Apple - iPhone 3G Cell Phone Review

 I've been eyeing the Apple iPhone ever since it was introduced over a year and a half ago. The first generation iPhone was just too expensive and its connection was too slow.

That changed on July 11th (2008) when the Apple iPhone 3G was officially released into the wild. The second generation Apple iPhone boasts 3G connectivity (which according to Apple is twice as fast as an EDGE connection - AT&Ts older data protocol), built in GPS, push email and more. Also Apple and AT&T slashed the initial price of the handset in half, bringing it down to $199 for the 8GB version of the Apple iPhone 3G.

Another big change is the migration of Apple's .Mac service to a re-branded MobileMe service. The killer feature for me with MobileMe is keeping all of my contacts, calendars, password keychains and browser bookmarks in sync. That means that if I add a new calendar entry on either my work laptop or my home desktop computer or my iPhone all of the others are updated with that information without me having to so much as click a button. It all happens "magically" in the background.

Another new feature is the App store. Apple finally opened up the iPhone's platform to third party developers allowing them to create applications for the iPhone. There are plenty of great new apps being released every day. Everything from apps that will show you the closest restaurants to where you're standing along with their ratings, games, productivity tools, blogging apps to apps that show you where your friends are on a map relative to you. 

At the heart of the iPhone is the Safari web browser. It is the main reason the first generation of the iPhone took the world of smartphones by storm. No other smartphone could render a web page as you see it on your desktop or laptop computer until the iPhone came along. Using the Safari browser on the Apple iPhone 3G is by far the best web browsing experience you'll find on any smartphone today.

The form factor of the Apple iPhone 3G is pretty much ideal. It is not bulky. It's not too small and not too big. It fits in my hand quite comfortably. The touchscreen interface is great but takes a little getting used to. Gestures, such as using two fingers in a pinching motion to reduce the size of something on the screen or the reverse of spreading two fingers to zoom in on something on the screen, is a very natural and intuitive way to interact with the Apple iPhone 3G. The on screen keyboard also takes a little getting used to, but after 24 hours of using it I'm getting the hang of it. Having been a Palm user for many years, ditching the stylus is liberating on the iPhone.

Overall, the first twenty four hours with the Apple iPhone 3G has been a great experience. I should note that I am using the 16GB version (there is also an 8GB version). I would heartily recommend the Apple iPhone 3G to anyone who wants access to their email, the Internet at large and of course a quality phone to boot.

My previous phone was a Sony Ericsson - T610 (read review) that I had for almost five years. Perhaps my biggest reservation about getting the iPhone was switching from TMobile, which has provided fair service at reasonable cost for many years, to AT&T. The Apple iPhone 3G is a quantum leap forward when compared to the T610 both in features and user interface, but as for AT&T's service, the jury is still out.

I wonder what phones will be fighting for my attention in 5 years?