David Emery OnlineWorth the wait
7 August 2008
After standing in an exceptionally long queue along with scores of other similar minded fanatics people last month, coupled with the obvious inability of O2 to sell large quantities of anything, multiplied by the constant stock shortage in Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores (where I had to go, being an existing customer) I had almost given up on getting a 3G iPhone.
Until yesterday, when I ambled past my local Carphone Warehouse and noticed a large ‘Now back in stock’ sign. And low, they had them – I got the feeling that they were as surprised about it as I was.
As a slight aside; why are mobile phone shops in the UK so woefully awful? They are by far and away the most unpleasant shops to frequent, full of sales staff that simultaneously manage to both not give a shit about you and be really pushy at the same time. For the past few weeks I’ve been popping in to my local Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores and this has been the typical conversation:
Me: Do you have any iPhones in stock?
Them, not looking up from whatever they are doing: No
Me: Err, thanks
It’s hardly good customer service, is it? And a very typical experience, I might add…
Anyway.
I’m very happy with the 3G iPhone – it’s got a lot of bad press which I think is completely unjustified. A lot of that may well have been down to version 2.0 of the OS, which apparently had lots of slow downs compared to either version 1.1.4 or 2.0.1 (which rather luckily came out about a day before I got mine). I’ve certainly not seen any noticeable slow downs compared to my old iPhone.
Version 2.0 of the OS seems like a nice step forward, feature wise – I particularly like the improvements to the calendar, and if you compare how far overall it’s come in a year (since v 1.0) I think it’s a very impressive jump (far more then you’d see in any other OS in the space of a year). Many words have been written on the App Store already and I don’t have much to add – it works, and some of the better apps are very useful (although there’s a lot of rubbish). I’m definitely missing MobileScrobbler though – hopefully it will be ported to jailbroken 3G phones sooner rather then later…
The physical differences of the 3G iPhone are quite interesting. I think overall it feels slightly cheaper – obviously due to the plastic vs metal back – but it sits in your hand far better. You win some you loose some I guess. I still think that the iPhone (both versions) is one of the weaker designed iPod variants Apple has done – it’s nice, in the way all Apple things are, but it doesn’t have the refined simplicity that the traditional iPod has (what is with the chrome bezel, for example?).
The 3G and GPS features are good to have, but as yet I haven’t seen a huge amount of difference – web browsing seems quicker, but it’s not that much quicker (but then EDGE always seemed quite nippy to me). The take away point is that the 3G iPhone is bar far and away the best phone out there, and you’d be foolish to get anything else now that it’s at the new lower price point. It is, however, only slightly better then the old iPhone but you still might as well get one – the upgrade deal means you almost need a good reason not to (especially if you’re on a £45/month contract, when it’s free).