The iPhone 3GS will be coming out Friday June 19 tomorrow. From the looks of it, it looks just like the iPhone 3G, but it does sport some serious differences, and some serious addons you should know about. And while nothing is perfect, we think it’s a step in the right direction for Apple.
Let’s start it off with the best stuff. The iPhone 3GS is fast. They say it's what "S" stands for, "Speed". And while it might sport similar feature set to the 3G, the 3GS’ speed boost makes it worth it. The screen has an oleophobic coating, that’s meant to repel grease and fingerprints. And while it might not look much different in the grease department than the 3G, it really does work better, even if totally coated.
Everything really loads much faster now. That includes turning on the phone and loading up apps. This also means there are more opportunities for apps and games now, with a 600MHz processor and 256 RAM.
Other new features that are pros in our opinion includes the updated 3-megapixel camera, which sports auto focus and video recording capability. But still, the lack of flash is still disheartening, but the video quality is pretty impressive. It’s capable of 30fps and really smooth in motion. There’s even limited clip cropping abilities on the phone.
The Compass is cool, simple and easy to use. It detects North easily, no matter how you hold the phone and syncs up nicely with Google Maps, showing you precisely where you are at any given time. More good news is that Voice Control works pretty well. It recognizes what you’re saying fairly well, though background sound tends to cause issues.
Battery life has improved. The only real negative we’ve noticed so far on the iPhone 3GS which I believe everyone will agree is the price it’ll cost you to upgrade if you’re still on an AT&T plan and the AT&T network in general. With numerous problems with the network, it’s kind of a shame such a high-featured phone is limited to a feature-lacking network. Also, if you already have the iPhone 3G, this model might not feel like a worthy upgrade to you to justify buying a whole new phone.
Apple's retail stores open their doors on Friday, June 19, at 8 a.m. local time. AT&T's retail stores will open an hour earlier, at 7 a.m. local time, but only for people who pre-ordered via the Web or at a store. (According to The Boy Genius Report, AT&T had sold out its pre-order allotment by Saturday, June 13, and any subsequent pre-orders won't be shipped to a local store for pick-up until seven to 14 days after the order date.)
AT&T will let customers who didn't pre-order into its stores starting at 8 a.m. local time.
Best Buy and Wal-Mart, the other two outlets selling iPhones, will open at their usual business hours on Friday.
What countries get the iPhone 3G S on Friday? Apple said that customers in the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. get first crack at the new iPhone. Other countries will begin to sell their shipments of the upgrade starting July 9.
Anything for someone has an iPhone but doesn't want to shell out $200 (or more) for a new one? You get iPhone 3.0, the newest upgrade to the iPhone's software, which Apple launched on Wednesday, June 17. Among the new features: copy-paste, MMS, Spotlight search and landscape-mode keyboard.
iPhone 3.0 is free to iPhone owners, but costs iPod Touch users $9.95.
Apple and AT&T also reduced the price of the existing iPhone 3G 8GB to $99, so if you have $100 and an aging first-generation iPhone, you can go that route. Have a little more cash? For $149, you can pick up the 16GB iPhone 3G from AT&T and Best Buy.
