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The early reviews for the iPhone 3G S are in and the conclusions seem pretty common across the board. As advertised, the new iPhone 3G S offers a faster experience, better camera, and impressive video recording. All reviewers felt that the upgrade from 3G was more evolutionary than revolutionary and the core phone remains very much the same as the existing 3G.
Here are a summary of key impressions from the early reviews that have hit the web.
Walt Mossberg / AllThingsD
- Speed: "the new model proved dramatically snappier in every way than my iPhone 3G. "
- Battery: "the new model did much better [than the iPhone 3G], never hitting the red zone and rarely requiring interim charging at the office or in the car, even though, because I was testing it, I was pounding it much harder than usual"
- Camera: "didnt think the pictures it took were dramatically better than those on the old model"
- Conclusion: "Both the new iPhone and iPhone OS are packed with features that make a great product even better. But, for many users, the software may be enough of a boost to keep them from buying the new model."
Sun Times / Andy Ihnatko
- Speed: "Everything feels faster. Safari on the iPhone 3G S seems as interactive as a desktop browser."
- Gaming: "Gaming has been kicked up a notch; intensive 3D games are elevated from 'Wow, thats a great frame rate for a phone!' to simply 'Wow.'"
- Battery: "The 3G S has enough juice for a full day of normal use, but if youre going to rely on it heavily throughout the day its still best to have an external battery."
- Video: "The video quality is impressively smooth and natural given the source, and the sound quality is practically astonishing"
- Voice: "Voice control is a tough feature to successfully pull off on any device. No, the iPhone doesnt pull it off."
- Flickr set of photos taken with the iPhone 3G S.
Engadget
- Game Performance: "If you're an avid gamer looking for the device with more power, the difference will be crystal clear: the 3G S obviously flexes in this department."
- Olephobic screen: - "The most surprising thing about the tech is that it actually does what the company says it will: namely, it resists new smudges and wipes almost entirely clean with a single swipe on a pant leg."
- Camera: "We do have some complaints about exposure, which seems to be permanently cranked to "blinding," and while the shutter speed is faster than on the 3G, it's still not quite snappy enough for our taste."
- Video: "Video recording on the iPhone 3G S is really quite impressive"
- Compass: "Once the compass picks up your bearing, it rotates the map to reflect. This may not sound like much, but if you've ever tried to walk a new city using just maps and geolocation, you'll understand quickly. "
- Conclusion: "For current users, we have this to say: the iPhone 3G S is a solid spec bump to a phone you already own... but it is, at its core, a phone you already own. "
Gizmodo
- Olephobic coating: "Surprisingly, the coating actually works in preventing a good deal of fingerprints and face grease, and it allows the phone to still be smooth and usable even if there are fingerprints on the surface."
- Speed: " Safari, Email, Camera all load noticeably faster than on the iPhone 3G (both running 3.0 software). Even booting the phone takes about half the time. "
- Video: "Even if it's not quite 30FPS at all times, the video is smooth as hell. Recording still isn't great in low light since it's a physical limitation of cameras in general, but at least it's fluid."
- 7.2Mbpz data speed: "on average the 3GS scored about 50% higher than the 3G, occasionally, in individual runs, it could have ranged anywhere from twice as fast to about the same speeds."
- Battery: "What's also surprising about the 3GS is that you wouldn't expect battery life to be improved, but it is."
- Conclusion: "The only issue with the iPhone 3GS, if you already have the 3G, is that it's not all that different of an experience." ... "as a whole, the iPhone 3GS is the best all-around smartphone available"
CNet
- Voice: "In our tests, the voice dialing performed well."
- Accessibility: "Visually impaired people can use Apple's Voice Over to navigate the handset's menus and type messages and e-mails. "
- Camera; "good, but far from great, with decent photo quality, but no editing features."
- Video: "you can trim only in a linear format--meaning you can't cut out something in the middle and stitch the remaining two ends of the video together."
- Speed: "For example, Bejewled 2, which can take up to 12 seconds to load on the iPhone 3G, started in just 5 seconds on the 3G S. Even better, Pocket God went from opening in almost 30 seconds to starting in just 11. The iPhone also started up much quicker than the iPhone 3G--we were up and running in 26 seconds instead of 50 seconds."
- Conclusion: "If you don't own an iPhone yet, and you've been waiting for the right model, now is the time to go for it. .... But, if you're a current iPhone 3G owner, the answer isn't so clear."
