Apple iPhone 3G

APPLE IPHONE 3G REVIEW

Apple’s release of the iPhone 3G was a response to many of the fallbacks from the first generation iPhone. Many little bugs and user requested applications have been added to the iPhone 3G making it even more functional and user-friendly than its predecessor. The new generation is only 0.7mm thicker than the old one, considering the hefty upgrades on the hardware – not to mention, it is actually 2 grams lighter. At 3.5 inches and 480x320 pixels, the display is the same size as its predecessor, but displays slightly more dots per inch (163 vs.160), and still cranks out brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements. The layout of the home screen is identical to that on the first version, though you'll see two new icons from the outset: A Contacts icon takes you directly to your phone book, and the App Store icon opens the iTunes App Store. The display's glass surface, accelerometer feature, touch interface, and secondary menus remain the same. The iPhone 2.0 software is simply excellent. The multi-touch interface lets you swipe, pinch, expand, and tap around very quickly with no lags and top-notch accuracy. Rearranging icons on the home screen is now a piece of cake, which is important since you can add tons of apps and Web pages to it. The intelligent virtual keyboard pops up when you need it, and over the last year or so of living with the previous iPhone, we’re able to type way faster on it than we ever have on any phone’s physical keyboard. That’s partly because the iPhone’s keyboard adjusts for the way you type on it, dynamically resizing touch zones for keys based on usage patterns. The predictive text feature works great, though you can disable it. The camera has been upgraded from 2 megapixels to 3 megapxiels, and adds autofocus. But it still lacks a flash, and my test photos didn't look markedly better than shots I captured with my first-generation iPhone. All the changes are internal -- Apple has bumped up the CPU speed to 600 MHz, while the iPhone 3G's was at 412 MHz. The RAM has also been doubled from 128 MB to 256 MB. Of course, the iPhone 3G S comes with 16 GB or 32 GB. Ultimately the iPhone is a phone. The original iPhone took a lot of heat for poor call quality, and thankfully the iPhone 3G’s call quality is very good. The earpiece ad speakers could be a bit louder, but the clarity in both incoming and outgoing audio is excellent, especially via 3G. As with the original model, the phone’s accelerometer and proximity sensor respond very well, locking the screen at the appropriate times to prevent accidental button presses. And visual voicemail is still one of our favorite features. The Assisted-GPS feature uses data from satellites, WiFi networks, and cellular towers to locate you with very good accuracy. In our testing, the iPhone located us far more precisely when we had a clear view to the sky (and thus the satellites) than when we were indoors and it relied on cell and network data.We found Google Maps and features like live traffic reliable in New Orleans and New York City, but accuracy may vary depending on where you are. You can also visit the App Store and pick up a third-party app like Where, which is a location-based social networking tool, or G-Spot — a GPS-based utility to help you remember where you parked. The iPhone 3G is a killer iPod, with excellent browsing and playback capabilities. Audio format support includes WAV, Apple Lossless, MP3, AAC (protected and DRM-free), and Audible, while video is still limited to MP4, M4V, and MOV (all using either the H.264 or MPEG-4 codec). Apple hasn’t added much to this part of the interface since the original iPhone. The only significant enhancement is Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, which is important since the original iPhone lacked this feature unlike just about every other smartphone. We used several Bluetooth headsets with the iPhone 3G, and all worked fine, with no lag in the audio/video sync, and music pauses when a call comes in. Battery life is pretty good. We got 5 hours, 43 minutes of talk time, which is very good for a 3G phone. Audio and video playback came in at an impressive 37 hours, 30 minutes for music and 7 hours, 53 minutes for video. We also streamed data continuously over 3G to simulate heavy use, and we achieved 4 hours, 45 minutes of use in. If you haven't used an iPhone before, you'll simply be amazed by the function and feel of this handset. If you have, things won't seem much different, but improvements have been made almost throughout.

SPECIFICATION & FEATURES

APPLE IPHONE 3G PRICE

Price in USA $192

Price in UK £99

Price in EURO €140

Price in PAK Rs.21,000

Price in INDIA Rs.13,213