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3g or not 3g?? that is the question

J

jadamcyk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
14
0
Chicago, IL
Hey i've never owned an iphone but am planning to get one soon and was wondering if it was worth it to get the 3g iphone or just get the first gen.

my friend has a new 8 gb iphone first gen that hes willing to sell to me for 200 or less. From all your experiences with the current iphone is it worth it to pay 15 dollars more a month for the 3g (10 for the plan and 5 for 200 msg)?:)

I am also kind of worried that apple will release a better 3g iphone in the next couple months after release...:confused:

thanks!
 
Given the speeds that AT&T is throttling the 3G iPhone down to, I am not at all convinced that it is worth the extra fees.

In the UK, of course, it is a different story as the speeds should be much faster and the monthly plan will cost the same as for an Edge-only phone.

I guess my other question would be whether the GPS is of enough value to you to justify spending the extra for the 3G ATT plan.
 
If we are just taking 3G, it will depend on where you are and what you are planning to do.

3G works well for people in a 3G area (obviously) and have a need for faster internet when away from wifi.

If you are close to wifi most of the time or usually in areas without 3G coverage, it may be better to stick with the 2G iPhone.
 
All depends on how you are going to use it. If you will use GPS enough to be worth the price difference (both between buying a used first gen and a new second gen and the cost of data plans), go for it. If you use internet a lot outside of Wi-Fi access then 3G is worth the price difference.

If neither applies, congratulations on your first gen iPhone.
 
mashinhead said:
how do you know the don't charge to use gps in the US. I was at the ATT store and they charge 9.99 a month to use GPS for their blackberries.
Click to expand...

I'm 99% sure this won't be the case for the iPhone. AT&T hasn't been too clear on every detail, but considering they've released all of the monthly fees for the new iPhone and said nothing about GPS costing more I doubt it will be an additional fee. Time will tell, though.
 
Depends how much mobile internet usage you foresee yourself using. It will be quite a novelty at first, but after the first month it wears off.
 
If they require you to pay for GPS, it will most definitely be hacked to work for free. Same how on verizon the charge for VZ Navigator, but on phones like the Touch it can be flashed to a different carriers rom to unlock free gps
 
jadamcyk said:
Hey i've never owned an iphone but am planning to get one soon and was wondering if it was worth it to get the 3g iphone or just get the first gen.

my friend has a new 8 gb iphone first gen that hes willing to sell to me for 200 or less. From all your experiences with the current iphone is it worth it to pay 15 dollars more a month for the 3g (10 for the plan and 5 for 200 msg)?:)

I am also kind of worried that apple will release a better 3g iphone in the next couple months after release...:confused:

thanks!
Click to expand...

My opinion is that there is a huge difference for frequent browsing between 2G and 3G.
As far as a "better" 3G iphone in the next couple of months... won't happen.
 
netdog said:
Given the speeds that AT&T is throttling the 3G iPhone down to, I am not at all convinced that it is worth the extra fees.
Click to expand...

In terms of web-browsing, the iPhone's processor won't be able to load and render pages fast enough to make higher than 1.4mbps worth it.
 
I'm going to smirk when all the new 3G's are running around, and they are really no different than the first gen. It's not worth an extra $180 a year (3g service + text mssgs they took out of the plan) for me to upgrade.


It's the same processor. It's the same amount of memory. Same display.

Sure the speaker phone will be a little louder, and GPS (which isn't needed since the Google Locate Me was released).

90% of my surfing is in a wifi zone.

So is it worth $180 to say 20-30 seconds here and there when I'm outside a wifi zone? That's the question.
 
Well, I'm pretty happy with my 1st gen. EDGE isn't nearly as painful as some portray it to be, and I'm still not sure that 3G & GPS are worth the extra cost. I'm reserving judgement until I have one in my hands, but, I'm not nearly as compelled to buy one as I thought I'd be...
 
Jason S. said:
But the processor can handle graphically intense 3D games in real-time?
Click to expand...

Yup.
Well, it's either the processor, the OS, or the Safari. Most likely a combination of all three. A webpage on the iPhone on WiFi loads about 5 times slower than the same website on the same WiFi connection from a computer.
 
Wirelessly posted (PPC; 240x320; HTC_TyTN/1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.7))

So SJ's demonstration of webpage loading times on the keynote was a fabrication? Got any proof?
 
mark34 said:
My opinion is that there is a huge difference for frequent browsing between 2G and 3G.
As far as a "better" 3G iphone in the next couple of months... won't happen.
Click to expand...

Please don't overlook the fact that you will have superior voice reception under a 3G blanket. Additionally, you can reach the same destination when browsing in a fraction of the time; better battery life.
 
sassenach74 said:
Wirelessly posted (PPC; 240x320; HTC_TyTN/1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.7))

So SJ's demonstration of webpage loading times on the keynote was a fabrication? Got any proof?
Click to expand...

No, not a fabrication at all.
According to the keynote, the nationalgeographic.com homepage took 17 seconds to load on WiFi.
The same website just took 3 seconds to load on my iMac.

The proof is I've used the iPhone for a year. Webpages load much slower on an iPhone than they do on a computer.
 
JBaker122586 said:
No, not a fabrication at all.
According to the keynote, the nationalgeographic.com homepage took 17 seconds to load on WiFi.
The same website just took 3 seconds to load on my iMac.

The proof is I've used the iPhone for a year. Webpages load much slower on an iPhone than they do on a computer.
Click to expand...

My experience is pretty much the same. iPhone shows web sites much slower than a Mac on the same network. It's okay, though.

I decided not to upgrade yet because 90% of my web usage on the iPhone is on WiFi, and while GPS would be nice, I wouldn't have much opportunity to use it in my day to day life.

I will upgrade when the processor gets a bump. Pretty excited about upcoming Apps.
 
mashinhead said:
how do you know the don't charge to use gps in the US. I was at the ATT store and they charge 9.99 a month to use GPS for their blackberries.
Click to expand...
How would at&t charge to use GPS? at&t doesn't control who has access to the GPS sats since it's free to access it.

Does Tom Tom charge you a fee to access the GPS sats? No!
 
jadamcyk said:
Hey i've never owned an iphone but am planning to get one soon and was wondering if it was worth it to get the 3g iphone or just get the first gen.

my friend has a new 8 gb iphone first gen that hes willing to sell to me for 200 or less. From all your experiences with the current iphone is it worth it to pay 15 dollars more a month for the 3g (10 for the plan and 5 for 200 msg)?:)

I am also kind of worried that apple will release a better 3g iphone in the next couple months after release...:confused:

thanks!
Click to expand...

I was in the same situation a couple weeks ago, but the plastic back sealed the deal for me:). I went with the gen 1 phone, and as has been said earlier, EDGE is not that bad.

For me, GPS was not a consideration as I now have a GPS unit, and 3G would have been nice, but not to the tune of $180. I can certainly afford the added expense, I just can't justify it as happy as I am with the 1v.

Jude
 
mashinhead said:
how do you know the don't charge to use gps in the US. I was at the ATT store and they charge 9.99 a month to use GPS for their blackberries.
Click to expand...

I think that's AT&T's GPS software. The actual use of the GPS is out of AT&T's control.

Either way, I wasn't commenting on how it was free. I was just commenting on the title of the thread...not just 3G or no 3G....it's 3G + GPS or no 3G. :p
 
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