The Apple iPhone 3GS has a plethora of features archived in its kitty, but how many of them have managed to make us jump out of our seats? Well, read this review to know what this handset scored on our rating card. Beauty may lie in the eyes of the beholder, but when it comes to Apple products it lies in every eye set upon them. Aesthetics is something that has been integrated with the brand Apple from the very beginning. With innovation at its best, the company has its fingers dug deep in every tech field right from computers and music players to mobile phones. Calling this much coveted Apple handset a mere mobile phone doesn’t somehow justify the device’s existence, as it proffers much more than the basic calling and messaging functionalities.
Packed in its petite black coffer, the compactness of the iPhone 3GS has spread out to encompass even its box. Simplicity is what appears to be the thought behind the packaging as it housed the handset cradled on a plastic crib. Located below were perfectly encased Apple earphones with a remote and mic, USB power adapter, dock connector to USB cable, along with a product information guide. The first thing that struck us on opening this elegant box was the debonair handset that lay within. With striking candor and an unpretentious appearance, the device maintained its sleekness by tipping the scales at 135g while measuring 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm.
Its pristine 3.5 inch fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coated glass screen took up the entire front leaving enough space right at the bottom to fit in a center circular home button. While the top edge was fitted with a SIM card tray, a 3.5mm stereo headphone mini-jack and the sleep/wake button, its right panel was left untouched. Situated on the left-hand spine were the ring/silent button and the volume buttons. The in-built speaker was found below sharing space with the microphone and the 30-pin dock connector.
The moment we plugged the device into its USB charger, the iPhone 3G S surged to life. After sipping some battery juice it took us to the main homescreen which had four icons namely, the Phone, Mail, Safari and iPod functionalities at the base. Even though the handset came with a single homescreen users can save up applications in over nine pages. On adding our favorite ones, we had four loaded pages. However this did not slow down the ability to slide between pages as the user interface was all about seamless navigation. With utmost simplicity and smoothness, the interface enables you to customize the pages by simply pressing on any icon for long. As all the symbols wiggle, you can drag and drop any of them in your desired place, even the four located below.
The signatory home sign on the menu button that we see on certain phones was obviously not present here as it was replaced with an unpretentious square probably representing all those quadrangle shaped icons sitting peacefully inside. The general ones that we found were App Store, You Tube, Calendar, Camera, iTunes, Messages, Notes, Photos, Settings and Utilities. We first proceeded to analyze what lay behind the Settings icon to arrange this device as per our preference. It was loaded with a myriad of options allowing us to alter various functions other than the basic ones like sound, brightness, wallpaper, and general. One thing we really liked about the device was that it allowed us to customize several key tasks which made using it fun.
Being photography lovers, we decided to take on the iPhone’s 3.2MP camera to test its capturing ability. Just as expected, the camera scored an ace on our list as the clarity was pristine, while the camera interface was quick and wasted no time toggling between the camera roll and the homescreen. Zooming in to capture little details could easily be done by tapping on the screen and then sliding the scroll bar, although full zoomed images weren’t exactly that clear. However the ace just fell a little low in rating as no modes or flash could be found in the device. Shifting to the video mode was quick with the help of the video mode scroll bar placed at the right hand side corner of the camera interface. The video quality failed a bit as the resolution of the VGA videos shot was not quite up to the mark.
The Camera Roll housed all our images, thus we headed there to checkout their quality. Pictures appeared great on the screen, while sifting through them or zooming was found to be quick and easy. Jumping satisfactorily from the camera, we paused a while at YouTube’s icon to view some amazing videos. They looked stunning in high clarity and loaded up quickly without any latency. The dedicated icon enabled us to dive into a sea of videos, waiting for us to explore them. We then moved onto the App Store to dwell on the deluge of applications it houses.
Updating and expanding your library can be done either directly from the device’s App Store or by syncing it to a computer. However, on pairing the device with another PC, adding content seemed tedious as it would overwrite the previous data. Apart from a wider view of the iTunes profile on accessing through a USB cord, no other difference was found while visiting the Store without connecting it. We checked out a few games like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Spider, Street Fighter IV, Shrek Karting, World Cup and others. With the help of options like check on updates, rate top 25, search, and view apps by various categories our journey through the fun-filled App Store was made even pleasant.
The iPhone 4 created uproar for wrong reasons, as many complained about its poor call reception. The Apple iPhone 3GS never gave us a reason to grumble, while we indulged in long conversation with pristine voice clarity. On the point of communication, we would like to add that typing out messages with the virtual touchscreen QWERTY keypad was no different from its predecessor. Moreover, the added copy/paste facility makes it simpler to type out those lengthy mails and messages. Other features that remain unchanged were namely, marking important days in calendars, creating general notes, tracking stock market trends or using the pre-loaded maps. Utilities however housed a new functionality, the Voice Control which lets you locate content, or play music with voice commands.
Another fresh specialty of this iPhone version was the included hardware compass, which let us navigate new cities effortlessly. Voice Memos too caught our eye, enabling us to record our voices and save it or share it with others. With the introduction of Spotlight to the iOS, almost all the content could be accessed on the homescreen. This handset ran almost twice as faster when compared to its older versions. This could be accredited to the addition of improved hardware mainly a 256MB RAM coupled with 600MHz CPU. Audiophiles world over already know that Apple’s expertise in music products is unquestionable. The music quality was ace as we plugged in the earphones. Coming finally to the battery life, it lasted for about five hours just like the iPhone 3G.
Pros:
The touchscreen experience was a seamless indulgence, be it swiping or scrolling.
Browsing was swift as downloading applications took barely any time.
The improvised utilities are worth a mention.
Cons:
The ability to tag photos, crop, geo tag, edit images is amiss, whereas the video recording functionality could have been better.
The lack of a music shortcut is troublesome.
An added multi-tasking capability would surely be appreciated.
In conclusion, we would like to say that if you are looking for intuitive navigation and quick responsiveness, then look no further. The iPhone 3GS meets the Apple benchmark, however a few tweaks especially in the camera would surely augment its popularity. Proffering a cascade of attributes, the handset would be an apt companion for you to take off with. Rating it a 9 out of 10, you would have to shell out approximately Rs. 40,000 to procure this 32GB beauty.