iPhone 3G S: Early reviews are positive

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iPhone 3G S: Early reviews are positive

Jun 18, 2009 Technology

The new Apple iPhone 3G S.
[Photo courtesy of Apple]

The early reviews for the imminent iPhone 3G S, available tomorrow, mostly praise the third-generation Apple smart phone for addressing what reviewers perceived as key, longstanding shortcomings compared with its competitors–like the absence of voice-dialing and stereo Bluetooth capability–and for offering speedier performance.

Media outlets who received review units of the new phone consistently cited its performance as faster than that of the second-generation iPhone 3G. There was also enthusiasm overall for the device’s upgraded camera, including its video capability, though The New York Times' David Pogue found the camera, like that of its predecessors, took somewhat blurry pictures of moving objects.

Other quibbles include a few from Engadget, including occasionally misinterpreting voice control commands during searches for music. Gizmodo also experienced this problem, and also found the new, more fingerprint-resistant display was a little more reflective than the screen on previous versions of the iPhone.

Reviewers, including The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, noted that many of the iPhone 3G's other significant improvements are the result of the new iPhone 3.0 operating system, which is available to all iPhone users for free and to iPod Touch users for $10. As we cite in our first look at iPhone 3.0 yesterday, these include the ability to cut and paste text, expand the virtual keyboard to landscape when you tilt the phone, and to easily perform system-wide searches for documents, e-mails, calendar appointments, etc. using an on-board search engine called Spotlight.

Meantime, the second-generation iPhone 3G remains on the market. It remains a compelling choice, despite the arrival of the iPhone 3G S. The iPhone 3G is now reduced in price to $99 in its 8GB version—compared with $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for the iPhone 3G S.

We'll buy the iPhone 3G S at retail tomorrow, like other consumers, and begin testing immediately. Our findings will be posted to this blog and sent out on Twitter, and the phone will be integrated soonest into our Ratings of smart phones available to subscribers. In the coming days, we'll also add to our Ratings the Palm Pre, the promising iPhone competitor launched last week, and compare the two phones in a head-to-head comparison. We'll also revamp the format of our smart-phones Ratings, to better reflect the complexity and evolution of these most sophisticated of mobile devices. Stay tuned. —Paul Reynolds and Mike Gikas

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