Review: Apple's Speedy iPhone 3GSReview: Apple's Speedy iPhone 3GS

Advance reviews of the iPhone 3GS hit the Web just before the device launched on June 19. Most labeled the new smartphone from Apple "evolutionary, not revolutionary." While I am inclined to agree with that basic sentiment, there's actually a lot more going on here that deserves comment.

My colleague, Mitch Wagner, did a fine job reviewing all the new features of the iPhone operating system 3.0 (including cut-and-paste, Spotlight Search, voice memos, and remote wipe), so this review will focus instead on those refinements that are particular only to the iPhone 3GS hardware itself. First up, all the new goodies.

Camera And Video Capture

The most significant improvement of the iPhone 3GS over previous models is the camera. Apple has updated the 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera to a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus. The new camera takes better pictures all around. They are sharper, show more details, have less grain (noise), and are better exposed.

Pictures still are not perfect, but the iPhone 3GS does a great job for a phone. It will replace that point-and-shoot camera you may carry on vacation, but won't replace a dSLR used for serious photography. It still lacks a number of features, such as white balance control and exposure control, and doesn't offer advanced features such as bracketing and panoramic shooting.

The new touch-to-focus function is fun to use. If you want the iPhone to focus on a specific object in the viewfinder, simply touch that part of the screen and that's where it will focus. It works quickly, shoots pictures fast, and returns to the image-capture screen in an instant. The result is sharper images. Apple says it improved the low-light performance of the iPhone's camera as well. Based on images I captured in low-light situations, they are indeed improved. Apple did this without the use of a flash and instead by improving the camera module's sensitivity.

The video-capture tool works pretty much identically to the image capture tool. Press the on-screen shutter button to begin recording and away it goes. There doesn't appear to be a time/size limit for videos you record, though anything that's too big (i.e., longer than one minute) can't be sent via e-mail. (My guess is limits will be imposed once MMS is turned on.)

Once video is captured, it is automatically added to your gallery. In the new gallery, pictures and videos can be displayed together or sorted separately. You can also perform batch operations, such as deleting or sending more than one picture/video file at a time.

The video-editing tool is useful to trim down unwanted pieces of videos you've captured. It is pretty basic, and lets you alter the start and end points of the video. Keep in mind, if you do this, you'll lose the trimmed bits forever. The iPhone will save only one version of the video, and won't include the full-length and edited version.

Video looks surprisingly clear for a phone. The iPhone 3GS captures in VGA resolution at 30 frames per second (same as standard TV). Colors look very realistic, video is sharp and free of grain, but the videos I shot were slightly overexposed, washing out some of the details.

Sharing videos via e-mail and YouTube is as easy as the touch of a button. When sharing via YouTube, the iPhone automatically compresses the video before uploading (this is the same whether you upload via Wi-Fi or the 3G cellular network). You can't send videos via MMS just yet, but you will be able to when AT&T activates the service towards the end of summer.

In sum, the better camera and ability to capture video and share it easily with friends, family, and colleagues are very welcome new features for the iPhone.

Compass

The iPhone 3GS has a magnetometer built in, meaning the iPhone can act as a compass. Unless you're a Boy or Girl Scout or geocaching fanatic, this might be a somewhat useless feature, but I found it worked great with Google Maps.

Firing up the compass will show you not only where north is, but also what your current heading is (in degrees) as well as your current latitude and longitude. It has a small button in the bottom left corner that launches Google Maps. You have to press the same button again while in Google Maps to activate the MyLocation feature. After you've done this, Google Maps will show you where you are, and the direction you are facing. Having access to this heading data directly on the map could be extremely useful when you are on foot and find that you've gotten yourself turned around and aren't sure which direction you're facing.

Minor App Tweaks

A number of applications have seen minor improvements. Perhaps the most important is the e-mail program. Users can now select multiple messages at once and perform bulk actions, such as deleting them or copying them. Apple has not improved the amount of e-mail storage on the iPhone (limited to 200 messages per inbox), nor provided any sort of unified inbox such as that on Palm's webOS. Jumping between the inboxes of different e-mail accounts remains a tedious and cumbersome process.

The iPhone 3GS can now tell you exactly how much battery power you have left. In the general settings menu, there's a little switch that reads "Battery Meter." Select it and, next to the graphic battery meter icon, you'll see an actual read-out of your battery's life as a percentage. Both are displayed at the same time. Previously, you'd only know exactly how much juice was left when the iPhone reached the 20% and 10% battery indicators.

Apple's latest handset now supports stereo Bluetooth. This applies to the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. This means those who really like to listen to music wirelessly can use their favorite pair of sterero Bluetooth headsets to listen to their music. It worked flawlessly in my tests and music quality sounded on par with what I've heard on similarly equipped phones. The iPhone cannot, however, share contact information via Bluetooth, nor can it send media files (pictures, music) to other machines, such as another phone or a PC.

Movies can be downloaded directly from the iTunes Store to the handset. This has to be done via Wi-Fi and can't be performed over the cellular network. If you know what movie or TV show you want to download, finding it in the iTunes Store is no problem.

Downloading is another story. I attempted to download a new documentary from the iTunes Store directly to the phone. It took forever. The movie was 3.05 GB, and took over an hour to download via Wi-Fi in my home. A similar-sized file downloaded in about 40 minutes via Wi-Fi to my laptop. It's worth pointing out that most TV shows are typically under 500 MB and most movies are less than 1.5 GB. These will likely download faster than the 3.05 GB monster that I downloaded.

Does S Really Stand for Speed?

You're darned tootin' it does. Almost everything about the iPhone 3GS's performance is faster. It boasts a 600-MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM. This is readily apparent in nearly every application and action the iPhone 3GS performs.

Applications load much faster. The iPod application, for example, loads almost instantaneously. I have a full 20 GB of music and movies crammed in there. They all popped up immediately upon application launch, and the Coverflow user interface worked smoothly without a single hiccup.

I noticed that my games all worked better and exhibited fewer problems and stuttering than before. Memory-hogging features such as the photo/video gallery worked without a hitch.

Even network-intensive applications, such as YouTube and the App Store, loaded much faster and were smoother and less laggy to interact with.

So, yes, the iPhone 3GS is "S-ier."

Hardware

To me, this is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the new iPhone 3GS. It is identical to the iPhone 3G: same dimensions, same display, same form. Many have placed the iPhone's design on a pedestal, and there's no denying its sex appeal. But I feel Apple missed the opportunity to take things to the next level with respect to the hardware itself this year.

Let's start with the display. The iPhone 3GS has the same display that was on last year's model in terms of resolution (320 x 480 pixels) and size (3.5-inch diagonal). Many of Apple's competitors have moved beyond liquid crystal displays (which the iPhone uses) and are headed to high-resolution AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) displays. AMOLEDs use less power, are stronger than LCDs, and can display high-quality video. One of the iPhone's continued weaknesses is battery life. An AMOLED screen might have been able to provide a significant boost in the iPhone's power management. This isn't to say that the display on the iPhone 3GS is bad. Not at all. It looks as great as ever, and with with the new "smudge protector" coating, it is can be completely cleaned by swiping the iPhone across your pant leg.

Not only could an AMOLED screen have made the iPhone more dazzling, but it also could have made the phone thinner. Most, however, will be pleased with the iPhone's (lack of) thickness.

On the plus side, the iPhone's earpiece speaker and speakerphone are louder. Phone calls, even in a noisy Starbucks, were easier to hear. In testing the speakerphone, I was pleased to discover that you no longer have to set the volume all the way up to hear the call. It is quite audible at a more modest volume. What's more, calls are not just louder, but clearer.

Yes, the iPhone 3GS is a better phone than previous models. In fact, I used a number of different phones over the weekend, including the BlackBerry Storm, Nokia N97, and Nokia E75, and the iPhone was better than all of them with respect to phone call clarity.

Signal availability and strength appeared to be on par with previous models of the iPhone.

In Conclusion

The iPhone 3GS is no doubt the best version of the iPhone yet. Does it present a revolutionary leap compared to the previous models? Not really, but it offers enough to make it an enticing pick.

What's important to note is that the iPhone 3GS is hitting the market amidst intense competition. Since the launch of the original iPhone, nearly every other cell phone maker has debuted a touch-based device that includes user-interface improvements. Just this month, Palm released its comeback device, the Pre, and Nokia has made its 2009 flagship device, the N97, available around the world.

On a feature-for-feature basis, the iPhone 3GS now matches nearly all the closest competing models. Where it excels is its tight integration with iTunes, some Google services, the App Store, and the (still) easy-to-use operating system.

Are the new features enough to convince the iPhone faithful to upgrade as well as create new converts? Opening weekend sales over one million units appear to suggest that they are.

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