Otaku Gadgets

If you have just come out from underneath a rock holding an iPhone 3G, there’s news for you – there’s a new iPhone on the block. It looks the same, feels the same (almost) and even has the audacity to be almost indistinguishable from the 3G. However, as the cleverly written title suggests – the ‘S’ in 3GS makes all the difference.

The new iPhone is all about speed. So much so that even the aesthetically spiritual people at Apple who don’t usually like to talk about technical things, have mentioned that it is faster because of some major tweaks under the hood. In fact, tweaking is the wrong word to use here. It is more like replacing the entire engine with another that is 50% more powerful. This is referring to the fact that the 3GS runs on a 600MHz chip, up from a 400Mhz one on the 3G. The RAM is actually double (256 v/s 128), so that 50% increase actually holds true only for the processor. The actual percentage is a bit too complicated for a liberal arts major to calculate here.

So how obvious is the speed boost? Does it justify buying a whole new phone and carrier contract? Well, let me answer those questions this way – if you like doing things with your iPhone – you will like doing them at twice the speed.

If you compare the two phones side-by-side, you will see that the 3GS differs in some crucial areas and some subtler ones. Firstly, the boot time in the 3GS is probably half as long as in the 3G. And when it comes to using apps, things just happen so much faster than what we have gotten used to. But it really shows in the way heavier apps load. If you run heavy games like The Sims, you will notice that they too take about half as long to load up and run. Keep in mind that the comparison is being done with both phones running the new 3.0 OS. Plus the new Oleophobic coating on the 3GS makes it easier to work through finger without sticking problems and the display is slightly warmer than the 3G.

The performance boost is so important a factor in the 3GS that Apple chose to add it to the name itself by attaching that ‘S’ at the end. But buyer beware, this phone will not be a “wow it is so new and amazing I totally hate my old phone now” thing. Your old iPhone is fine and does not need to see the landfill yet. The new phone is not especially loaded in new features and the additions are things that most people can live without.

But for those who are looking for speed and some crucial features like a better camera and video recording – this is the iPhone to get. The new iPhone is more an upgrade than a new model and it has to be seen in that light. So if you are buying a new iPhone, this is definitely the one to go for. However, if you can live without the speed and new features, the $99 deal is going to look very tempting.

The camera and the video has been a talking point for the 3GS and it has already been confirmed that they are worth talking about. The good folks at Gizmodo have done a brilliant side-by-side comparison shoot and the new camera makes the same thing look so much better.

The Internet is now filled with video footage shot with the 3GS, so I chose this one to showcase what the 3GS can do (and I really liked the music).

Apple’s original argument was that the iPhone 3G’s processor is not fast enough to handle video. The 3GS does 30 FPS and knowing how Apple works, it is easy to understand that Jobs would not have liked a phone that did just 15FPS. If an Apple product has to have something, it has to have it good or not at all. After all, it isn’t for nothing that Apple has such a fanatic following (yeah so now you know which side I am on). Oh, and the trimming capability just makes it that much better for uploading straight from the 3GS to YouTube or similar.

The speed boost in 3GS also extends to the data rates with the new 7.2 HSDPA feature. The real world speed of course varies and is network dependant but it is remarkably faster than the 3G at most instances. So now you will have faster Safari load times and email downloading, which is also partly thanks to the faster processor.

The compass app and the magnetometer works no matter what the orientation of the phone is. You can’t expect it to be as accurate as a real compass but it is still accurate enough. So now you can have Google maps orient themselves to match the direction you are facing. Just tap the ‘find me’ button a second time after the map loads.

And now for the Voice Control feature – it actually works and quite well too! People were a bit skeptical when it was first announced because other phone makers have already tried it a long time back. But Apple never does anything half-baked (pardon the flimsy pun). You can control your music with it, ask for information about what’s playing and you can also make calls. It is even intelligent enough to figure out that you have multiple contacts with the same name. In which case it reads out the matching names to you and asks you to be specific. When it comes to song control, it might get confused with the weird band names. Other than it works quite well.

The Nike+ support has been long overdue and now the 3GS has it. Those of you who have been craving for it, just get the 3GS and a stereo Bluetooth headset. Now you can run, listen music and take calls. The app is similar to the iPod touch 2G.

Now let’s come to the battery life. With so many features added and the faster processor and extra RAM, it is only to be expected that the battery life will shrink. The surprising part is that the 3GS actually has a better battery life than the 3G! I guess you can expect things like this from Apple, remember the battery life boost when switching from Tiger to Leopard? The only area where the battery life is not better than the iPhone 3G is during a 3G call.

So there you have it, a great thing has gotten better. But this is a frustrating thing for people who already own the iPhone 3G. It is not really worth waiting for the prices to go down because by that time it will make sense to wait for the 2010 release. So the choice is yours and if you do get the iPhone 3GS, you will love the speed and the added functionality.