Yes, like what seems to be the rest of the world, I picked up my iPhone 3G S. I previously had the first gen iPhone, so I’m not totally new to the iPhone world, but it’s a significant step up nonetheless. The first thing I noticed was that the little S, standing for speed, is not just a little badge Apple decided to put on the box. It really is very noticeably faster, and I’m not just talking about the internet. That, of course, is ridiculously faster, but everything is snappier, from app opening to the switch from portrait to landscape and back.
One of my main worries was that the plastic back would feel kind of cheap after having the aluminum back of the 2G, but it doesn’t at all really. In fact, it’s much more comfortable to hold in certain positions, particularly watching videos in landscape view. The oleophobic screen actually has a slightly different feel to it. It’s a little smoother, and it definitely does what it promises: keeps fingerprints and other gunk off of the screen.
Location services are, for obvious reasons, a much better experience than on the 2G. The camera is another area of big improvement. The autofocus actually works quite well, and the camera quality is very noticeably better. And of course there is the video camera. The quality on it is actually very good, considering what it’s coming from. No, it’s not HD or anything, but it’s still a great camera to have in your pocket all the time. Unfortunately I don’t have any good test shots and WordPress is being weird and not even letting me put in the image I do have so I guess you’ll have to take my word for it.
Bottom line: the iPhone 3G S is quite an amazing device. I definitely agree with the fact that it is more evolutionary than revolutionary, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome!
