Newer, Faster, Cheaper iPhone 3G



Software and Online Store Will Widen Its Versatility, But There Are Hidden Costs






July 8, 2008

by Walter S. Mossberg


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Apple
Inc.’s iPhone has been the world’s most influential smart phone since
its debut a year ago, widely hailed for its beauty and functionality.
It was a true hand-held computer that raised the bar for all its
competitors. But that first iPhone had two big drawbacks: It was
expensive, and it couldn’t access the fastest cellular-phone networks.












On Friday, Apple is launching a second-generation iPhone, called the
iPhone 3G, which addresses both of those problems, while retaining the
look and feel of the first model’s hardware and software.
The base version of the new iPhone costs $199 — half the $399 price
of its predecessor; the higher-capacity version is now $299, down from
$499. Yet, this new iPhone is much, much faster at fetching data over
cellphone networks because it uses a speedy cellular technology called
3G. And it now sports a GPS chip for better location sensing.
The company also is rolling out the second generation of its iPhone
operating system, with some nice new features, including wireless
synchronization with corporate email, calendars and address books. And
there’s a new online store for third-party iPhone programs that Apple
hopes will make the device usable for a wider variety of tasks,
including gaming and productivity applications. This new software and
store will also be available on older iPhones, through a free upgrade.
I’ve been testing the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks, and have
found that it mostly keeps its promises. In particular, I found that
doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and
five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older
AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited.
Apple’s new iPhone operating system includes an ‘App store,’ where you can browse for, and download, third-party software.

The iPhone 3G is hardly the first phone to run on 3G networks, and
it still costs more than some of its competitors. But overall, I found
it to be a more capable version of an already excellent device. And now
that it’s open to third-party programs, the iPhone has a chance to
become a true computing platform with wide versatility.
There are two big hidden costs to the new iPhone’s faster speed and
lower price tag. First, in my tests, the iPhone 3G’s battery was
drained much more quickly in a typical day of use than the battery on
the original iPhone, due to the higher power demands of 3G networks.
This is an especially significant problem because, unlike most other
smart phones, the iPhone has a sealed battery that can’t be replaced
with a spare.
Second, Apple’s exclusive carrier in the U.S., AT&T
Inc., has effectively negated the iPhone’s up-front price cut by
jacking up its monthly fee for unlimited data use by $10. Over the
course of the two-year contract you must sign to get the lower hardware
prices, that adds $240, overwhelming the $200 savings on the phone
itself. If you want text messaging, the cost rises further. With the
first iPhone, 200 text messages a month came free. Now, 200 messages
will cost $5 a month, or another $120 over the two-year contract.
The iPhone 3G still has a couple of features that made the first
version unpalatable to some potential buyers. It uses a virtual
on-screen keyboard instead of a physical one. While I find the virtual
keyboard easy and accurate, not everyone does. Also, in the U.S. and in
many other countries, the iPhone is still tied to a single exclusive
carrier, whose coverage or rate plans may be unacceptable to some.
Here is a rundown of the changes in the new model.
Design: The new iPhone looks almost exactly like
the old one. It is the same length and width, has the same big, vivid
screen, and has the same number and layout of buttons. The main
difference is the back, which is now plastic instead of mostly metal
and curved instead of flat. It’s very slightly thicker in the middle,
with tapered edges, and weighs a tiny bit less.
The new iPhone 3G (left) delivers much higher Internet download speeds over cellular networks than the original iPhone (right).

Like its predecessor, the iPhone 3G comes in two models
distinguished only by storage capacity: 8 gigabytes and 16 gigabytes.
The top model is available in black or white.
Apple has greatly improved the audio on the new iPhone. I found the
speaker was much louder, for music and for the speakerphone. But the
new phone produced an echo when used with the built-in Bluetooth system
in my car. Also, the headphone jack is now flush with the case instead
of recessed as on the first model, so it can accept any standard stereo
earphones.
The camera, however, is still bare-bones. It can’t record video and
has a resolution of just two megapixels. The power adapter is now tiny,
at least in the U.S., but Apple no longer includes a dock for charging,
just a cable.
Software: The basic software is similar. The
biggest addition for some users will be full compatibility with
Microsoft’s widely used Exchange ActiveSync service, which many
corporations use. In my tests, I was able to connect the iPhone 3G to
my company’s Exchange servers in a few minutes, and my corporate email,
calendar and contacts were replicated on the phone. Any changes I made
on the iPhone were reflected almost instantly in Microsoft Outlook on
my company PC, and vice versa. Email was pushed to the phone as soon as
it was received on the company’s servers.
One drawback: While you can have both personal and
Exchange email accounts on the new iPhone, if you synchronize with
Exchange calendars and contacts, your personal calendar and contacts
are erased.
The new iPhone and upgraded older iPhones also will be able to use a
new Apple consumer service, MobileMe, which offers synchronized push
email, calendars, photos and contacts.
There are other improvements. You can now delete multiple emails at
once, set parental controls and search your contacts. You can also save
photos in emails or from Web sites. You can also now open Microsoft
PowerPoint files sent as attachments, though I found in my tests that
opening larger PowerPoint files crashed the phone.
Some software features missing from the first iPhone are still AWOL
on the new one. There’s no copy and paste function, no universal
search, no instant messaging and no MMS for sending photos quickly
between phones.
Network: Like the old iPhone, the new one can
perform Internet tasks using either Wi-Fi wireless networking or the
cellphone networks. But the addition of 3G cellular capability makes
the new model more useful for Web surfing, email and other data tasks
when you’re not in Wi-Fi range. In my tests, in Washington and New
York, I got data speeds mostly ranging between 200 and 500 kilobits per
second. By comparison, the original iPhone, tested in the same spots at
the same time, mostly got cellular data speeds between 70 and 150 kbps
on AT&T’s old EDGE network. The new iPhone typically was between
three and five times as fast as the old one.
While AT&T now has 3G networks in 280 U.S. cities, and aims to
be in 350 by year end, it is converting its cellphone towers gradually,
so not all areas of included cities have 3G coverage. The new iPhone
falls back to EDGE speeds when 3G isn’t present.
One side benefit to 3G is that in some areas, voice coverage
improves. At my neighborhood shopping center, where the first iPhone
got little or no AT&T service, the iPhone 3G registered strong
coverage. But I still found that calls regularly broke up on some major
streets. In New York City, riding in a taxi along the Hudson, one
important call was dropped three times on the new iPhone. Finally, I
borrowed a cheap Verizon phone and got perfect reception.
Battery life: Apple claims that over 3G, the new
iPhone can get five hours of talk time, or five hours of Internet use.
Talk time is twice as long on the older EDGE network, and Internet time
is an hour better with Wi-Fi.
I ran my own battery tests using the phone’s 3G capability. Although
I left the Wi-Fi function on, I didn’t connect it to a network, so the
phone had to rely on 3G. In my test of voice calling, I got 4 hours and
27 minutes, short of Apple’s maximum claim and nearly three hours less
than what I recorded in the same test last year on the original iPhone.
In my test of Internet use over 3G, I got 5 hours and 49 minutes,
better than Apple’s claim, but far short of the nine hours I got using
Wi-Fi in last year’s tests.
More important, in daily use, I found the battery indicator on the
new 3G model slipping below 20% by early afternoon or midafternoon on
some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day. I overcame this
problem by learning to use Wi-Fi instead of 3G whenever possible,
turning down the screen brightness and even turning off 3G altogether,
which the phone permits.
The iPhone 3G’s battery life is comparable to, or better than, that
of some other 3G competitors. But they have replaceable batteries. The
iPhone doesn’t.
Third-party software: If things go as Apple hopes,
third-party software could be the biggest attraction to the new iPhone
3G, and to upgraded older iPhones. By some estimates, there will be
hundreds of these programs, some free and some paid, almost immediately.
Apple didn’t supply me with programs for testing, but I managed to
try several on older devices upgraded to the new operating system. I
tested a game that used the phone’s motion sensors to control the
action, and I tested several programs from America Online, including
AOL Instant Messenger; AOL Radio, which streams music from the
Internet; and AOL’s Truveo video search engine. All worked very well.
Among the programs Apple has publicly previewed were a sales
automation program from Salesforce.com, a game called Super Monkey Ball
from Sega and a program for bidding on eBay. Also made public were a
news reader from the Associated Press, a program for following live
games from Major League Baseball and several programs for doctors,
including the Epocrates drug reference.
Bottom line: If you’ve been waiting to buy an
iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you
might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service
costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with
existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data
speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for
data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade
before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.
Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.


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