iPhone 3G

It's finally here - the iPhone 3G. No, we mean that literally. It's finally at our office and boy, are we excited! GPS, HSDPA purring under the new iPhone hood with a hefty number of software enhancements.

But all them software goodies are available for the first-gen iPhone too - so is it worth the fuss? It may as well be, but we never know before we take it out for a spin.

Key features:

-3.5" 16M-color TFT display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels

-Quad-band GSM support

-Tri-band UMTS support with HSDPA

-Built-in GPS receiver

-Wi-Fi

-8 to 16GB of onboard storage

-Accelerometer, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor 2 megapixel camera

-Silky smooth user interface with multi-touch user support

-Unsurpassed web surfing experience

-Push email with MS Exchange support

-AppStore access for direct application download and installation

-Redone rear

-TV-out port



The 3G-enabled iPhone was rumored ever since the iPhone 1G surfaced last year. Now that we have the real thing in our hands, it doesn't seem that groundbreaking anymore. Nevertheless, there are quite a few things to cover so we think reviewing it in detail is worth it. There's the updated design, the new white color (which we happen to have), the new iPhone 2.0 firmware/software/OS (call it what you will) with AppStore on board, the push email functionality and, finally, the GPS and HSDPA topping.

We will also be on the lookout for improvements in terms of audio quality, loudspeaker volume and camera image quality against the iPhone 1G.

Seems like quite a workload, so let's waste no more time and get to it. Join us after this short break for more on the iPhone 3G.

Design and construction The iPhone 3G has grown about a millimeter in all directions as compared with the iPhone 1G. The difference is hard to notice really, but there are other, more obvious updates. The metallic rim around the front panel is thinner now and there's the all-plastic curved back. The front panel has not changed much. A nice improvement that eludes ordinary inspection is that the front glass and the actual display under it are no longer one piece. That should make for a much more affordable replacement of the front glass if you get it scratched or broken.

Screen quality is the usual high standard, with the best sunlight legibility we've seen so far on a mobile device - simply flawless.

Above the display is the earpiece that now has a silver grill as an accent instead of the black one in the iPhone 1G. The Home key at the bottom of the iPhone 3G looks the same as the original, but feels a tad squashy.

The right-hand side of the iPhone 3G is still bereft of controls, while those on the left side are the same as in the iPhone 1G. The only difference is that they are now made of metal and have that silver finish accent.

At the bottom of the iPhone 3G you still get two apertures - one for the loudspeaker and one for the mouthpiece. They are symmetrical and evenly sized, and have the same silver mesh as the earpiece. Presenting the iPhone 3G, Steve Jobs himself promised dramatically improved audio meaning a more potent loudspeaker. We will see about that too in the relevant part of this review later on.

The most radical change on the bottom however is the addition of two screws. We guess that they would allow easier removal of the back panel. That would make battery or back panel replacement much easier. By the way, this time with the iPhone 3G, the battery is not soldered to wires anymore, to make replacement that much easier. Of course, you know that removing the back panel will most probably void your warranty.

Speaking of the battery, Apple claims it should provide up to 300h of standby time and up to 10h of talk time. In reality, the iPhone 3G pulls off up to 5 hours of talk time in a 3G network. Turning 3G off gives it a certain boost to up to 6 hours, which was pretty much the talk time of the iPhone 1G.

The top part of the iPhone 3G features - as before - a 3.5mm audio jack, the on/off key and the SIM card tray. The biggest change here is that the 3.5mm audio jack in no longer recessed, so now you are free to use whatever headphones you like with no need for an adapter.

The SIM card tray is now plastic instead of the original all-metal design. And there's also a SIM removal tool included in the retail package, so you would hardly need to resort to paperclips anymore. However, the combination of plastic surface and a sharp pointed tool is sure to result in scratches around the pinhole.

Both iPhone 1G and 3G have wonderful displays. With superb automatic brightness control and the unsurpassed (not even by Nokia) sunlight legibility, they are easily the best on the market (in both touch and non-touch categories). There's not much of a difference between the two units, though it seems the iPhone 3G has better white balance. The iPhone 1G display is cooler (white is bluish), while the iPhone 3G display is warmer (with a more balanced white). There were some early buyers that had their screens too yellowish, but Apple quickly remedied the issue. So, now as it seems, the best mobile display out there has now gotten even better.

iPhone 2.0 changelog Now, we are not going over the whole user interface of the Apple iPhone 3G - it doesn't differ much from the original, so we are just going to cover the new stuff in the relevant categories. But before we do that, we'd like to give you a brief scoop on what has changed and what sadly seems to have been neglected by Apple developers for unknown reasons.

Changes in version 2.0 Parental restrictions (apply to the iPod, Safari, YouTube, iTunes and AppStore) Screenshot capability right out-of-the-box Numerous interface localization options: languages/dual language keyboard A dedicated contact list icon (available to jailbroken iPhone 1G too) Import SIM contacts function (available to jailbroken iPhone 1G with unofficial third-party software) Contacts list search in both first and last name A number of email enhancements: push email support, Microsoft Exchange support, mass mail delete, mass mail move, saving attached images enabled A number of Safari web browser changes - photo download, show inline YouTube videos on web pages, new domain extensions available to the .COM button on the keyboard (.net, .edu, .org), entering passwords is more user-friendly showing the last character Camera now sports geotagging AppStore is a ground-breaking application download/install manager (but still not pioneering, a similar system was available to jailbroken iPhone 1G via Installer and Cydia) Scientific calculator Maps benefit from the built-in GPS receiver Stuff that still needs attention The 2.0 software is still buggy and unstable (presumably fixed with the latest 2.01 firmware) Screen auto rotation is slower than on the iPhone 1G (presumably fixed with the latest 2.01 firmware) No copy/paste functionality No landscape QWERTY keyboard except in the web browser No vibration feedback when typing Still no option for turning Predictive typing OFF No multi tasking (Apple background notification service is in the works to remedy that one) Numerous messaging features lacking: no MMS, no SMS forwarding (might be solved by a system-wide copy/paste functionality), no deleting individual messages Numerous email features lacking: no bulk "mark as read", no search, no sorting of any kind, no ZIP or RAR support in mail, can't send full resolution camera images via mail (they get resized to 800x600) No call duration recorded in the Calls Log Cannot snooze appointments and cannot set repetitive alerts for reminders No search in the iPod music library No video recording No voice dialing No Bluetooth file transfer or stereo Bluetooth music streaming No GPS navigation software No FM radio Long and tedious back up upon sync with iTunes (presumably fixed with the latest 2.01 firmware) No syncing of Notes and TO-DOs Our wish list Smart dialing - even feature phones have that now The Lock screen can accommodate some info plug-ins such as upcoming appointments and events, weather, stocks, news, RSS feeds, etc. A Wireless manager would make turning on/off 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, Airplane mode, and Bluetooth much more user-friendly Hardware button for camera would also be nice (but we guess next iPhone) General user interface The flat (no submenus) interface should be all too well familiar by now. Tap an icon to open an application, then press the hardware Home key to close the application and return to the Home screen. That's that.

No multi-tasking is available whatsoever. So you can't have an instant messenger running online in the background while you browse your photos for example.

Apple are supposed to be remedying that with their background notification service, which however is still in the works. With it, apps such as instant messengers still won't be running in the background, but you'll get notified of new events or incoming messages so you can start the application to check them.

The iPhone 2.0 firmware that comes pre-installed on the iPhone 3G, and is available as a free update to iPhone 1G, is responsible for all software enhancements that we see. Unfortunately, it seems a bit buggy with random crashes and hold-ups but usually a simple phone restart fixes that. Some of the issues are reportedly gone with the latest 2.01 bugfix update but we can't really confirm that.

There are also performance issues with the out-of-the-box OS too - the automatic screen rotation is slower than the one on iPhone 1G and many users are also reporting typing lags where the actual typing doesn't produce characters on the screen until a few seconds. But all these reportedly seem to be fixed with the latest firmware upgrade, so let's move on to the actual enhancements.

A nice little perk is the screenshot capability right out-of-the-box. You just hold the Home key pressed and the simply press the On/Off key once. The new screenshot goes directly to your camera album - neat indeed.

Additionally, there are now parental controls - you can set password-protection to some tasks and applications such as the iPod, Safari, YouTube, iTunes and the AppStore.

The interface now also has numerous interface localizations mainly due to the wider iPhone availability across the globe. The localization includes both the interface language and the keyboard - it's good that you can use several keyboard layouts - switching between them is seamless. Speaking of the keyboard, it's a bit of a downer that you still can't turn predictive typing off - there's no setting for that.

When it comes to call management however, we are really sorry Apple haven't added Smart Dialing to their virtual numpad - it's one of the greatest features of Windows Mobile and it's even making its way to feature phones lately, so it can't be that hard.

Now back to our lab to test another parameter that was touted by Steve Jobs as "dramatically improved audio" - probably meaning the iPhone 3G loudspeaker would not be as lame as the iPhone 1G's.

We tested a last-year's 1.1.1 iPhone 1G and this year's 1.1.4 iPhone 1G unit to compare them to the iPhone 3G. The 1G units performed equally in our test - they are still the quietest handsets we've tested so far.

It turned out that the iPhone 3G is an underdog too - it outperformed the iPhone 1G in almost all tests but it's still stuck in the Below Average category. When you play music through the loudspeaker for example (the pink noise test) the difference to the iPhone 1G is so small you would hardly notice it. And it's even quieter than the 1G units in the Human Voice test, which practically means you still won't get decent in-call loudspeaker performance.

Messaging is still basic except for email There are no upgrades to the SMS department - we still don't have a way to forward messages or delete individual ones from the conversations. MMS is nowhere to be seen too.

Apple however have put a lot of effort to email. You probably know that there's push email support now and MS Exchange support too. That's Apple's way of scratching the corporate itch, as well as an attempt to steal some market share from Blackberry. A strange prerequisite for using a MS Exchange account with the iPhone 3G is enabling your SIM card PIN prompt - we appreciate security, but that one we just don't understand.

Now you can also mass delete and mass move emails around, but they still haven't found a way to search your emails or even sort them by any filter. You can save attached images straight to your Camera Album, but you still can't send full resolution images from your camera via email. Instead they get downsampled to 800 x 600 pixels. And there's still no support for ZIP or RAR files, so if you receive those, you won't be able to check their contents.

Multimedia and audio quality

There are no changes to the Multimedia department on the iPhone 3G whatsoever. Exploring photos, music and videos goes just as it did on the iPhone 1G.