Fri, 19 Jun 2009 iPhone 3G S - First Look Video Review

Apple’s latest iPhone hit the shelves with less fanfare than previous models. It has the same case, style and, apart from the ‘S’, the same name at its predecessor – the iPhone 3G. But this incremental upgrade is worth considering, and offers a few nice new features for first-time iPhone owners.

The S stands for speed, and although Apple is generally very tight-lipped about what's inside the iPhone 3G S, we understand that it has a slightly faster processor and more memory.

Update: The information regarding Maps is incorrect. You can navigate using the compass in the Maps application by double-tapping the Location icon.

T-Mobile accidentally posted the specs for the iPhone 3G S that showed a 600MHz processor, up from the 412MHz in the iPhone 3G. And it now has 256MB of memory, up from 128MB.

This subtle speed boost improves the iPhone across the board. Web browsing is now much faster, especially when using a Wi-Fi connection and the whole interface feels snappier than before. And this gives the iPhone 3G S a better feel than its predecessor.

This speed boost will also give developers a bit of room to grow. Although the iPhone was already a lot more powerful than other mobile phones, developers only have a small amount of memory to work with and a much slower processor than they're used to in desktop computers.

But users can now expect more complex apps, and especially games, to run a lot faster on the iPhone 3G S.
At press time there weren't any iPhone 3G S specific applications, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when they are developed. A while ago we heard rumours of a premium iTunes App store so developers could sell apps at a premium price. It may be that Apple ties this in with iPhone 3G S specific functionality, but time will tell.

There are also a few new pieces of technology in there. There's a built in magnetometer that acts as a 3D compass and a compass App that shows you which direction you're facing. It works in all directions, vertically as well as horizontally, and while just having a compass app isn't that useful, it can be handy when navigating by foot using Google Maps to find out which direction you're facing.

The other new feature is video editing. This works in the Camera app which now has a little slider to switch between camera and video. It's not just recording either. You can trim the start and ends of a video using a slider that's like iMovie. And when you've edited the video you can send it to by Email, MMS, or share it with MobileMe, you can even upload edited videos straight from the iPhone 3G S to YouTube.

It's not cheap, however. You have to pay £185 for the iPhone 3G S on contract or £440 for a pay-and-go mode. If you're still on an iPhone 3G contract you have to either pay to end your contract early, or pick up a Pay & Go model and carry on paying the rest of your contract.

Also released in June was iPhone 3.0 which, at 250MB, is the biggest OS update yet for Apple’s handset. Click here to read all about the iPhone 3.0 software update.

Editor's note: As this is a First Look review we're going to hold off giving a score to the iPhone 3G S for now. We will return with a more in-depth review, and score, when we have had a chance to fully test the iPhone 3G S.