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Why the iPhone 3GS is still relevant in 2012
- Thread starter Beeplance
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I'd buy a 3GS with 4S internals and retina screenStill think its a beautiful looking phone.
Make the thing scratch and crack proof and I'd buy 2
LOL yeah i would love to have an A5 chip, a retina display, 8 megapixel camera and siri on an iPhone 3GS if that was actually possible. Too bad it's a fantasy, or else i would have said to Apple,"Shut up and take my money".
I agree with a lot that has been said here...the 3GS has withstood the test of time and is still a good piece of hardware, even at the $375 they want for it to get a brand-new unlocked one. Some nitpicks, though...
Re: the plastic casing, anybody who was not around when the 3G first came out and people were getting cracks in their casing *straight out of the box* near specific areas such as the speaker, microphone, power button, volume controls, and mute switch (essentially, anyplace where there was a cutout/hole in the mold) has no room to talk. One of those "infamous" 3G/3GS design flaws, along with the LCD "light leak."
Re: software updates, since it is getting 6.0, it would be surprising for it not to get 6.1 should it ever be released. On the other hand, Apple didn't release 4.3.x for certain models that got 4.2.x, which I always thought was rather a crock...now those devices cannot use apps whose updates require 4.3.x.
Also consider that the 3GS, which IS getting 6.0, has the same SoC in it as the iPod touch 3rd-gen, which ISN'T (inexplicably) getting 6.0.
-- Nathan
Not a hardware limitation (although to be fair, you mentioned this)...
Not a hardware limitation...
Not a hardware limitation...
Re: the plastic casing, anybody who was not around when the 3G first came out and people were getting cracks in their casing *straight out of the box* near specific areas such as the speaker, microphone, power button, volume controls, and mute switch (essentially, anyplace where there was a cutout/hole in the mold) has no room to talk. One of those "infamous" 3G/3GS design flaws, along with the LCD "light leak."
Re: software updates, since it is getting 6.0, it would be surprising for it not to get 6.1 should it ever be released. On the other hand, Apple didn't release 4.3.x for certain models that got 4.2.x, which I always thought was rather a crock...now those devices cannot use apps whose updates require 4.3.x.
Very close, but not exact. The GPU is different and I think the audio chipset is different between the two, not to mention the screens are different...Apple may just decide that they only want to release and support a Retina version of iOS and drop the 3GS. Also, similarities in CPU architecture have never stopped Apple from ceasing support for older models. Consider that the original iPhone (which was model iPhone1,1) only got iOS 3.1.3, whereas iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2) got 4.2.1. Both of those phones had the EXACT SAME CPU/SoC! In fact, I would go as far as to say that those two phone models were MORE similar internally than any other two iPhone models. The only thing separating the 3G from the original was the baseband and the addition of GPS. Same SoC meant same CPU architecture, same GPU, same amount of RAM, etc. And yet Apple couldn't be bothered to release 4.x for iPhone.
Also consider that the 3GS, which IS getting 6.0, has the same SoC in it as the iPod touch 3rd-gen, which ISN'T (inexplicably) getting 6.0.
-- Nathan