WWDC 2009 announced the release of the new iPhone 3GS which was a faster, more powerful iPhone with video capabilities. After having used my iPhone for a week it's now time to take a look at it to see whether it was a good investment, or a waste of money.
What I find different about buying an iPhone as opposed to any other phone is that it's a unique experience. I queued outside the Apple store in Leicester's Highcross shopping centre eagerly awaiting the store to be opened. There were only 5 or 6 people in front of me, and about as many behind me as well by the time they opened the doors. Instead of letting everyone through the doors in one go they actually let 3 people in at a time so that they could be given their full attention - everyone outside who hadn't made it through in the first batch was served tea and coffee whilst we waited.
After 15 minutes of waiting I was finally in, sitting down, and giving them my details in order to start a new contract with O2. The whole order process took about 30 minutes and after that rather than being shuffled out the door they lead you over to the Genius bar to get your phone activated. The initial stage of the activation didn't take too long, probably because I'd gotten in early enough to beat the rush but the second part of the activation seemed to take ages... that is until a friend told me I needed to press and hold the power button to turn it off and on again for it to finish registering.
The first thing that struck me about the iPhone's interface was how much fun it actually is. Being able to swipe your finger across the screen to change what you're seeing and being able to let your fingers dance across it's surface to type on it's virtual keyboard is a thing of science-fiction dreams. I'd have to say it's cooler than the LCARs interface from Star Trek: The Next Generation (as it happens someone has made this GUI for jailbroken phones).
One of the first things I did when I got my iPhone back to the office was to apply a screen protector and a rubber case - I'd made the mistake of leaving it too late when I bought an iPod... and well, that now has more scratches than not which is something which annoys me as I do try to take good care of my gadgets (almost to the point of being over protective of some of them).
They virtual keyboard did take me about an hour or two to get used to - I had a habit of catching the keys to the side of the one I wanted instead. I think the reason for this though is that I previous used a Windows Mobile device from HP which tended to need key taps to be to one side, but it wasn't a hard habit to break.
There are quite a few settings you can customise to suit you, and one of the first things I did was to enable the battery percentage, and to disable Data roaming and 3G temporarily as I wanted to see what battery usage was like without them (as I'd likely turn them off whilst abroad until absolutely needed). The battery life does seem quite good, and even with me eagerly checking my phone every few minutes the battery has lasted well with me only having to charge it twice since I got it.
Within an hour I'd downloaded my first app from the App Store directly onto my phone - Tweetdeck. This app, despite its flaws, is one of those apps where the UI gets to shine. I like the way you can slide between the different columns, and the gimmicky way of being able to shake the phone to update your tweets. The whole process of finding it, and installing it was really simple and was quick over Wi-Fi.
My next test was to see how it performed side by side against the iPhone 3G. Myself and two friends with 3G's crowded round and tested the launch time of a number of applications such as Mail, Contacts, and Messages. There wasn't a major difference in the loading times, but it was noticeable. At some point I hope we'll try a few more tests with Wi-Fi, GPRS, and 3G to demonstrate that it's not just increased processing power, but increased 'net speeds also.
I'd heard complaints about the previous two revisions having an bad reception and being too quiet during calls - personally I've not had that problem; at least not yet anyway. At first I wasn't too sure about how you made calls from your contacts, but once again no sooner did I comment out loud, "I wonder how you call contacts" did they tell me to just click on the number. It's probably quite obvious, and I imagine if I'd been given the chance I'd have figured it out. Yes it does come with a manual, but it is a good indicator of good interface design if you are able to intuitively use it without having to look it up. The only other feature I didn't know about was to be able to click and hold an application to reorder them. What I do find is annoying is the inability to remove Stocks - I don't have any stocks, and don't plan on investing on any Stocks in the near future, so it'd be nice to even hide it of they won't allow it's removal. If it did more than stocks, such as connecting to my bank accounts and ISAs then it would be useful.. in fact that would be a useful application if it gets made with support for UK branches.
My only other problems with the phone isn't really a problem with the phone, but with O2. I live not far from the countryside, so close in fact that on O2 I only have 2 bars of signal whilst at home, and it drops to No Signal not far away from the house due to O2's bad coverage of the area. When I was on Orange with my Motorola RAZR V8 and previous iterations of it, I've never had a problem; but now I do. The other issue is that there is no app on the iPhone for checking your current usage of your included contract minutes and texts - instead you have to text them. There is one application a 3rd party has created called "My Bill" however it only works for Irish O2 customers.
I've also tested the iPhone's new ability to connect with Nike+ sensors. For my initial calibration I decided to take a walk home from work - it's just shy of 6 miles so I thought that should be far enough to calibrate it well. The calibration options it gives for walking is 400 metres or a custom distance - so I set it to stop after 1 mile and started walking. When you press the home button on the iPhone (I think that's what it's called?) it reads out how long you've been walking for... so after 20 minutes I thought that was about far enough, and checked the phone. It had registered as being just over a mile but it hadn't stopped. I assumed it meant it could just continue after being calibrated so I continued walking. When I was just 1 mile from home I decided to see what happened when I tapped "End workout". It gave a few stats about the "workout" and then said it wasn't a valid workout for calibration! Annoying as it was I set another calibration for 400m, this time constantly checking the reading and after 400 metres I stopped and pressed the button again - this time calibration was successful. It does seem a bit funny how the Nike+ works, but I'm sure it's one of those which you just have to get used to.
I am quite impressed with the screen it uses, not only is it crystal clear when indoors, but playing "Mass Effect Galaxy" on it really did show how good the quality of the screen is. Overall the build quality of the phone does seem very sturdy, though I guess if it was dropped the weak point would of course be the screen.
The addition of the compass and it's ability to interact with the Google Maps app is amazing, if only I'd had it in May I might not have gotten lost in Rome looking for the hotel! It's for this reason I think it will be an invaluable tool next year in Oz and New Zealand. I don't think I could actually recommend this phone enough.
