’s also a bit lighter than the original yet still has that quality Apple construction to it.
Internally, there have been a few key changes. Biggest change is obviously that it is now 3G compatible which has caused some folks to say that this is the iPhone that should have come out in the first place a year ago; as my friend Ari put it, “it’s evolution rather than revolution now”. The 3G chip allows for much faster data transfer speeds, much closer to broadband over wifi and it would be even faster if Safari was more optimised in the way it handles code. I am very pleased with the speed increase and it certainly makes a difference when you’re out and about; email attachments download in a few seconds rather than minutes and image heavy pages load with a snap of the fingers (OK, not quite but you get the idea…). The 3G speed increase does come at a price though in the form of battery juice. In an average day, my original iPhone battery runs down to 3/4 or 2/3 on heavy usage days on EDGE and wifi. It’s now day 2 of usage and the iPhone 3G has run down to just over halfway, usage hasn’t really differed and I’ve been within wifi range for most of the day, though 3G is still running in the background for calls. People have also claimed that calls over 3G sound better due to more bandwidth, I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference but it certainly produces less network noise now which is a plus.
The other major internal changes are the audio chip being used and the extra capacity. The audio chip is now using what’s inside the iPod classic as opposed to the original iPhone which had the same insides as the 5th gen iPod video. Again, I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference because any improvements are going to be so minor now that the hardware’s more refined. The 16gb model is a nice size and feels less ‘claustrophobic’ than the 8gb; I cringe to think what the 4gb iPhones must have felt like to use!
What is rather controversial is whether the screens are different or not. The 3G screen has a subtle yellowish tint to it whereas the original iPhone has a blueish look. Steve Jobs claimed they were the same screens during the WWDC but he may have been referring to size rather than technical specification. They may have changed supplier or simply used a different anti glare filter than before. I personally prefer the blue tint despite the warmer look of the yellow.
The built in GPS chip is very accurate and works indoors too; it was able to pintpoint my house very quickly as opposed to the original iPhone’s much broader tracking. It lacks sat-nav style turn by turn directions which is disappointing, but apparently TomTom are working on software which will hopefully make it to the App store within iTunes.
What is not unique to the 3G is the long awaited software version 2.0. With it comes some major additions such as contact search, Exchange support, and the all important App store integration. The App store is Apple’s way of distributing software to all iPhone and iPod touch users in a handy and safe manner since all submissions are vetted by Apple for quality. Many of the apps are free with the most expensive being £65 apparently (I still can’t find what this app is) though most paid software is £5.99 which is very reasonable since you get the app for life (or at least the life of the iPhone).
The best I’ve used so far is Apple’s own “Remote” app, which lets you use the iPhone as a remote to control an iTunes library on the same network over wifi. The setup process is ridiculously easy, all you do is find a library which generates a 4 digit pin on the phone and then you enter this pin into iTunes and Robert’s your mother’s brother, you have a handy remote at your errr… feet! You can browse and search your entire library, skip playlists, create playlists etc. If you have an Airport Express and Airtunes enabled, this is perfect since you can have your machine downstairs and have your speakers wirelessly connected upstairs where you may be. The other app which I think has incredible potential yet does not work for me is called “Truphone”, which is a VOIP service. You install the app and register for the service which essentially lets you make and receive calls and send text messages over wifi. It’s a pay as you go service where you top up with credit online and you’re able to make net calls to other Truphone users or most importantly, normal phone numbers. I want this to work for me so badly because one of the big selling points is that it’s touted as being ideal for travellers; calls to partnered countries only cost 3p for landlines and 15p for mobiles! O2 want to charge me £1.40 a minute for calls whilst I’m in Japan so it’s a no brainer really and all you need is a wifi connection.
As briefly mentioned earlier, Mobile Me is the new version of the .Mac service offered by Apple. It gives you subscription based IMAP email, online storage (20gb!), online galleries, and push syncing of email, calendars, contacts, and settings. It also works to an extent on Microsoft’s Outlook though there’s certainly less incentive to get the service if you don’t own a Mac. Since I use 4 machines regularly, it’s a nightmare keeping all of the above up to date so this is an absolute god send. After some teething problems on Friday and early Saturday (I’d receive two of everything), it finally seems to be working properly. Deleted emails on my iPhone show up as deleted on Mail and Outlook, and any new contacts I add on my iBook now also appear on my MacBook Pro. Absolutely fantastic stuff and it cements me further into the Apple ecosystem.
I’m actually less excited about the 3G compared to the first iPhone, but considering it’s really just a revision, it’s understandable, though that’s not to say that I don’t like it because I’m absolutely chuffed with my purchase. The 3G speeds mean I don’t have to rely on wifi constantly due to the anemic speeds of O2’s EDGE network and coupled with Mobile Me, I’m a step closer to that digitally integrated life that I’m seeking! It is a solid upgrade and £160 for more speed and double the capacity is most certainly welcome. People that originally held off should definitely dive in now. The contracts that we have are some of the best and shortest in the world and you can even get the phone for free on some tariffs so come on, what are you waiting for?!
Oh and before I forget, that original iPhone of mine is still for sale with loads of accessories!
