iPhone 3GS

PROS

User interface
The iPhone OS is butter smooth and ridiculously easy to use. It's intuitive and user-friendly; within minutes of powering up the phone, I was using it like a seasoned pro. There were times when I felt that certain actions could have been easier to execute but the layout of the home icons and navigation is expertly designed.

The Touch screen
An amazing piece of tech, the touch screen is beautiful to look at but its incredible responsiveness is its greatest quality. It picks up everything from fast swipes to slow drags and I loved the finger gestures for things like zooming into web pages and images. The 3GS also has a special coating on the screen that doesn't quite eliminate fingerprints but does a good job of reducing smudges.

The App Store
A virtual candyland for iPhone users, it has everything you could ask for, from useful productivity apps to amazingly polished games that'll eat away at your free time like a rabid woodchuck gnawing on a tree branch. Sure it's bloated with a ton of crap which can be a chore to wade through but they weren't kidding when they came up with the slogan, "Yeah, there's an app for that."

Performance
The 3GS is a faster and more powerful than the 3G and the first-gen iPhone. Thanks to a more powerful processor and double the RAM, apps load quickly and switching between different tasks is seamless. AT&T's 3G network delivers swift performance (when you can get service that is; see CONS for more on that subject) and the built-in wi-fi is a nice bonus since the OS will auto-switch to an available access point, which really speeds up online tasks.

Form factor
The 3GS is a slick mix of form and function. It fits comfortably in your hand and it sits unobtrusively in your pocket. It really is a beautifully designed product.

Storage
32GB of storage means never worrying about running out of space for downloaded apps or music.

The little details
I really appreciated the subtle touches that Apple put into the iPhone's design. Take the phone away from your ear after finishing up a phone call and the context menu automatically pops up on the screen; send a text message and the phone displays it as the beginning of a conversation, with every subsequent text laid out on one scrollable screen; find a useful web site that you visit often and you can turn it into an app icon that resides on your home screen. It's the little details like those that sets the iPhone 3GS apart from other phones and it proves that Apple knows how to design incredibly powerful yet wonderfully intuitive products.

iPhone 3GS

Comments [16]

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Heather

Awesome review! I'm glad to see that you were very open to iPhone despite your aversion to the "apple cult". It is sad you had to go back to the Storm :/

wutisupmon

booyah. Not worth the upgrade from the 3G in my opinion, but still fantastic.

wutisupmon

btw, no mention of tethering in this review. It's not for everyone, but with it I was able to surf on my macbook on the highway.

TKK

I didn't try tethering because that isn't something the average user would do but it is a cool feather nonetheless.

I miss the 3GS.

TKK

mpvinny78

So i have no choice but to use itunes to put music on it. I used to use that and it was such a resource hog. There is no other way?

wuffenstein24

i love my 3g, and even though the 3gs is amazing (my friend has one), it isnt worth the price to change. btw, great review!

maranda

if only The Conduit had received an objective review, I might believe this guy.... sorry but had to bring that up

mpvinny78

Conduit is a last gen shooter up against current gen games. IGN's review chose to put it in a vacuum and only compared it to Wii games. His, and many others, including gamespot reviewed it for what it was, a last gen shooter. Don't bag on a guy for being honest.

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