After a couple of years of deliberation, and ownership of a few Nokias and a Samsung (all of which disappointed in some way or other) I finally decided to give in to colleagues peer pressure and get one of these. Needing it to work with corporate email was a key driver in pushing me away from the likes of Android and having owned Symbian phones, none of them were fully capable of HTML mail as this thing is so the email experience is far far better now.
Don’t get me wrong, after coming from quite customizable OS’s, the iPhone does feel a bit restricted and over simplified, but some may argue those are it’s key strengths too. No bluetooth file transfer, limited options for choosing ringtones / sms tones, no settings for the camera etc etc all made me think twice before placing my order, but considering my alternatives were the likes of Blackberry or Windows Mobile (ugh) I’m glad I went Apple.
Camera wise, so far I’m actually quite impressed. Considering it’s “only” 3mp with no flash, it copes quite well in low light with limited noise levels despite the high ISO’s used. Video recording on it is excellent at 30fps and you can crop them too afterwards which is brilliant. I have bought a new point and shoot camera anyway as the ones fitted to phones are never going to give the same performance. Sure, they look fine on the screen but view them on a laptop etc and the quality soon shows. However, in emergencies or when you just need to take a quick pic the camera is more than good enough. I think people need to realise that there’s more to a camera than megapixels alone. Having owned a Samsung I8910 HD with 8mp, the shots with that were still not as good as my Sony 7mp dedicated camera and in low light due to the tiny sensor it was useless. 3mp on a phone is plenty. Want outstanding photos? Buy a camera.
Otherwise, since getting the phone I’ve been hitting the app store big time. There’s oodles of apps available, many of which are free, and lots of others are cheap enough not to concern me. There’s a lot of rubbish on there though, like fart apps and sound effect ones but also some real gems too. Makes me think that out of the so called 100,000 apps they claim to have, 90,000 of them are probably pointless (and with a LOT of apps that do the same thing) with the remaining 10,000 being actually of some use. Aside from that though the store is dead easy to use and getting apps is a doddle.
I do have some gripes though, oversimplicity and lack of configuration options aside.
Firstly, the phone signal strength is pitiful sometimes. The phone will often lose signal completely in areas where my Nokia’s and Samsung never struggled. Quite odd.
Secondly, GPS signal is not as strong as on other phones I’ve had. My Nokia’s (N97 aside) could get a signal easily in the car, and my Samsung could even get one indoors. The iPhone however needs a really clear view of the sky and it took a good 20 mins to get a fix first time round, with it dropping out several times before it became usable.
Lastly is battery life. This thing chomps battery like it’s going out of fashion, so carry a charger/ USB lead with you if out and about for a bit and buy a car charger too. Compared to other touch screen phones I’ve had it’s marginally worse so far but then I have been playing with it a lot so this may settle down when I do. 🙂
To confirm, this phone is listed as PAYG on O2, but should work with any O2 SIM I think. I inserted my work O2 SIM and it works fine so it’s only a network lock and nothing more. It comes without a SIM so you’ll need to get one from O2 if you do actually want to go O2 PAYG.
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Unfortunately when I purchased this phone I did not check the small print and the phone was locked to Orange, don’t make the same mistake as I did! It has been a nightmare getting it unlocked and has cost an extra £75 and now I found that there is a fault with the phone. Next time I will read the small print and make sure I get an unlocked phone or one locked to the network that I am on!!!!!!!!! Maybe sellers should put that it is locked to a certain network in the description title to be on the safe side!!!!!!
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My black 16G 3GS is now a year old. However, it doesn’t look it! The two best features of this phone are its ease of use & the fact the screen is made of GLASS!! A guy at work’s son works for HTC so gets a new model every few months but they look so tatty after a few weeks of use – it’s those horrid resistive film displays that scratch or mark so easily! The iPhone’s screen on mine has a tiny single scratch only. If you hold this phone up to bright light at the right angle, you can just about see the grid of wires that are roughly 2mm apart & are capacitively coupled when a fingertip contacts the screen. Some may not like being tied to iTunes just to activate the phone but that’s how Apple have chosen to do it. This software ends up being an integral part of the 3GS & is required to update the phone’s firmware. You also get a 3 month trial of Apple’s remote sync’ing software called MobileMe that includes 20GB of storage space that have public folders for anyone to access, with or without password protection. It also comes with an email account. You don’t need the iPhone to access MobileMe as it can be from any PC or Mac One thing Apple have got right is email access. I have 5 accounts that can be accessed simultaneously. Having such a large display that can be viewed horizontally makes reading html messages a pleasure. Text messaging is fairly straightforward, predictive text sort of works but even at the pace I type, the suggestions are a bit slow. The camera is best described as OK rather than best of class. The 3GS allows autofocus to the point in the scene you tap on. Other very well sorted aspects are the ability to listen to music to a high degree of quality on the move after pluging in a decent set of phones. My Jawbone Icon supports the A2DP & with a suitable app, lets me listen to various radio stations, albeit in mono. So, these are some of the good points to the iPhone but it far from perfect. The frustrating thing is that these flaws are seemingly deliberate in that much potential functionality has been withheld. One fundamental aspect to phones of this level of sophistication is to share stuff with other people. With my previous phone (a Sony Ericsson W890i), it was a simple matter to transfer address book entries, photos, files, etc via Bluetooth. You could also plug in the W890i into a PC via its USB cable & the plug-in memory would be seen as a Mass Storage Device. Sharing anything on an iPhone is so damn difficult as to make it more or less impossible. Another gaping flaw to the iPhone 3GS is the poor RF performance. This phone’s ability to make or receive calls is below average despite most so-called smartphones not brilliant in this respect anyhow. Some pundits have argued that modern phones don’t need decent RF performance but a phone’s a phone & a phone & the core function is to make calls!!! I live in a medium size town & not in the middle of the country but I still see “No Service” far too often on my phone! I can’t be the only mobile phone user who wants the best RF performance that modern technology could deliver. What about doctors, the self-employed & others who rely on being able to keep in contact other than by Facebook? The good: * Pretty good call audio quality * Glass screen that doesn’t scratch that easily. The capacitive touch control doesn’t require (or work with) a stylus * Nice large screen that can been seen in sunlight * Very easy to use * Accessing several email accounts with either POP3 or IMAP protocols just works * Very well designed user interface. Stuff like Google Maps, compass, calendar, etc work well. * Optional apps such as Soundhound or Shazam work well & integrate into iTunes well enough to purchase songs you hear within minutes. 1000s of useful apps you can’t even imagine are available from the sublime to the ridiculous. * Games where tilting the phone work well. * WiFi works well enough * Internet access & navigation works well enough. 3rd party browsers available * Bluetooth supports the A2DP profile & shows my Jawbone Icon’s battery meter. It is fairly reliable. * Accepts an ordinary 3.5mm stereo jack & drives a pair of Sennheiser PX200 phones very well. Movie playback is jerk-free & reasonable quality. * Will sync with Outlook either directly when plugged into iTunes or via MobileMe. * Is reasonably slim & has loads of 3rd party cases & sleeves. * Internet radio apps work well when you can get a 3G connection * The supplied cable allows charging from suitable USB ports * You can track the location & even remotely disable the 3GS using MobileMe The poor * Poor RF performance. The core function of a phone is to make & receive calls. The 3GS is worse than average. * Expect to charge at least once a day. Cannot swap batteries because they are sealed in. * The ability to share phonebook entries, songs, photos or files is best…
Very good but not quite perfect,
After a couple of years of deliberation, and ownership of a few Nokias and a Samsung (all of which disappointed in some way or other) I finally decided to give in to colleagues peer pressure and get one of these. Needing it to work with corporate email was a key driver in pushing me away from the likes of Android and having owned Symbian phones, none of them were fully capable of HTML mail as this thing is so the email experience is far far better now.
Don’t get me wrong, after coming from quite customizable OS’s, the iPhone does feel a bit restricted and over simplified, but some may argue those are it’s key strengths too. No bluetooth file transfer, limited options for choosing ringtones / sms tones, no settings for the camera etc etc all made me think twice before placing my order, but considering my alternatives were the likes of Blackberry or Windows Mobile (ugh) I’m glad I went Apple.
Camera wise, so far I’m actually quite impressed. Considering it’s “only” 3mp with no flash, it copes quite well in low light with limited noise levels despite the high ISO’s used. Video recording on it is excellent at 30fps and you can crop them too afterwards which is brilliant. I have bought a new point and shoot camera anyway as the ones fitted to phones are never going to give the same performance. Sure, they look fine on the screen but view them on a laptop etc and the quality soon shows. However, in emergencies or when you just need to take a quick pic the camera is more than good enough. I think people need to realise that there’s more to a camera than megapixels alone. Having owned a Samsung I8910 HD with 8mp, the shots with that were still not as good as my Sony 7mp dedicated camera and in low light due to the tiny sensor it was useless. 3mp on a phone is plenty. Want outstanding photos? Buy a camera.
Otherwise, since getting the phone I’ve been hitting the app store big time. There’s oodles of apps available, many of which are free, and lots of others are cheap enough not to concern me. There’s a lot of rubbish on there though, like fart apps and sound effect ones but also some real gems too. Makes me think that out of the so called 100,000 apps they claim to have, 90,000 of them are probably pointless (and with a LOT of apps that do the same thing) with the remaining 10,000 being actually of some use. Aside from that though the store is dead easy to use and getting apps is a doddle.
I do have some gripes though, oversimplicity and lack of configuration options aside.
Firstly, the phone signal strength is pitiful sometimes. The phone will often lose signal completely in areas where my Nokia’s and Samsung never struggled. Quite odd.
Secondly, GPS signal is not as strong as on other phones I’ve had. My Nokia’s (N97 aside) could get a signal easily in the car, and my Samsung could even get one indoors. The iPhone however needs a really clear view of the sky and it took a good 20 mins to get a fix first time round, with it dropping out several times before it became usable.
Lastly is battery life. This thing chomps battery like it’s going out of fashion, so carry a charger/ USB lead with you if out and about for a bit and buy a car charger too. Compared to other touch screen phones I’ve had it’s marginally worse so far but then I have been playing with it a lot so this may settle down when I do. 🙂
To confirm, this phone is listed as PAYG on O2, but should work with any O2 SIM I think. I inserted my work O2 SIM and it works fine so it’s only a network lock and nothing more. It comes without a SIM so you’ll need to get one from O2 if you do actually want to go O2 PAYG.
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|Iphone,
Unfortunately when I purchased this phone I did not check the small print and the phone was locked to Orange, don’t make the same mistake as I did! It has been a nightmare getting it unlocked and has cost an extra £75 and now I found that there is a fault with the phone. Next time I will read the small print and make sure I get an unlocked phone or one locked to the network that I am on!!!!!!!!! Maybe sellers should put that it is locked to a certain network in the description title to be on the safe side!!!!!!
Was this review helpful to you?
|Good as a gadget but poor as a phone,
My black 16G 3GS is now a year old. However, it doesn’t look it! The two best features of this phone are its ease of use & the fact the screen is made of GLASS!! A guy at work’s son works for HTC so gets a new model every few months but they look so tatty after a few weeks of use – it’s those horrid resistive film displays that scratch or mark so easily! The iPhone’s screen on mine has a tiny single scratch only. If you hold this phone up to bright light at the right angle, you can just about see the grid of wires that are roughly 2mm apart & are capacitively coupled when a fingertip contacts the screen.
Some may not like being tied to iTunes just to activate the phone but that’s how Apple have chosen to do it. This software ends up being an integral part of the 3GS & is required to update the phone’s firmware. You also get a 3 month trial of Apple’s remote sync’ing software called MobileMe that includes 20GB of storage space that have public folders for anyone to access, with or without password protection. It also comes with an email account. You don’t need the iPhone to access MobileMe as it can be from any PC or Mac
One thing Apple have got right is email access. I have 5 accounts that can be accessed simultaneously. Having such a large display that can be viewed horizontally makes reading html messages a pleasure. Text messaging is fairly straightforward, predictive text sort of works but even at the pace I type, the suggestions are a bit slow. The camera is best described as OK rather than best of class. The 3GS allows autofocus to the point in the scene you tap on. Other very well sorted aspects are the ability to listen to music to a high degree of quality on the move after pluging in a decent set of phones. My Jawbone Icon supports the A2DP & with a suitable app, lets me listen to various radio stations, albeit in mono. So, these are some of the good points to the iPhone but it far from perfect. The frustrating thing is that these flaws are seemingly deliberate in that much potential functionality has been withheld.
One fundamental aspect to phones of this level of sophistication is to share stuff with other people. With my previous phone (a Sony Ericsson W890i), it was a simple matter to transfer address book entries, photos, files, etc via Bluetooth. You could also plug in the W890i into a PC via its USB cable & the plug-in memory would be seen as a Mass Storage Device. Sharing anything on an iPhone is so damn difficult as to make it more or less impossible. Another gaping flaw to the iPhone 3GS is the poor RF performance. This phone’s ability to make or receive calls is below average despite most so-called smartphones not brilliant in this respect anyhow. Some pundits have argued that modern phones don’t need decent RF performance but a phone’s a phone & a phone & the core function is to make calls!!! I live in a medium size town & not in the middle of the country but I still see “No Service” far too often on my phone! I can’t be the only mobile phone user who wants the best RF performance that modern technology could deliver. What about doctors, the self-employed & others who rely on being able to keep in contact other than by Facebook?
The good:
* Pretty good call audio quality
* Glass screen that doesn’t scratch that easily. The capacitive touch control doesn’t require (or work with) a stylus
* Nice large screen that can been seen in sunlight
* Very easy to use
* Accessing several email accounts with either POP3 or IMAP protocols just works
* Very well designed user interface. Stuff like Google Maps, compass, calendar, etc work well.
* Optional apps such as Soundhound or Shazam work well & integrate into iTunes well enough to purchase songs you hear within minutes. 1000s of useful apps you can’t even imagine are available from the sublime to the ridiculous.
* Games where tilting the phone work well.
* WiFi works well enough
* Internet access & navigation works well enough. 3rd party browsers available
* Bluetooth supports the A2DP profile & shows my Jawbone Icon’s battery meter. It is fairly reliable.
* Accepts an ordinary 3.5mm stereo jack & drives a pair of Sennheiser PX200 phones very well. Movie playback is jerk-free & reasonable quality.
* Will sync with Outlook either directly when plugged into iTunes or via MobileMe.
* Is reasonably slim & has loads of 3rd party cases & sleeves.
* Internet radio apps work well when you can get a 3G connection
* The supplied cable allows charging from suitable USB ports
* You can track the location & even remotely disable the 3GS using MobileMe
The poor
* Poor RF performance. The core function of a phone is to make & receive calls. The 3GS is worse than average.
* Expect to charge at least once a day. Cannot swap batteries because they are sealed in.
* The ability to share phonebook entries, songs, photos or files is best…
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