iPhone 3G first impressions
22 August 2008

"I'm not so obsessed as to blindly chuck money at every new device that comes out of Cuppertino ... Apple and O2 were going to have to go some to get my business."

Pros: A computer, iPod, GPS and internet device in your pocket. Very usable full web browser unlike anything on rival phones. 3rd party applications. Already brilliant, will only improve as time goes on.
Cons: Camera not brilliant. Questionable 3G connectivity although recent firmware update has improved things. No cut and paste or app notifications (although these are coming in firmware 2.1 apparently)

When I first thought about this post, I was going to call it an "iPhone 3G review" but on second thoughts, having just bought one of these new improved Apple devices, I wasn't about to totally slate it so "first impressions" is probably a more accurate title.

First of all, I should point out that buying an iPhone was far from a foregone conclusion for me. Despite being someone who likes (and often buys) Apple products, I'm not so obsessed as to blindly chuck money at every new device that comes out of Cuppertino. Right until the day before I decided upon getting an iPhone 3G, I was actively looking at the competition. Apple and O2 were going to have to go some to get my business.

The internet is full of offers for a free Playstation 3 or flat screen telly with a new mobile phone. The contracts tend to be long and the monthly price high to get such a "free" item so it's not really free, of course, but if you're comparing these offers with even the lowest iPhone 3G contact from O2 then they suddenly become tempting alternatives. The other issue for me personally was the fact that I was currently paying just £15 per month with T-Mobile on a contract that had ended its term back in April. I could renew and drop this even lower (if I kept the same phone) or look at the same deal with a new handset.

T-Mobile tempted me with the LG U990 and Samsung F480. The contracts didn't include unlimited internet (although you could add this at a price that pushed the monthly cost above that of the iPhone 3G on O2). The devices are both touch screen, however a prospective user needs to look at what the phone has to offer with software, usability and expandability.

After very careful consideration, I decided to pay the £99 for an 8GB iPhone 3G handset and go for the lowest £30 per month O2 contract. Despite being a hike in monthly costs for me, the real clincher was the unlimited internet access. As we will see from my comments below, this is something that is well worth having on a device that is capable of taking advantage of it.

So what of the iPhone itself, then? Being an iPod Touch owner, I was already familiar with the cool touch-screen interface so this was no surprise to me. The handset is slightly different to the Touch, a little more rounded with the earphone socket in the top rather than the bottom of the device. Unlike the Touch (that has no controls other than the home button on the front) the iPhone 3G adds volume, sleep and a silent toggle. Add to this a pause and skip button attached to to the headphones that can also be used as a handsfree headset.

What makes the iPhone 3G such a great gadget, however, is its network capabilities. It's possible to check e-mails and view web sites "on the move". This is possible on other portable devices, of course, but with the iPhone this is integrated in a very clever, fun to use interface so typical of Apple products.

The iPhone comes with Safari, a standards compliant full web browser. You can turn the phone on its side to view sites in landscape (and in this mode the on-screen keyboard is easier to use) and intelligently zoom in to parts of the page with a double tap. The browser "knows" how much to zoom to fill the screen with the area you're tapping on - a very nice touch that makes surfing on the train or in the street a breeze.

The GPS program is extremely useful. Fire it up and it knows where you, often amazingly accurately. It uses Google Maps to show a birds-eye view of your location and you can overlay street names. You can use two finger gestures (or double taps) to zoom. A blue dot shows where you are. The really clever part is if you're looking for somewhere nearby to your location. Type in a street or building name, a shop name or even a generic term such as "pub" and pins "fly" out of the sky and drop into the map to show where matching locations can be found. A simple tap on any of these will give you information about that place, such as the address, telephone number (just tap it to call) and web site (tap that to view it in Safari). You can even press for turn-by-turn directions to get there from your current location. This clever utility is almost worth the purchase price and monthly contract on its own.

Via the App Store (either in iTunes on your desktop computer or via the icon on the iPhone itself) you can purchase additional programs written by developers to add extra functionality to your iPhone. There are hundreds of applications out there from games to instant messenger clients to fun nonsense time wasters. Many are free. I've downloaded the Facebook application, for example, that enables me to update (and view) my Facebook account. That's why I've suddenly started posting lots more status messages recently! Recently I've been becoming familiar with the iPhone SDK and am currently waiting to be accepted in to the Apple iPhone Developer Program so expect to see my own iPhone apps from Blue Roan Software in due course.

The phone side of things works like a normal mobile with the exception of voicemail. The iPhone introduces a new concept called "Visual Voicemail" that was launched when the original version of the device came out. If you have a message, you can flick to a screen that lists who they're from and you can listen to them in any order you like; or even not at all. It's like dealing with e-mails or text messages: you see a list and just work on the ones that are important to you at the time.

So what isn't so good? Well, the directions on the GPS don't speak to you, so you can't easily use it in the car as an alternative to a sat nav. The orientation also won't be correct so you need to turn the phone when you've worked out which way up you need it to be. There is talk of problems with 3G connections although the recent 2.0.2 firmware appears to have improved things somewhat (it did for me) with a rumour that the 2.1 firmware will do more of the same. The camera isn't brilliant. It's only 2 megapixles, but is perfectly good enough to post images to Facebook or take a quick picture when you're out and about and don't have a proper camera with you. To be honest, I've never been that bothered with cameras in phones and wonder why assistants in mobile phone shops always seem to be. The iPhone is so much more than a camera so don't let this small detail put you off. The LG has a 5 megapixel camera in it, but I'd give the same advice that I've been giving since long before the iPhone was even announced: If you want to take photographs; use a dedicated camera!

I've owned my iPhone 3G for 2 weeks now and can safely say that I'm very pleased with it and don't think that it's a waste of money - despite the increased monthly costs I'll personally be paying. It's very useful to check e-mail on the move, view web sites, get directions and, of course, phone people all from the same neat, small device. A total winner, leaps ahead of anything available anywhere else including the LG or Samsung competition; and I know: I've checked them out!