Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 3G First Impressions and Reviews

Charging the iPhone

Will I be able to use the ipod dock or will I need another cable tethered to my computer to charge/sync it? I also have a Monster iCarplay for the vehicle? Does the iPhone charge the same way the ipod does? Or will I need to buy yet another accessory?
 
anyone who has both a first-gen and new 3G, is the reception on the 3G better? i am wondering if the combo of plastic back and 3G = better reception or not.
 
shecky said:
anyone who has both a first-gen and new 3G, is the reception on the 3G better? i am wondering if the combo of plastic back and 3G = better reception or not.
Click to expand...
Reception on my 2.5G was fine, 3G seems about the same. I'm also pretty close to a tower here at work, though. I don't know if they were connecting to the same cell networks, though, seeing as the contract that my phone is on (some odd thing from work) has deals with carriers in basically every country. It may well have been on another network with the 2.5G, making them hard to compare.
 
I got my 16GB White iPhone 3G this morning at 6:55am.

Im so glad I took a chance and bought the white because it is gorgeous!

Pros:
- Everything seems a little crisper and sharper
- Feel better in the hand
- Plastic back feels solid and not cheap at all
- Screen seems a little more vivid
- AppStore is fantastic!
- Speaker sounds great now and so does audio playback with earphones!
- Speedy internet and downloads
- GPS is so handy, been using it this afternoon

Cons:
- The headset jack seems really tight, hard to get the earphones in and especially out.
- Installed AIM and Remote, both failed to open and had to be reinstalled.

All in all I'm very happy with the improvements, I'm glad I upgraded!
 
Waited in the freezing cold for 6 hours this morning, but I got one 😀 Ended up with a white 16GB, they had sold out of black ones by the time I reached the front of the queue. No big deal for me, I think the white looks great anyway, I guess I just hadn't considered it beforehand.

The big reason for me to get this phone was the Exchange integration. It is MAGNIFICENT! I switched constantly between my old iPhone and an HTC Touch, depending on whether I needed push-exchange-email. Now, I don't need to swap phones, my all-in-wonder does it all! I'm so super stoked about it and possibly still a bit delirious from standing up for so long.

Other thoughts - Optus 3G coverage indoors seems a little patchy. At the moment, I've switched 3G off so I can have full strength phone calls. Will monitor that, but as I'm usually close to a Wi-Fi point, 3G isn't a big deal. Also, the screen is brilliant. I had an iPod Touch and the iPhone that I mentioned, this is easily as good, if not better. Videos look just beautiful. The sound quality seems improved, but again, that may be the standing-up-in-the-cold-too-long-itis kicking in.

Overall, I am very happy with the phone. Would I line up for it, knowing what I know? Heck no! That was the stupidest thing I have ever done. Next time, I will be patient and wait a few weeks til everything calms down. Still, I have it now and am very happy.

Good luck to everyone else who is getting an iPhone.

Damo
 
What about battery life?

Ok, i know it haven't pass even a day but so far how do you feel the battery life in the new iPhone 3G? that is my big concern
:apple:
 
I'm stil debating on the Black or White and I have 8 hours to decide... Hopefully we can preview them before we have to buy them..
 
shecky said:
anyone who has both a first-gen and new 3G, is the reception on the 3G better? i am wondering if the combo of plastic back and 3G = better reception or not.
Click to expand...

My reception for both is fine. The only thing I will say is that with Optus (Aussie network), the 3G doesn't seem great indoors. That said, I don't think that's the fault of the iPhone. I haven't had a 3G phone before, so it's probably just their network. I'm sure others can share their experiences.

Damo
 
Phone is unlocked here in NZ

Bought my phone outright from Vodafone in New Zealand and it seems as though they're completely unlocked (over here at least). As a test I put an o2 UK sim card in I can quite happily roam and enter whatever APN I want. The 'Cellular Data Network' option only becomes available when a non-NZ vod SIM card is inserted. I'd therefore say the phone comes completely unlocked for both voice and data straight out of the box.

As an aside, I also cancelled out of the activation process (because I realised I still had a UK address registerd in itunes) and so never activated the phone - and it works quite happily. And I didn't/don't get offered the activation process again.
 
I got Black 16Gb from CPW at 7.45am, it feels amazing and looks great. Defo a smudge magnet. It looks almost wet glossy.

The metal buttons are v solid and look great too. There is no 3G universal dock adapter plate, just charger, USB and headphones.
 
edtorious said:
I'm curious, did you originally wanted black? I wanted black, but now i'm not sure but I guess I'll find out tomorrow!😀
Click to expand...

No I definitely wanted white. I figured if it was done right it would look really nice. And after 10 hours in line in the middle of winter it was important to have chosen beforehand while I was still of sound mind!

Out of curiosity, I sat the white iPhone next to a current-model Macbook to compare. The finish on them is quite different. The phone isn't as glossy - it's a lot closer to the finish on an Apple Remote.

After a day of use: (in no particular order)

The battery is really pretty good, but there's only so much a batter can take! If you play obsessively with your new phone and keep EVERYTHING switched on you WILL drain the battery quickly. 😉

The GPS falls back to cell towers indoors, and this is nowhere near as accurate as where it is able to get a proper GPS signal. I wasn't REALLY standing in the middle of the harbour 😉 ... But when it gets a good signal it's pretty good. Even so, I can see why overall you wouldn't recommend it for turn by turn navigating.

I can confirm no negative black issues with the screen on mine.

The power adapter is the cutest power adapter you ever saw.

Browsing on my iPhone is a smidge (i.e. noticably but not frustratingly) slower than browsing on my MacBook Pro using a HSDPA modem. I tried loading a few pages on both at the same time. Given all the parallel downloading, rendering (etc) that's pretty good.

The iTunes remote works really well. It's very snappy, and anyone with an AppleTV or Airport Express should be really chuffed with it.

And BEWARE THE APP STORE. It is habit forming. 😀
 
Hello All, I was the second sale of iPhone 3G Black 16gig from touchwood o2 store UK

Flawless product so far, its very impressive.

Gps locates me very well. Within about 5seconds.

Dont really know what to say about it really (will answer questions) Its just a flawless product so far.

JP
 
Johnpartridge said:
Hello All, I was the second sale of iPhone 3G Black 16gig from touchwood o2 store UK

Flawless product so far, its very impressive.

Gps locates me very well. Within about 5seconds.

Dont really know what to say about it really (will answer questions) Its just a flawless product so far.

JP
Click to expand...

Were there big queues?

Some people are saying the GPS isn't all that good, e.g. not good enough to be used as a turn-by-turn GPS for a car, have you tried the GPS in your car? Does it still appear accurate?

Also, does the GPS work just as well with 3G turned off? (Apple say it's "assisted", but am a bit confused as to how "assisted" it is....)

ta!

btw - congratulations on getting one 🙂
 
Bevz said:
Were there big queues?

Some people are saying the GPS isn't all that good, e.g. not good enough to be used as a turn-by-turn GPS for a car, have you tried the GPS in your car? Does it still appear accurate?

Also, does the GPS work just as well with 3G turned off? (Apple say it's "assisted", but am a bit confused as to how "assisted" it is....)

ta!

btw - congratulations on getting one 🙂
Click to expand...

There were around 100-150ppl Id say. But alot of them moved onto other stores (as I was with the first 5 in the store) they told us that they only have VERY VERY limited stock, e.g around 20 x 16gigs. There was also abit of queue jumping by 2 people. E.g went inside touchwood via a cleaners service door before the main doors (with alot of people waiting by) opened. Big fuss was made by both people, One large Policeman who was in the queue "spoke" to them, then security removed them to the back of the queue.

GPS is working great in my house so far, i'm going out later so will try it on the road and report back. Cant tell you about 3G yet, as UK New o2 customers phones aren't activated yet (dont even have a phone number), so I can only use it for wifi at the moment.

JP
 
Just got back from the o2 store in leeds, the iphone is syncing as we speak,
At first looks, looks alot nicer and feels nicer in your hand. Got super monkey ball on it and it is almost as fun as on the wii!!
16gb Black is the best one to get as it is the best looking.
The speed at which it runs at on the 3g networking is very good although not as fast as on my WI-Fi
Hooking up to mobile me was no problem and it runs as smoothly as .Mac
Just cant wait till the 2.0 ipod touch comes out!!!
 
Johnpartridge said:
There were around 100-150ppl Id say. But alot of them moved onto other stores (as I was with the first 5 in the store) they told us that they only have VERY VERY limited stock, e.g around 20 x 16gigs. There was also abit of queue jumping by 2 people. E.g went inside touchwood via a service store before the main doors (with alot of people waiting by) opened. Big fuss was made by both people, One large Policeman who was in the queue "spoke" to them, then security removed them to the back of the queue.

GPS is working great in my house so far, i'm going out later so will try it on the road and report back. Cant tell you about 3G yet, as UK New o2 customers phones aren't activated yet (dont even have a phone number), so I can only use it for wifi at the moment.

JP
Click to expand...


LOL, sounds like a mad affair... 100-150ppl! Wow... Kinda glad i didn't go down this morning now... I've already got a gen1 iphone so i'm happily playing Super Monkey Ball (and so is my 4 year old son!) so i recon i'll wait a few weeks and upgrade online.

Keep posting your thoughts when your 3G is enabled as it's great to hear ppls opinions on it (still trying to justify spending £100 on a new one!) 😉

cheers.
 
MAC-PRO-DEMON said:
Just got back from the o2 store in leeds, the iphone is syncing as we speak,
At first looks, looks alot nicer and feels nicer in your hand. Got super monkey ball on it and it is almost as fun as on the wii!!
16gb Black is the best one to get as it is the best looking.
The speed at which it runs at on the 3g networking is very good although not as fast as on my WI-Fi
Hooking up to mobile me was no problem and it runs as smoothly as .Mac
Just cant wait till the 2.0 ipod touch comes out!!!
Click to expand...

Demon, what software build is it? I know it's 2.0 but what's the number after in Settings> About? Does itunes update the firmware on first sync?
 
First impressions.. very good. The back doesn't look cheap as I'd feared, although it is a fingerprint magnet.

3G speed is great - 7.05Mbps measured from a UK speed test (broadbandchoices.co.uk)... that's close to the maximum I'd expect to get (or even the maximum possible). As a result I've disabled wifi to save battery.

Rendering speed is fast.. really nice.

BBC iPlayer is blocked over 3G, as expected... youtube works though.
 
TonyHoyle said:
First impressions.. very good. The back doesn't look cheap as I'd feared, although it is a fingerprint magnet.

3G speed is great - 7.05Mbps measured from a UK speed test (broadbandchoices.co.uk)... that's close to the maximum I'd expect to get (or even the maximum possible). As a result I've disabled wifi to save battery.

Rendering speed is fast.. really nice.

BBC iPlayer is blocked over 3G, as expected... youtube works though.
Click to expand...


I have the same question as the previous post... what version is your OS? i.e. the version number after the 2.....?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back