iPhone 3GS rules ok, says Consumers Union

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 11:20

Your IT - Mobility

Which smartphone tops Consumer Reports' latest ratings? The iPhone 3GS - not that this news will surprise iPhone fans.

According to Consumer Reports (the publication of US consumer organisation Consumers Union - equivalent to Choice in Australia or Which? in the UK), the iPhone 3GS is the top smartphone.

Although the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm gave the new iPhone a run for its money, Consumer Reports found Apple's latest phone gave a strong performance in all areas except voice quality.

In particular, the iPhone 3GS was judged to be ahead on multimedia, navigation, web browsing and battery life.

Various BlackBerry models trumped the iPhone with their messaging facilities, and the Pre was deemed to have the leader when it comes to multitasking.

However, those who favour handsets other than the iPhone may cry foul over changes made to Consumer Reports' ranking system. Factors such as the display, navigation, multimedia and messaging have been emphasised, while talk time and voice quality have been downplayed, "in part to reflect the growing importance of non-voice use of smart phones."

These changes helped the iPhone and some other older phones, but handicapped others including the BlackJack II and BlackBerry Pearl Flip.

Furthermore, phone sensitivity tests have been dropped as the measures previously used no longer reflected real-world performance and the organisation has yet to develop new ways of testing.

A particular issue in the US is that the iPhone 3GS is only sold for use on the AT&T network, which could muddy various measures. For example, mobile phones adjust their power output to the level required by the tower in use. As power output goes up, battery life goes down.

Unless all phones are tested at the same locations and on the same networks it is impossible to tease out network and handset issues.