iPhone 3GS Review

It seems cheap posting this after the prior entry, but if one leads to the other, that will do no harm.

Yesterday I received an 32GB iPhone 3GS from Vodafone on upgrade. (In black, dahling.) As most of you well know, I am a fan of well designed gadgets and do in fact design them too for my employer – and have been sketching wireless device concepts since the 1970s. Therefore I am fairly critical and know what I want – which means, I am probably in tune with your deepest desires too! Machines should work for us, not against us. To date, such an idealistic status quo has yet to emerge.

I won’t cover matters discussed in other reviews (such as the brilliant apps, timeless industrial design or lack of multi-tasking.) Thoughts in random order:

Bare in mind I have been a full time iPod Touch user for a year or so. Possibly Apple’s best ever product for so many reasons – something they have only recently realised, but may never exploit to the max. The lack of a microphone and camera in the iPod Touch is annoying but of course designed to make people migrate to the iPhone – and it worked! Clever Stevie!

SWEET

• The whole iPhone interface is gorgeous. (Not original, but gorgeous. Yes, I’ll blow a trumpet here. Hit my employers website and see the interface designs I created for our products between 1985 and 1988. Very much like iTunes and the iPhone of today, but realised 15-20 years earlier.)
• iPhone is very light for its size.
• Swipe to (universal) search is a prime example of simple done right. However, see SOUR for one flaw.
• The speed and responsiveness is excellent, not that the previous 2 & 3G models were that bad either.
• Screen is superb inside and outside – unlike AMOLED displays that you may be reading about re the Nexus 1 and some Samsung phones. Those are hard to read in daylight. Not much good when you’re trying to use Google maps to find somewhere outdoors!
• The user interface for making calls or sending text messages is a pleasure to experience and actually makes either a great deal of fun! (See how other handset manufacturers try to emulate Apple – in a half baked manner.)
• Excellent loud alarms! (Select the ‘Alarm’ sound from the options for that ultra effective 6:30am wake up!)

SOUR

Hopefully most of the software or firmware related issues will be fixed in the forthcoming ‘tablet edition’ version 3.X/4.0 upgrade rumoured to be announced at the end of January.

• Bad bad bad. Poor signal reception. I knew this before obtaining the iPhone, but it is a good reason why Apple should have partnered up with an industry veteran to source their wireless technology. The iPhone while a delight to use is not a good ‘phone’. It may sound outrageous, but if Apple had caught Motorola before the latter became interested in Android, they would have got their hands on the best wireless technology in the world. Period. (And some nice set top box tech to make a practical saleable Apple TV. Too late.)
• Text messaging is fun thanks to the communication bubbles, but with some annoying flaws:
  • No message delivery confirmation. Not knowing if a message has been received is a nuisance, and for me, stressful as it makes life and project management unreliable. Ages old Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones offer this.
  • Whilst typing a text message, if you wish to abort, there is no [Cancel] option! Your half completed message is left there and you have to erase it. These little things make a big difference.
  • These flaws are why I have do and always will believe the best way to communicate in non real time in writing is by email. It is no co-incidence that RIM are still doing very well. They get messaging, as do Nokia with the excellent E7X series.
• The otherwise excellent universal search does NOT search through Notes attached to a contact – a major flaw because the most common user of search is to look up people and other entities by association when you cannot remember their other details.
• iPhone screen resolution is showing it’s age. While ok for gaming, video and music – scrolling around and/or zooming in and out in Safari is a nuisance after using devices like the Nokia N900 or Motorola DROID. (All said, the latter are a lot more recent and we all know that the next generation iPhone will play tomato catchup – and more.)
• Lack of mechanical camera shutter release makes self portraits and street photography somewhat – touch and – hopefully – go?
• Like the iPod and those supplied with some other 3rd party audio players and phones, the trademark white Apple headphones are useless, requiring constant re-positioning. = Extra money for the accessories makers? Further, the microphone is not omnidirectional – people cannot hear you if the cable is not hanging just right.
• These comments are appropriate to all Apple’s touch screen iDevices:
  • Lack of consistency across the interface. One can swipe to delete emails, but not individual components of a text message, calendar entries or call log entries.
  • The calendar is not smart, like those from Nokia etc. On Nokia phones such as the small but versatile 5530, you can hold your finger over a calendar date to perform a selection of actions. This speeds things up considerably.
  • The orientation sensor lacks intelligence and control. When lying down and trying to surf the web or do something else where the sensor kicks in, iPhone screen will rotate to landscape when you want it in portrait (or the reverse.) There needs to be a way to disable the sensor, even temporarily.
  • Inability to quickly navigate to an app, except by using Search. (A minor quibble really.)

COMMENT

iPhone has been, is – and until a major upgrade – always will be an entertainment and media phone. It is not a smart phone. Smart means that (default) apps and information seamlessly pass between, sync and integrate to make your life easier. Once Apple do what Palm have done so well with the WebOS powered Pre and Google are doing with the Nexus 1, we’ll be talking, but for now, iPhone is an amazing experience, but not a tool for hassle free productivity.

Other than the signal quality (something that may not be fixable), I love the iPhone. It is something I feel one could use to ‘survive’ without any other non edible/drinkable items anywhere, as long as a solar charging station was always on hand. For starters, you can never get bored thanks to all the games and other apps.

One more thing, if it wasn’t for the screen, I would have got a Nexus 1. And if it was available here, a Motorola DROID. But that would have unplugged me from all the apps and tunes I have acquired.  The iPhone is more mature and so liable to be more stable at what it does best, so suited to a mission critical lifestyle. Will try an Android device in a few months. The killer for me with the Nexus 1 is the camera that appears to take great photos from the early reviews. Less gadgets the better. Hope you are all aware of where Google are headed with the Nexus concept? It is radical and will be upend the whole industry if they can pull it off. Or should I say, if Google are the ones who manage to pull ‘it’ off… 😉

Fight back club: Ensure Apple are made aware of what they need to do to retain your loyalty. Post on forums, write a review, let your air time provider and/or supplier know.

Newsflash – This just out!
(© 2010 The Daily Telegraph and nothing at all to do with iPhone!)