iPhone vs iPhone 3G

So, I, like many others have had my iPhone 3G for about a month and a half now….. I think that’s long enough to decide whether the upgrade was worthwhile – was it worth the money? oh no, that isn’t a valid point for me; I’m £100 up from the upgrade to 3G 🙂

Let’s see now; there’s only really 2 major differences between the original and the 3G: the latter has a 3G modem (go figure) and a GPS receiver. Of course, firmware 2.0 brings 3rd party application support through the excellent App Store; I’m not going to count that though, since that upgrade is offered for the iPod Touch and original iPhone.

The design has changed a little – the back is now made of plastic rather than that MacBook Pro style aluminium; it’s offered in two colours: black and white (16GB only) and the back is curved (so it tapers out from the sides) rather than being flat. Overall, these design changes make it feel and look better than the original, as usual with Apple.

3G - two colours available

So principally, the new model should offer faster internet access and the ability to locate you more accurately. The question is, does it?

First, I feel I have to explain that my experience with the original iPhone was ummm average – I loved it… but almost everywhere I spent time there was no Edge coverage, only GPRS; I very rarely saw Edge. So, to be frank it was very very slow. Something upon which I blame O2 for.

Almost everywhere I spend time with my iPhone 3G has very good 3G coverage and it’s pleasantly fast. I can’t be sure that it is as fast as it should be (and I don’t really care for the most part) because it is so very much faster than GPRS.

I see people complaining about how they thought the speed increase would be much bigger; those people went from Edge to 3G rather than GPRS to 3G like I experienced – I’m happy with the speed increase it yielded.

Though, with the amount of complaints I’ve seen on the internet about it not being as fast as it should be; it probably could, and should be faster than it is.

Overall though, I’ve been very fortunate; I’m yet to experience a dropped call, I’m satisfied with the speed and in other ways, it’s the same as the original – brillant!

Pro’s:

• Faster data access
• GPS
• 3rd party applications (not really a pro for 3G, but 2.0)
• Looks & feels better

Con’s

• Compatible with less accessories; chargers, speaker docks….
• Laggy response in some applications (mainly down to 2.0 as it is the same on the iPod & original iPhone & should be fixed by future software updates)
• Same old camera – still a 2 mega pixel model from 2005; without the autofocus! It’s adequate, but disappointing for 2008.

To conclude, I think the upgrade to 3G was definately worth the -£100 I spent on it. Ahh, scratch that….. I made £100 out of the upgrade and I got a much better phone for it –  It was definately worth it!

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