David Swan
Saturday, 27 June 2009 05:29
Business IT -
Technology
Page 1 of 2
Cue the trumpets the iPhone 3GS has made it downunder, albeit with considerably less fanfare than previous models. The original iPhone and subsequent iPhone 3G challenged the whole notion of what a phone can and should do, whereas on first impressions the 3GS provides a solid upgrade, but is it another revolution?
A quick scan of the midnight launch at the Bourke Street Melbourne Optus store revealed a few stalwart diehards with
sleeping bags in tow, but not nearly the same number that braved the
cold a year ago.
I had about five minutes with the 3GS before the smiling and
predictably charming Apple assistant shuffled me away in favour of a
bunch of teenage school kids, and I left the store thorougly impressed
but not blown away, by any means.
To quell any uncertainty you may have, the S stands for speed, and this
was made apparent as soon as my grubby fingertips touched the screen.
According to Apple, the 3GS is "twice as fast" as the model that
preceded it, and this is most obvious in 3D graphics intensive games
like Hero of Sparta, which ran much more smoothly when compared side by
side to my iPod Touch. Other applications like Facebook simply loaded
about half a second quicker, which is a nice improvement but nothing
life changing.
Speaking of grubby fingertips, the 3GS's new "fingerprint resistant
oleophobic coating" is one of its new features, which each need
mentioning. Internet on the new iPhone will be considerably faster with
data speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, about twice as fast as the old model.
Alongside these speedy features is a new 3 megapixel camera, which is
still weak by typical standards but an improvement for the iPhone, and
the ability to shoot and edit video. Also included is a compass
feature, voice control, and internet tethering for on the go internet.
Most of these features are nice and add quite considerably to the phone's functionality.
However, the upgrades that the previous iPhone really needed can be
seen in the 3.0 software update, which can be downloaded by all owners
of an older iPhone model for free. This update includes MMS, Copy and
Paste, and a landscape keyboard, among others. The 3GS's features are
indeed a step up, however from my initial tests there was nothing
essential about them.
It's also important to remember the other options out there,
particularly if you're one of Apple's rabid cynics (and there are many
of you).
So what are the main challengers to iPhone 3GS?
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