Review of my 3G S

A short review of my new 32Gb 3G S. I was eligible for the upgrade from the 3G 8Gb, was uncertain whether to take the plunge, but it became a Father’s Day gift. What could I do ?
Without going through the firmware 3.0 upgrade features, I’ll instead focus on the 3G S hardware differences. I sold my iPod a month ago, so the 32Gb give me that loss back. I like using only one device for both.

Speed – No question about this, the phone is faster than the 3G. Thanks to an increase in processor speed and more RAM memory. Definitely snappier in all regards, although the original 3G was no snail.

Camera – a slight improvement from 2 to 3 Mpixels. The main improvement is the autofocus (one touches the screen to place where the focus should be), that includes a macro focus too. Seems to focus a few inches. Before that, I would hold a magnifier lens over the phone lens to create a macro. Worked well. That is quite handy. Also, the focus square defines the area for auto exposure too. That is helpful.

This feature matches what I have been looking for. A handy camera phone that will allow me to leave my 7Mpixel Canon home unless I really need a better lens and other features the Canon gives. Around 3 Mpixels is good enough for most snapshots, before the quality of the lens becomes the limit. The Canon is what I use for the fine art stuff!

Video – I was never a fan of video on phones. They were pretty crappy. Probably other high end phones had better video cameras than my old Nokia’s so I ‘m not comparing those to the iPhone. But the video on the iPhone is really, really nice. It looks great on the big screen and when email to friends or uploaded to You Tube. I’ll post some example later. The clarity really matches the still cameras sharpness. I may enjoy video more. They make it very easy to share video's. The phone's memory is the limit.

MMS – which brings me to this. It will not be set up by ATT until the end of July. But in the meantime, I can see that the loss incurred with the data limited MMS format may make people realize how much better emailing or You Tube will be for the high quality video this phone produces.

Compass- a cool feature, but I normally know which way north is. It works, and I haven’t seen yet how it integrates with the maps feature.

Battery- I had only one full charge yet, but I got 6 hours of usage time. Very little phone talking, mainly email, sms, web browsing, wifi, maps, GPS etc. On the 3G S one can turn on a % next to the battery icon, which is nice. It also shows how the recharging is moving along. The battery is meant to give 25 to 50% more time, and it looks like it is working to some degree. A little too early to tell though.

Voice Control – it seems to work smoothly. Can dial any number in the contact list, or play songs in the iPod just by saying the name. Similar to my other phones, except the ipod function.

Voice Over - It reads everything for you Functions, emails, etc. Very hard to control, but I didn't read the manual. Clearly only for those that need it.

Earpiece – the stereo earpiece has new set of buttons. A plus/ minus for the volume control. That was missing on the old ear set.

Oil resistant screen – as Scrumhalf noticed, it does work in keeping the fingerprints off the phone and face smears. I’ll be curious on how long it lasts.

These new add on feature give more substance to the phone in areas that made it weaker in fine detailed comparisons to some other smartphones. Some of features where very important to users. I wasn't in that category, but now that it is there, it is good to have.

Stereo Bluetooth - also available on the old 3G- haven't tried it yet.

Looking on eBay, my old 3G seems to run from 200 to 300. 500 if unlocked. So if I get that, it will be almost a free upgrade. Pretty good resale value since I only paid 199 a year ago.

 

Ok, a really short video from my iPhone 3G S. I do better later tomorrow.


YouTube - Driving in the rain

Some compression is down upon uploading. Don't know how much yet.

But you can see the full 30 fps, and the sharpness of the rain on the window, which is where I focused

 

Overcast day here, but another video showing auto exposure and auto focus of iPhone camera.

YouTube - Lake view

 

A couple of more you tube video's were added to the same site above. The iPhone makes it very easy to upload to YouTube or email to a friend.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txt1NPlXjyk&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_N_z93lUsE&feature=channel

 

Battery life data point:

I took my 3G S off the charger at 4 am Monday morning. It is now 5 pm Tuesday, so 1 day, 13 hours of standby time.

I have 6 hours of usage time so far and the battery is reading 39% left.

I didn't use it as a phone much, but did use 1 hour of ipod and 1 hour of wifi Pandora music streaming. This includes numerous email usage (including mailing 10 photos), camera usage, SMSing, and general browsing. This is pretty good battery life , even for me. It seems the battery is better than the 3G

 

So I did pretty well. Sold my iPhone 3G 8Gb for the low $300's. Paid $199 a year ago, and it now has paid for my 32Gb 3G S. Plus a profit.

 

Yeah, I was amazed that I got $340 for a locked 8Gb, but that is what they were going for. I figured let the buyer jailbreak and unlock, and that way I could claim it was still under warranty, which was true. Watch out though, there are a lot of scams out there...people claiming to have never received, or received an empty box. Don't sell outside the states either. Paypal seems to take the buyer's story each time.

I was able to sell within the US, with no problems, from a high rate individual buyer. I'm not sure who is buying, but within a year everyone will be without contract who has ATT, so the price may come down. I do suspect that legit US buyers may be shipping them overseas for resale via some private conduit. People were also paying up to $150 for an iphone that had a cracked screen!

A new 3GS was being purchased for $700.