Apple iPhone-3GS

The Apple iPhone 3G S is the upgraded version of the iPhone 3G. While the iPhone lacks some of the basic features that an ordinary smart phone would offer, the 3G S tries its level best to cement those holes.

The touch screen king

The iPhone 3GS imitates its predecessors – Apple iPhone and Apple iPhone 3G in terms of its user interface and appearance; but feature-wise the phone is a treat. The phone has a big and brilliant 3.5-inch touch screen whose touch response is the real feature that sets the phone apart from other touch screen mobile phones. The home screen of the phone is pretty large with big and rounded icons using which you can access the phone's applications. Below the display, is a single button that takes you back to the home screen. Nevertheless the Samsung Galaxy S is a strong contender as it comes with 640x960 pixel resolution on a 120mm (4 inch) Super-AMOLED screen.

It is said that the touch is very responsive and the multi-touch feature by which you can zoom in and zoom out are simply enjoyable to use.

The difference from the earlier iPhone 3G

Although the 3G S is very similar to the 3G, there are minute developments. There is an oleophobic coating on the glass that makes it tougher. The device is also a bit heavier owing to a new battery and the inclusion of camera. The letter S stands for Speed and yes, the phone makes no fuss when it comes to speed and response. Although both the phones run on iPhone OS 3.0, the 3G S's tasks are faster and its excellent connectivity features meant that it is superb when it comes to browsing as well. The increased speed is complemented by faster hardware and optimized software. Downloading will also be swift with support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA. The on-board memory of the 3G S comes in two options, the 16GB and the 32GB. However the phone does not support a memory card slot for expansion.

The camera resolution has been increased from 2 mega-pixel to 3 mega-pixel. There are evidence of some improvements in the camera although it still lacks flash or LED light. Also the camera options are very limited. The screen displays video pretty well and there are some neat features for editing the videos.

Calls made on the iPhone were a pleasure with its voice control features. The phone had no problems in recognizing voices and popping out the required names to be called.

Usability

The cut, copy and paste is one option which you will enjoy in the iPhone 3G S. Unlike the other smart phones, there is a unique grab option used for pictures and texts. Whether in the portrait or the landscape mode, typing in the keyboard of the iPhone is another delight with its supreme predictive text. The OS 3.0 allows you to send images, audio and videos in texts easily. Being a wonderful multimedia device, the iPhone 3G hardly allows you to grab TV shows. That problem is now rectified in 3G S although it still does not support podcast. The search function in the phone is universal where you can search for any data on the phone at one stop. Be it the audio, video, images, text messages or even applications, this search function can locate them for you.

The 3MP camera is good. Good pictures and video can be taken. The phone also comes with picture editing facilities. Whereas the BlackBerry Bold 9900 boasts of a 5MP camera in comparison.

Apple says that it has exposed many of its applications to its designers in order to solve some of their drawbacks. So one could only hope to get better usage in the days to come and enjoy the refined features in the iPhone 4. But again Apple has to face competition from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S-II, loaded with the Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.

The other sad thing about the device is the fact that it cannot be used for advanced multi tasking. However some basic multi-tasking can be done on the phone. To add to this, there is no flash support or FM radio in the iPhone.Unlike the Blackberry, the iPhone memory cannot be expanded to 32GB, as promised in the Blackberry Bold 9900. Most Android smart-phones sport a memory expansion slot. The browsing experience in the iPhone is superior in comparison to most smartphones. But BlackBerrys have an advantage with the push email technology they use and mostly come supported with a QWERTY keypad and unlimited phonebook. Even the Nexus One can be a good competitor which supports Flash. Besides this the Android Market has lots of apps to offer and lots of free ones.

As CNET puts it, its very hard not to love the iPhone because of its brilliant user interface. Although some features like the cut-copy-paste or the predictive text is very common in most of the phones, it is still very special in the iPhone. Therefore it can be incurred that the iPhone has more than made up for its slight and very few drawbacks in it. If only the phone could be more affordable