iPhone 3G reviews: It's fast, hungry, and still pretty
The iPhone 3G, which goes on sale to the public Friday, gets generally positive marks from three prominent gadget reviewers.
(Credit: Apple)
The first iPhone 3G reviews have been released, and if you've been paying attention to the news for the past month, you won't be surprised.
Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital, David Pogue of The New York Times, and Edward Baig of USA Today were the chosen few selected to review the iPhone 3G ahead of its launch on Friday. There wasn't nearly as much suspense about the reviews this year, since we already knew the iPhone 3G was--with the exception of the faster networks, GPS, and third-party applications--essentially the same phone.
Still, some interesting details were revealed. Mossberg didn't seem very happy about the battery life. "In my tests, the iPhone 3G's battery was drained much more quickly in a typical day of use than the battery on the original iPhone, due to the higher power demands of 3G networks," he wrote. "In daily use, I found the battery indicator on the new 3G model slipping below 20% by early afternoon or midafternoon on some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day."
Pogue didn't address battery life, but Baig thought the iPhone 3G consumed roughly the same amount of juice as its predecessor. "I started receiving low battery warnings toward the end of a busy work day; I found myself charging the device overnight, the same as with the older iPhone."
One big addition to the iPhone 3G was GPS, but according to Pogue, Apple has said the antenna is too small to permit useful things like turn-by-turn navigation. Baig, however, didn't think it was that bad: "I was pretty impressed by the accuracy on the new device as I drove along in my car, searched for nearby pizza places, and requested directions," he wrote.
As far as nits go, that was about it. The outstanding issues remain: the touchscreen keyboard doesn't work for everybody, the cost of operating an iPhone has risen despite the drop in the starting price, and it doesn't have things like voice-dialing or MMS.
On the plus side, all three reviewers thought Apple dramatically improved the audio quality of the iPhone 3G, both in terms of the built-in iPod and the phone. All were enthused about the new applications that would be coming to the phone; Pogue wrote, "Above all, the iPhone is about to become a dazzling hand-held game machine." And, of course, downloading Web pages over a 3G network is much faster than over an EDGE network, which you probably already knew.
So, what was the final verdict?
Pogue: "So the iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade. It more than keeps pace with advancing technology, and new buyers will generally be delighted. But it's not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens. Indeed, the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone. That twist may come as a refreshing surprise to planned-obsolescence conspiracy theorists -- and everyone who stood in line last year."
Baig: "While not everything on my wish list made it onto the new device, Apple has raised the bar with iPhone 3G. To which I offer an enthusiastic thumbs up."
Mossberg: "If you've been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it's worth getting the new hardware."
CNET's Kent German will have his own review up this Friday, when the iPhone 3G is formally released.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom.
This article is ridiculous. Where is your original input? You added nothing and heavily quoted from other journalists. Not a very good article in my opinion.
The Crave blog tends to have many things posted on it throughout the day which are actually from the other cnet blogs... just like you will see the mp3 of the day on Crave, but it's actually originally posted on the mp3 blog.
I guess we'll know more about how well it works when more people get their hands on one.
Why should the iPhone have a harder time doing GPS than any other smartphone on the market. How many smartphones have protruding antennas? I thought people were dying to get true GPS. I'm not sure what for. People just walk around the streets looking at their phones trying to find out where they are. Ridiculous.
If the iPhone is a failure then I really have to see what the other smartphones can bring to the table. It's being panned worse now than the original iPhone from these few reviews. I'm anxious to find out what the average user thinks of the iPhone 3G. I honestly wouldn't think that Apple would be so far off the mark in judging the usefulness of this device. I only hope that Mossberg's battery life problem was a fluke. Of course he could have flipped the 2.5G switch to get more battery life. However that pretty much defeats the purpose of 3G.
I'm a bit worried right now, but I don't think competitive phones will be able to beat the iPhone in overall use and user satisfaction. Wishful thinking, perhaps. Time will tell.
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by oludir
July 12, 2008 10:46 PM PDT
- I just bought one today. Fully charged it and turned 3G off. Still the battery life was abysmal. Was down to 20% in 5hours and I DID NOT watch any videos. I have now turned location services off. Otherwise, nice phone.
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