Mobile Phones Guide
Performance
Putting the S to the Test
Processing Power
There is a reason why the S in the name stands for Speed - this phone certainly ups the ante when it comes to its processing power and loading speeds. It is like how you change an old dusty computer to a spanking new laptop. Every application looks the same, but things just load THAT much faster. Armed with a 600MHz processor with 256MB RAM (up from 400MHz and 128MB in the 3G model), applications like Safari and games loaded notably faster than on the iPhone 3G that is running with 3.0 OS version. Even booting the phone takes about half the time as you can see from the video below. What's a better testament to its improved speed is that games that are known for slow loading times (think: Sims 3 and MyFC) were up and running within a matter of seconds. Check it out for yourselves as we tested loading times for iPhone boot-up, game loading and webpage loading and rendering in our video:-
Battery Life
The battery performance was also something to shout about. When the 3G model underwent harsh battery life tests in which we left the phone switched on with full screen brightness, and fired up the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular connectivity, video player function, 3G, location services options, and blasted it at full volume, the phone managed to run for about four hours and twenty minutes straight. As for the 3GS model under the same harsh conditions, it ran for 5 hours and 50 minutes! That's approximately 1.5 hours of extra juice that should come in handy for those long journeys. With the new host of features at your fingertips such as video recording, these features will drain battery at a rapid rate, so the extra battery uptime is certainly useful to ensure you get a good overall battery life.
Camera Quality
With the 3GS, we found the shutter speed was fast, which is great for those who want to snap images of fast-moving objects. Our top camera usability function has to be the tap-on-focus, which is useful for capturing photos with specific focus on certain subjects. The 3GS camera also produced richer color tones, and was less likely to create images that look washed out or faded. As the camera still lacks flash, expect your photo captures in low-light situations to come out less than ideal with dark grainy shots. Check out some photos that we snapped using the phone, and see the results for yourself:-
Video Camera
The 3GS also offers acceptable video quality for a smartphone. Compare this to the lackluster Nokia and Sony Ericsson's recording feature that is often marred by noise and jaggedness, and you'll be blown away by the iPhone's smooth recording and lag-free footage. Apple claims that the phone records up to 30 frames per second, and when we tried filming a clip of cars zooming on the highway, the video turned out quite smooth.
Check out one of our sample test videos to find out for yourself how the 3GS fares.
Multimedia Player
Many users also use the iPhone as a replacement gadget for a music player, and we don't see why they shouldn't. With a huge 3.5-inch screen that beams out beautiful cover art and video clips, this device is ideal for meeting your multimedia and entertainment needs. With the CoverFlow function, users can also browse through album artwork at a flick of their finger in search of a single song track. Somewhat disappointingly, the on-board speakers remain the same as the 3G model so no changes there. They are still terribly soft and muffled, even when the volume is increased. The speakers also lacked bass quality, though soft acoustic tunes sounded passable at best. Earphones work best with the iPhone than relying on its speaker.
User Experience
Like its older sibling, the 3GS boasts the same user-friendliness and intuitive user experience. Applications were laid out in a neat and organized grid fashion, which makes it a breeze for you to zip through the applications at a flick of the finger. The most commonly used applications are also lined on the first menu page making it great for those who do not fancy searching through sub-menus and pages in search for a single application.
However, one gripe that we have is that texting using the on-screen keyboard is still a heavy texter's nightmare. Even though we have to admit that spelling errors are minimized due to a better spaced-out landscape keyboard. The auto-correction functionality also helped to reduce typos when some of our writers with fat fingers pressed onto the wrong keys. But despite all these measures to improve the texting quality, it is still disappointing to note that it is doesn't fare well when we try our best to not press the wrong keys as compared to other touchscreen smartphones. While this is our comparative note, if you have been comfortable enough with existing iPhone models, you will certainly ease into the 3GS model without issues.
