iPhone 3G Review (not 3GS)
Since everyone is doing a review of the iPhone 3GS today, I thought I’d dig up the review I did on the iPhone 3G when I got one in September of last year after owning a standard issue Verizon clamshell for several years – just for giggles.
My first experience with the whole process was going to the AT&T store close to my work. I got up from my desk at 5 minutes to 9:00 and was back at my desk before 9:30. When I got into the store, I asked if they had any 16GB white iPhones and the guy said they did. He grabbed one out of the back, we got the process started, and $325 later (tax and screen protectors), I was out the door. It took about 2 hours for the service to get fully ported over, but I could make outgoing calls right away. I knew it was fully ported when I got a text from AT&T telling me as much. I also picked up a screen protector that doesn’t, so far, seem to serve much purpose. It gets just as smudgy as the phone does, so I have to wipe it off. I guess it can protect against key scratches if it’s in my pocket, which is better than nothing.
Physical
It feels pretty good in my hand, but typing is MUCH easier (on my hands) when I turn it in landscape mode. It’s not designed for surfing for long periods of time. It does feel good in my hand when talking on it. I was used to holding my old phone to my head pretty close, but I hurt my ear doing it with the iPhone. The volume is significantly higher on this phone than my old one. Except for the speakerphone – that’s not loud at all. The screen, as I said, gets smudged easily. I’ve noticed it shows up more when I’m under flourescent lights at work, but when I’m actively using it, I don’t see the smudges at all. A quick wipe helps to clear it off after a conversation, and the inner linings of my pocket wipe it down when I walk around as well. It’s also a little heavier than my work Blackberry and probably twice as heavy as my old Verizon phone. But not uncomfortably so.
I originally balked at using the built-in mail program. I installed Google’s Gmail app and used it for the first few days. It’s a good app, but you can’t add attachments. That is a problem when I want to email photos. So, I tried out mail, and it’s an awesome thing. The messages are not threaded like in gmail when you view them, but it syncs them on the server as still threaded, so it works great. You can’t attach files in the application, but you can email the photos by going to them in the Photo app very easily. I only check one mail account regularly, and I am more than satisfied with the layout of mail. *Note* I would add my work account, but we run a Blackberry only enterprise, with no ActiveSync license. I could make it work with some fanagling, but it’s not that important to me to have a half-assed email setup going on. *Current Note – I have it set up with my work account now*
Calendar
I don’t use this. I use Google’s Calendar so that Robin and I can share calendars. There are ways to make it work as well, but the web calendar client for Google works as well as I need it to with no additional configuration required. *Current Note – I use this with my work Calendar now, and it’s useful*
Maps
I guess I got spoiled by the GPS app on my Verizon phone. That thing was a godsend for directions. Google Maps works great, but it doesn’t do turn-by-turn updating, and the GPS takes sometimes more than a full minute to lock on (under 15 seconds with my LG). It also can’t find me when I’m inside my building at work. It’s good for looking things up, and is very intuitive, but until they get a TomTom application on here, it’s going to be a little bit subpar.
Contacts
I had some issues with contacts early on b/c of an experiment with MobileMe. I REALLY like having all my email and phone contacts in the same application. I used to keep phone numbers (with some email addresses) in my phone, and all email contacts in Gmail. Now it’s all consolidated, and works flawlessly with Mail so I can text, email, or call anyone from my iPhone. It’s awesome. There is currently some sort of glitch that occurs when you open your contacts. It takes about 5 full seconds before you can start scrolling through them, but I’m sure they’ll fix that soon enough and it’s only a minor annoyance. Contacts + Mail = awesome ability to communicate. *Current Note – I moved all my contacts to my work contact list, and just have to remember to update my Gmail contacts if something changes. Also, the Contacts lag has been since fixed*
SMS/Text
Texting looks different on here than it does on regular phones because it keeps your text history in a threaded format with your different contacts. You can clear them out whenever you like, but it’s easier than having your last 50 text messages in case you need to go back through them. If I wanted to know what my wift texted me 2 weeks ago, I’ll just find her text thread and there it is. The one downside that I read about a long time ago and somehow forgot is that you can’t recieve MMS messages on the iPhone. A lot of people like to text pictures to other people. When I get those pictures, I get a link to a web site and a password for that message in order to view it. Not cool. I’m not sure what the reasoning behind that is, though I’m sure there is SOME reason for it. I just wish they’d change that. Ultimately, if everyone in the world just used email on their phones, SMS and MMS would go away. Unfortunately, that’s a long way off and I still know a lot of people who text photos. When you are not using your phone actively and you get a text, it pops up on your main screen so you don’t have to start up your phone, unlock it, go to the SMS application and look at it. It’s right there. This is handy. *Current Note – MMS is available in the new 3.0 OS, but AT&T isn’t ready yet, so I’m still waiting*
Photos
Just like in other iPods, you can sync up your photos with iPhoto on the Mac. Not sure how it would work in Windows, though I’m sure it’s pretty simple to sync with certain folders. I have a few albums created, I select which ones I want to sync with my phone, and it just does it. I have maybe 500 photos on there right now, plus whichever ones I take with the camera. Slick and easy. I really like it. It’s also incredibly simple to email photos with this app. You go to the picture you want (only one at a time, though), click the little box at the bottom, it pops up a dialog box to Email, Use as Wallpaper, or Assign to Contact. If you email, it creates a message and you pick who to send it to and the subject and off it goes. Use as Wallpaper – self explanatory. Assign to Contact brings up your contact list, you pick the person to assign it to, you have the option to zoom in and recenter it, and you’re done. It’s also very easy to navigate through pictures. The one problem I have with this is that every time I sync the iPhone to my computer, iPhoto opens and wants to get the new pictures off of it that I’ve taken. I read an article that tells how to disable that, but it’s not an easy thing to do for most folks, and it’s pretty annoying. Hopefully they create a switch to turn that off because even when I do sync the photos, iPhoto can’t tell that’s been done until it starts the sync process. So for now, I just tell it not to sync them every time I hook it up to my computer.
Camera
Nothing too flashy (see what I did there?). 2.0 megapixels and no flash. The light detection on it is pretty good compared to other phone cameras I’ve used in the past, so as long as the room is halfway lit, you’ll get a good picture. Average photo size seems to come in just over 100k. All pictures taken on here go into a Camera Roll group in Photo so they’re all in the same place.
iTunes
Obviously, you can only fit so much of the iTMS into a handheld application like this. You need to be connected to a WiFi network in order to connect to it. This is strictly a bandwidth issue. I’m sure if/when we get 4G networks, you’ll be able to browse and download over the air, but for now, only when connected to WiFi. I downloaded an album last night and it took about 4 minutes to get 13 tracks. Not bad, and pretty simple to do. *Current Note – Music can be downloaded over 3G now*
App Store
Just a separated application. It’s almost identical to the app store area in iTunes and gives a lot of good info. All of the apps I have so far are of the free variety. I haven’t found any killer apps that are worth paying for yet. But I do have 12 free ones.
YouTube
I don’t use this very much, but I tested it out and it seems to work ok. It’s a VERY basic version of YT, but it helps that it’s available if someone sends you a link to view something.
Safari
Best mobile browser out there. I have a Blackberry and it sucks to use it for anything other than an RSS reader when it comes to the internet. It’s slow to load the application right off the bat and the screen is just tiny on the Blackberry. The lack of Flash is something that’s only been an issue on one or two sites I’ve tried to go to. Most of the sites I frequent I either have an RSS feed for (Google Reader FTW), or they have a mobile version. There are a few exceptions, but it’s not too difficult to browse them. I’ve only misclicked/mistapped links a few times, and I was afraid that would be a problem early on, but it’s not. I have relatively thin hands, so it could be an issue for fat fingered folks. The built-in Google Search bar is also incredibly useful. Sometimes it takes just half a second longer to respond than I’d like, but this is also not a real problem.
Phone
There are several ways to make a call in here, but all of them are linked back to your Contacts or Call Log. If you just crack open Contacts, tap a person, then select which of their numbers to call, it starts the dialing. If you go to your call log and hit the name/number of the person who called you, it dials away. When you’re on the phone, you can turn on the speaker (again, not very loud unless you’re in a completely silent room), mute, hold, dial another person, go to your contacts, or end the call. When you put the phone to your face, the screen goes black. When you pull it away, it lights up again. A little battery conservation trick, there. From the Phone menu, you have five options – Favorites, Recent, Contacts, Keypad, and Voicemail. The first four are pretty self explanatory, but Voicemail adds a new facet – unseen in phones past. Visual Voicemail lets you click on a message/caller and either listen to it, or just straight up delete it without ever having to dial in. If you have 4 messages, you can choose which one you want to listen to, or to delete. It’s not an Apple invented technology, and other carriers are getting in on the fun, but it’s pretty neat. As I said before, the volume of the phone is much louder than I’m used to. I also tested the included headset/mic and it is also quite functional. I have small earholes, so I can’t fit them in my ear well enough to stay, so I never use them. I read that 3G calls are more clear than EDGE calls, but I’ve made calls with both networks and can’t tell a significant difference. Overall, the phone experience is quite good. *Current Note – EDGE calls are vastly superior to 3G because they don’t drop all the time. 10 months later and AT&T’s network with this device is still horrible*
iPod
A little different than your old iPod, but very intuitive. It’s not as easy to use when you’re driving, though. I am used to putting my songs on shuffle, and if I didn’t like it, I could just click Next until I found a song I liked. Can’t do that with this one. You have to look at the screen to see what’s going on. You also have to unlock the phone to get back into the iPod application. Those are minor annoyances, but annoyances nonetheless. I still have my nano to use for walks, runs, workouts, or possibly continuing to listen to my Podcasts on my drive to/from work. Everything else is there, looking more like iTunes than your old iPod.
Network
EDGE – Terribly slow if you’re trying to surf to full fledged web pages. Pages optimized for the iPhone or any mobile device come up much quicker because, well, they’re optimized for that. If someone emails you some photos of the 200k+ range, plan on waiting 20-30 seconds for them to download into your mail app for viewing. This is probably why you can’t connect to iTunes on the slower networks. I get full bars at EDGE almost anywhere I go, except for my wife’s Dad’s house. I got 1 bar in there and could hardly do anything. Must be the material his roof is made of. *Current Note – EDGE isn’t AS bad now because many sites are optimized for mobile devices, but it’s still slow on normal sites and downloading files that are attachments*
3G – Much better than EDGE. Pages load probably twice as fast, most of the time. Actual data downloads, like photos, are probably 3-4 times faster. This is probably due to the rendering that is required by the browser for web sites. I get reception that ranges from 1-3 bars in my house, 2-4 bars around Austin, and when we were at the hospital in San Marcos this past weekend, I had 5 bars on 3G the whole time. I haven’t had much issue with losing 3G, though it’s happened a time or two. I’ve also not had any dropped calls – yet. *Current Note – Reception is better now for 3G data, but sometimes I just drop calls for no reason, as mentioned above*
WiFi – Fastest for all browsing, obviously. I only get onto WiFi when I’m going to be putting more than 10 minutes of surfing in place. If I’m just looking up one or two things, I stay on 3G or EDGE, depending on how long I’ll need the battery to last.
Battery
I ran battery tests with all kinds of different settings and usage amounts. When I first got the phone, I had to type all of my contacts in manually. There are about 65 contacts I had to add. This caused a pretty significant drain on the battery because it took me over 2 hours to type them all in. My rules of thumb are as follows:
EDGE Only, minimal usage throughout the day – Probably will last two days.
3G Only, minimal usage throughout the day – Will last one full day, maybe 1/3 or 1/4 battery life left the next morning.
3G Only, regular usage throughout the day – Will last until about bedtime, battery will be running low by that point.
WiFi – Burns through the battery pretty quickly. If I turn on WiFi and use it several times an hour, it will go from 80% battery to 30% in about 3 hours.
Bluetooth – I don’t turn this on.
Equalizer – I was told it affects battery life, but music sounds TERRIBLE without it.
Phone – Haven’t talked on it enough to figure out how much it affects battery.
Push – Gmail doesn’t push email natively, so I don’t know. *Current Note – Minimal effect on battery that I’ve noticed*
Fetch – I set it to fetch mail every 15 minutes, and if I set it to run every 30 minutes or every hour, all of the above battery results would probably be slightly better.
All of this is very strange to me, because my LG was last charged on Friday, and today is Thursday. Having not used the phone since then, this morning it still had over 50% charge. I’m so used to my phone being able to last several days without a charge, whereas I charge my iPhone every night. I generally keep 3G and WiFi turned off all day at work, and then at night turn on 3G and WiFi if I’m going to be using it. Weekends will be 3G and no WiFi.
Screen
If you’re using it, the screen looks wonderful. You see practially zero smudges when the screen has things on it. I keep the brightness at around 50% and can still use it relatively well outside in the sun. Photos look great. Web pages look great. It just looks great. When you are NOT using it and the screen is black, all you see is the grease you’ve left on it. It’s pretty gross. Most of it wipes off pretty easily, though. Much easier than wiping off my glasses. The touch feature is VERY responsive and Apple put a lot of effort into making sure it wasn’t hacked together. You figure out how much pressure to apply pretty quickly. No need to press hard, but it doesn’t usually respond to an accidental graze, either. Having tested out other touch phones, this one is BY FAR, the best in responsiveness. *Current Note – Screen is light a flood light at night…very very bright*
Keyboard
My wife tried to use it for about 3 minutes and decided she didn’t like it. Of course, this was after she decided she didn’t like it before she had ever tried it. I don’t like typing on my Blackberry or my iPhone, to be honest. But it’s not the worst thing in the world either. It lacks tactile feedback, but I don’t count that against it because I have to watch myself type on my Blackberry too, even though I can feel the keys. When I tried typing in my first contact, I made about 5 errors. By the time I was done with my last one, I could get through typing two or three entire entries without making a mistake. I still make a few mistakes here and there, but no more or less than on my Blackberry. I also type with about the same speed. Not fast, but fast enough to get a few lines out to send an email. I don’t recommend long chat sessions on this, but it in no way takes away from the experience of using the device. *Current Note – Blackberry typing is better, but that may change with the additional landscape modes of OS 3.0*
Cost
Can’t complain about cost, as the phone is on par with other PDAs (less than some, even). The data plan is also required with any other PDA you’ll own, so don’t be thrown off by that either. I am fortunate enough to get a 15% discount off our monthly plan through my work, so that saves us a little scratch. If you want to own a $50 phone, go buy a $50 phone and miss out on the one-stop synchronization you get with an iPhone.
Overall
I am completely satisfied with my purchase. If I could change only one thing about it, that would be battery life. I like the entire interface. I like the simplicity of all of the configuration. I like the third party apps. I like the phone interface. I like the way it looks. Is it a perfect device? No. But I can’t imagine what else they could change about it to make it better other than a few tiny things. Overall, this is a profoundly good product and I recommend that anyone who’s relatively technical in nature, or anyone who needs constant access to email and/or the web get one. You won’t be disappointed.
Related posts:
- Review – Apple iPhone/iTouch 3.0 With the latest firmware for iTouch and iPhone having been...
- MMS on iPhone issues After only 2+ years of waiting, AT&T/Apple finally let us...
- Google Latitude – Review Google Latitude has been out for a while now. When...
- iPhone hack? How about an AT&T and T-Mobile hack. After the announcement the other day about how several security...
- The Ultimate Handheld Gadget (that hasn’t been invented yet) When I think of a gadget, I generally think of...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Je trouve ca supers, merci pour ce tres bon post !