Apple iPhone 3GS Black (16 GB) Smartphone
- Screen Size (Diagonal): 3.5 inch
- Installed Memory: 16 GB
- Operating System: iPhone OS (iOS)
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB, WiFi
- Design: Mobile
- Style: Smartphone, Touch Screen
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Do you need to upgrade to the new Apple 3G S iPhone?
Pros
easy to use, convenient to check internet/email, lots of memory
Cons
not much different from the other iPhones, cell phone plan is expensive
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
I'd recommend the Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone to someone who is thinking about switching from a traditional phone, but don't get this if you already have an iPhone.
I received the Original 8GB iPhone about a year and a half ago as a Christmas present. I don't feel the need to carry every song I've ever heard in my life around with me, nor do I download and watch movies, so the 8 gig model worked very well for my purposes. I liked the fact that I could check my email while waiting in line at the grocery store and do a quick internet search to try to figure out the name of a song that I was hearing in a bar. Although my husband upgraded his 8GB iPhone about six months after receiving his, I had no desire or reason to do the same...
... until the Ginger Ale Incident. One night after a few too many cocktails, my sister's boyfriend wound up slamming an open liter bottle of warm ginger ale down onto a table which resulted in an explosion that doused everything within three feet of the area, including my iPhone. All of the functions worked except, well, the phone which is why I wound up buying the new Apple 16 GB 3G S iPhone when it came out last month.
The Apple 16 GB 3G S iPhone
This iPhone is an upgraded version of the 3G model that the company released last year. As the name implies, it has 16 gigabytes of memory and it functions as a phone, iPod, internet browser, camera, calculator, email server, etc. Instead of using the slow and limited "Edge network" for internet access like the original iPhones, this model uses the 3G network which is faster and has broader coverage.
Basically, the 3G S iPhone is the same as the regular 3G ones, with a few additions and improvements. The camera has been upgraded to 3-megapixels and focuses automatically. You also now have the ability to take video clips with this device and even edit them on-to-go so you can post them immediately to a blog or Facebook without having to wait to get home and upload them to your computer. The 3G S has voice control which allows you to "tell" the phone to call people, play an artist/song/playlist, etc. It also has a GPS and compass feature, an improved battery life, faster internet speed, and an oleophobic coating on the screen that is supposed to help prevent smudges and smears.
My Experience
Because I already owned an Apple iPhone, it was very easy for me to start using this new model. The phone doesn't have a keypad which took some getting used to, but after a year and a half of using the screen controls, I'm fine with it. I like the visual voicemail function because it allows you to select exactly which voicemail(s) you want to listen to and in which order. You no longer have to listen to your mother's 2 minute rambling message in order to see what your boss has to say.
The iPod function is wonderful and allows me to take my music with me wherever I go. I use the earbuds when I am listening at work or on a plane, but mostly I plug it into my car's auxiliary music jack or my Bose Sound Dock.
The internet browser is great and allows me to easily check my favorite web sites for news, reviews, celebrity gossip, etc. no matter where I am. Yes, the screen is small and the font size can look absurd when you first load a page, but you can either double-tap the screen or spread your fingers across it in a diagonal direction in order to zoom in on an area to read. Our friends have made fun of us (my husband, my sister, my father, and me) for having Apple iPhones, but over the past year they have also become dependent on borrowing ours to check sports scores, look up information about something, and even to buy plane tickets while at a party! Trust me, once you've looked up how many times Yul Brynner performed in The King and I or checked on an airline reservation with this phone, you'll never want to go back to having to wait to get home and sit down at your regular computer. Truly, the internet functionality on the 16GB 3G S iPhone is wonderful and whole days go by without me even having to open up my laptop.
The camera on this model is improved from my old 8GB phone, but it doesn't knock my socks off. Eventually, you will be able to send pictures in text messages with the 3G S which is something that many iPhone users (including myself) really missed when they switched to the Apple phone. The video feature is nice to have, but to be honest, I haven't used it at all except to play around with it a bit before writing this review. It is easy enough to use and will be convenient when one of my friends is making a fool of themselves on a Saturday night, but, as a teacher, I don't like the idea of my students using it to film me during class or their classmates in the halls, locker rooms, etc.
The voice control is a cute little gimmick, but I haven't had much luck with it. I can use it to tell the phone to call a specific person, but not once have I been able to get it to play a given song, artist, or playlist. In my opinion, the voice control is a bust, but I don't really care because it isn't a crucial feature for me.
And, the best parts of the iPhone for many people are the applications. You can download thousands of different "apps" to your phone (some free, some not) to do any number of things. Aside from a zillion different games, there are applications that let you check your Facebook/MySpace pages, find recipes, identify songs that you are hearing, count down to a specific date, hold up your phone and make it look like you are holding up a lighter at a concert, etc. I only have a handful of apps on my phone, but my husband and father literally have three pages of them.
I have noticed that the Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone battery does last much longer than my original 8GB model, even when I spend hours at a time surfing the net and playing on Facebook. I like that I can go out and about for the day without stashing a charger in my purse and trying to juice the phone up at some point during the middle of the day.
As far as the special oleophobic (oil-hating) coating on the screen of the phone goes, I call shenanigans on that. Not only does it not prevent the smudges and smears that my older model had, but in fact it actually looks worse than the original screen. If I were the Apple engineers, I'd go back to the regular scratch-resistant glass.
One thing that I do have concerns about is the clear plastic coating that covers the black back housing of the phone. It started peeling away and chipped off around the area where it gets plugged in within two weeks. I was very upset and nervous at first, but once my husband pulled the little cracked bits off, the self-destruction seemed to stop. There are some dents and dings in it on the bottom corners and it seems that it is only a matter of time before the plastic starts to chip off again. Not cool.
The Cost
If you are a new customer or an existing one due for an upgrade, the Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone will cost you $199. Sure that is pricey for a phone, but the original 8GB model cost something like $500 when it first came out two years ago. If you aren't eligible for that price, you'll be paying $299 for the phone.
Instead of worrying about the initial cost of the phone, though, what you really need to take note of is the monthly bill that AT&T will start to send you. An iPhone is definitely going to cost you more per month than your RAZR or other traditional flip phone. To add insult to injury, they even tack on an extra $10 per month when you upgrade from the original model to the 3G phone models. Why? I'm not really sure. What I do know is that my husband and I both have 3G iPhones now and our bill is about $180 per month for phone, data service, and 2500 text messages per month. Yup. $180. Awesome.
Should You Upgrade to the Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone if you already own an iPhone?
Honestly, I wouldn't. Most of the "new" features on this phone are available in the latest software update from Apple. If you download that onto your original or 3G model, you will be able to flip your email to landscape, copy/cut/paste, search the phone, etc. The new capabilities are voice controls (which don't work), a compass (which I'll never use), and a video recorder (which I haven't used yet in a month). Yes the battery life is somewhat longer and the internet speed is faster than the 3G, but is it really worth paying full price when you already have an almost-identical phone? I don't think so. My advice is to wait for the 4G, 5K, or whatever really new model Apple comes out with next.
In all honesty, if my former iPhone hadn't had a tragic ginger ale accident, I'd still be using it. The software upgrade gave me almost all of the new features that I wanted (save pictures in text messages) and I still had something like 5 of 8 gigabytes of memory free. It was slower than my husband's 3G phone, but it worked perfectly well for my purposes.
Should You Upgrade to an Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone if you don't have an iPhone?
Unequivocally YES! Although I don't think an upgrade to this particular model is necessary if you already have an iPhone, it goes without saying that this is a really reeeeeeeeeeeeally cool little gadget. These days I can't even imagine being out and about without having the ability to check my email, surf the net, update my Facebook status, and oh yeah... make phone calls. We have been extremely happy with our Apple iPhones and highly recommend them to people who are interested in buying a "smart phone".
... until the Ginger Ale Incident. One night after a few too many cocktails, my sister's boyfriend wound up slamming an open liter bottle of warm ginger ale down onto a table which resulted in an explosion that doused everything within three feet of the area, including my iPhone. All of the functions worked except, well, the phone which is why I wound up buying the new Apple 16 GB 3G S iPhone when it came out last month.
The Apple 16 GB 3G S iPhone
This iPhone is an upgraded version of the 3G model that the company released last year. As the name implies, it has 16 gigabytes of memory and it functions as a phone, iPod, internet browser, camera, calculator, email server, etc. Instead of using the slow and limited "Edge network" for internet access like the original iPhones, this model uses the 3G network which is faster and has broader coverage.
Basically, the 3G S iPhone is the same as the regular 3G ones, with a few additions and improvements. The camera has been upgraded to 3-megapixels and focuses automatically. You also now have the ability to take video clips with this device and even edit them on-to-go so you can post them immediately to a blog or Facebook without having to wait to get home and upload them to your computer. The 3G S has voice control which allows you to "tell" the phone to call people, play an artist/song/playlist, etc. It also has a GPS and compass feature, an improved battery life, faster internet speed, and an oleophobic coating on the screen that is supposed to help prevent smudges and smears.
My Experience
Because I already owned an Apple iPhone, it was very easy for me to start using this new model. The phone doesn't have a keypad which took some getting used to, but after a year and a half of using the screen controls, I'm fine with it. I like the visual voicemail function because it allows you to select exactly which voicemail(s) you want to listen to and in which order. You no longer have to listen to your mother's 2 minute rambling message in order to see what your boss has to say.
The iPod function is wonderful and allows me to take my music with me wherever I go. I use the earbuds when I am listening at work or on a plane, but mostly I plug it into my car's auxiliary music jack or my Bose Sound Dock.
The internet browser is great and allows me to easily check my favorite web sites for news, reviews, celebrity gossip, etc. no matter where I am. Yes, the screen is small and the font size can look absurd when you first load a page, but you can either double-tap the screen or spread your fingers across it in a diagonal direction in order to zoom in on an area to read. Our friends have made fun of us (my husband, my sister, my father, and me) for having Apple iPhones, but over the past year they have also become dependent on borrowing ours to check sports scores, look up information about something, and even to buy plane tickets while at a party! Trust me, once you've looked up how many times Yul Brynner performed in The King and I or checked on an airline reservation with this phone, you'll never want to go back to having to wait to get home and sit down at your regular computer. Truly, the internet functionality on the 16GB 3G S iPhone is wonderful and whole days go by without me even having to open up my laptop.
The camera on this model is improved from my old 8GB phone, but it doesn't knock my socks off. Eventually, you will be able to send pictures in text messages with the 3G S which is something that many iPhone users (including myself) really missed when they switched to the Apple phone. The video feature is nice to have, but to be honest, I haven't used it at all except to play around with it a bit before writing this review. It is easy enough to use and will be convenient when one of my friends is making a fool of themselves on a Saturday night, but, as a teacher, I don't like the idea of my students using it to film me during class or their classmates in the halls, locker rooms, etc.
The voice control is a cute little gimmick, but I haven't had much luck with it. I can use it to tell the phone to call a specific person, but not once have I been able to get it to play a given song, artist, or playlist. In my opinion, the voice control is a bust, but I don't really care because it isn't a crucial feature for me.
And, the best parts of the iPhone for many people are the applications. You can download thousands of different "apps" to your phone (some free, some not) to do any number of things. Aside from a zillion different games, there are applications that let you check your Facebook/MySpace pages, find recipes, identify songs that you are hearing, count down to a specific date, hold up your phone and make it look like you are holding up a lighter at a concert, etc. I only have a handful of apps on my phone, but my husband and father literally have three pages of them.
I have noticed that the Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone battery does last much longer than my original 8GB model, even when I spend hours at a time surfing the net and playing on Facebook. I like that I can go out and about for the day without stashing a charger in my purse and trying to juice the phone up at some point during the middle of the day.
As far as the special oleophobic (oil-hating) coating on the screen of the phone goes, I call shenanigans on that. Not only does it not prevent the smudges and smears that my older model had, but in fact it actually looks worse than the original screen. If I were the Apple engineers, I'd go back to the regular scratch-resistant glass.
One thing that I do have concerns about is the clear plastic coating that covers the black back housing of the phone. It started peeling away and chipped off around the area where it gets plugged in within two weeks. I was very upset and nervous at first, but once my husband pulled the little cracked bits off, the self-destruction seemed to stop. There are some dents and dings in it on the bottom corners and it seems that it is only a matter of time before the plastic starts to chip off again. Not cool.
The Cost
If you are a new customer or an existing one due for an upgrade, the Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone will cost you $199. Sure that is pricey for a phone, but the original 8GB model cost something like $500 when it first came out two years ago. If you aren't eligible for that price, you'll be paying $299 for the phone.
Instead of worrying about the initial cost of the phone, though, what you really need to take note of is the monthly bill that AT&T will start to send you. An iPhone is definitely going to cost you more per month than your RAZR or other traditional flip phone. To add insult to injury, they even tack on an extra $10 per month when you upgrade from the original model to the 3G phone models. Why? I'm not really sure. What I do know is that my husband and I both have 3G iPhones now and our bill is about $180 per month for phone, data service, and 2500 text messages per month. Yup. $180. Awesome.
Should You Upgrade to the Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone if you already own an iPhone?
Honestly, I wouldn't. Most of the "new" features on this phone are available in the latest software update from Apple. If you download that onto your original or 3G model, you will be able to flip your email to landscape, copy/cut/paste, search the phone, etc. The new capabilities are voice controls (which don't work), a compass (which I'll never use), and a video recorder (which I haven't used yet in a month). Yes the battery life is somewhat longer and the internet speed is faster than the 3G, but is it really worth paying full price when you already have an almost-identical phone? I don't think so. My advice is to wait for the 4G, 5K, or whatever really new model Apple comes out with next.
In all honesty, if my former iPhone hadn't had a tragic ginger ale accident, I'd still be using it. The software upgrade gave me almost all of the new features that I wanted (save pictures in text messages) and I still had something like 5 of 8 gigabytes of memory free. It was slower than my husband's 3G phone, but it worked perfectly well for my purposes.
Should You Upgrade to an Apple 16GB 3G S iPhone if you don't have an iPhone?
Unequivocally YES! Although I don't think an upgrade to this particular model is necessary if you already have an iPhone, it goes without saying that this is a really reeeeeeeeeeeeally cool little gadget. These days I can't even imagine being out and about without having the ability to check my email, surf the net, update my Facebook status, and oh yeah... make phone calls. We have been extremely happy with our Apple iPhones and highly recommend them to people who are interested in buying a "smart phone".
