Apple iPhone 3GS
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 22, 2009 by Eric Zeman and Rich Brome
Phone Scoop takes an in-depth look at the iPhone 3GS, its new hardware, and the new iPhone 3.0 operating system. read review ›
User Reviews
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An ok phone
I bought this phone 9 months ago when I was working at Best Buy. A family brought it in to trade it in for credit and I offered to buy it from them instead. This phone can't be beat for $40!
First off, the setup was kind of painful because I spent all night trying to unlock it manually through a jailbreak, but when I got that to "work" I must have done something improperly because although I managed to get it to the springboard I still had no service. This was replicated about 3 times. After that I just decided to pay $5 for an IMEI unlock.
The phone overall is quite boring to me. It works, but there's no rom flashing or rooting quite like on android, but I'd rather not compare the two for the sake of objectivity. Games and apps don't seem to work very fast at all on this phone. Tapatalk took about 20 seconds to load and god forbid I click a link in the app, then I'll be waiting at last a few minutes for it to load. Facebook is likewise slow, as is tumblr, and the camera application. Pretty much the only app I got to work very well were apps like the music player, messaging, and Facebook messenger. I'm not very hip with Apple products but I think it may have to do with the fact that all the apps nowadays are just too much for this poor phone.
I did also have some syncing issues which probably is due to iTunes. To this day I have multiple copies of some albums and albums that were supposed to be copied weren't. It can't just be a simple drag and drop and instead Apple forces you into their ecosystem. I wouldn't mind this except I have trouble with it every time. It never syncs properly ever. It also lacks the robust customization of other phones on the market. Good luck figuring out how to get custom ringtones! And even if you do, if you have to re-sync everything from scratch, as was the case with me then those custom ringtones disappear. It really shouldn't be that difficult.
Easy to use phone, lacks in customization and is too slow for modern apps.
My First Taste of iPhone
This was my first true smart phone, and I loved it. Fantastic phone, have nothing really bad to so towards the phone, aside from things that could be attributed to the service provider At&t. I had this phone with the carrier for a year, which is the longest I had ever had a phone at the time. Brilliantly designed!
Pros:
Beautiful Interface
Super Fast
Great Photos
Nice Feel
Decent Battery Life
Cons:
Bad Signal
Antenna Issues(easily jarred or broken)
THE IPHONE 3GS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME
I have a family member who has an iPhone 3GS and while I was visiting him, I got to use his phone. I think the phone is great. It has a lot of great features on it, some that are found on other phones and others that are not. While I got to use the phone, this is what I found.
PROS
- great audio quality
- great touch screen
- good ring tones
- the ability to add your e-mail to your phone
- ability to download applications from the iTunes store
CONS
- it lags a bit when trying to use it
All in all, a great device and I highly recommend it.
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Solid Phone
I owned the phone for almost two years, so now that I'm moving on I feel I owe a few words on how it served me. First, some PROS and CONS.
PROS:
- Nice touch screen (smudge-resistant!)
- Decent camera
- Speedy software
- iTunes support is great
- Good signal strength (Orlando, FL area)
CONS:
- The silence button stopped working for me, and I hear it's a common problem
- Staring at the phone, that's all I can think of...
It was for lack of a better word a solid phone. It did everything I needed of it, and iTunes made syncing music easy (the one thing I'm struggling to do with my new Android). Apple really made a user-friendly phone, even if it's closed source. That may allow less customizability, but if you don't care about that and just want a phone that works, this is the phone for you.
iPhone 3Gs still Rocks
I have had this phone for 2 years and see no reason to upgrade. This phone does everything and I mean everything. Many who upgrade are doing for the sake of upgrading but when it comes to knowing what you want then this phone is the way to go. I mean for the phone to still be on sale going 2-3 years after it was first launched that is an eternity for cell phones, which very very few manage to reach.
Pro
Apps: When apple says that there is an app for that they were not kidding
Battery life: If you know how to manage your phone than your battery should give you a full day. Turn off wifi, 3G, blue tooth when not in use and close non active apps. Adjust brightness and turn off auto brightness and you will be surprised as to how far your battery will go
Fluidity: This phone is just pure and simple, and easy to use. It does not freeze up like windows phones and if it does just a simple refresh will take care of the problem which will not likely reoccur. The phone just fly's.
Cons: The only con that I could really think of is that with apple pushing out new iphone's every year than great one's like this do not really get a chance to show how powerful they really are. I was and am in no rush to upgrade to the iPhone 4 or 5 when it comes out for the latter.
3GS
I am a new IPhone user. I have only one thing to say. Why did it take this long to get a IPhone!!! This is by far the best smart phone I have ever used in my life.
The Good
Great screen(touch and res)
Volume is great
Very fast
Looks sexy
Feels good in your hand.
The right tool for the job
The Bad
Maybe the batt life.
Over all the best in its class. In car terms
(If you are a muscle car guy) it would be a V8,gas eating, melt the tires off it, big block monster. Any smart phone user will love this phone. I will for this time on never own any other phone then a IPhone.
The Best Device in the Market
I am giving the iPhone 3gs a 5 overall rating because as of right now its the best device out there.
I wouldn't want to discourage anyone for trying out the four. But if 100 dollars is worth saving get the 3gs!
The 3gs has been the biggest break through that we have seen. Droid has pretty much copied everything they could off of the 3gs. The iPhone is definitely a phone you can trust.
I work customer service for AT&T and have been an AT&T customer for the last year. I have recently given up seeking the iPhone 4 because there is simply not enough improvements for me to upgrade and pass up the opportunity to be eligible for an upgrade when the new iPhone comes out.
When to expect the new iPhone to come out on the other hand is suspenseful. My best guess would be by June of 2011 we will be releasing the next iPhone.
So pending the next iPhone to be released the 3gs is the best device out there for you. If your new to smartphones it will welcome you to a new experience and an exciting experience. If your a long time smartphone user but haven't given the iPhone a chance, this device will make you a life long believer in the simplicity and joy of Apple ingenuity.
Mixed Emotions
I havent really had alot of "Smartphones" before but thsi is about my 10th phone since 11th grade adn I have to say its the "OVERALL" best. It has its short comings but all of them do. My phone history (to get an idea of my vantage): Sony Z500(Cing), Sony Z520 (Cing), Moto V325 (Metro), LG Chocolate (VZW), Samsung A670 (VZW), LG VX8300(VZW), Treo700p (VZW), iPhone, Moto Backflip, Captivate, iPhone 3GS. And tomorrow I will be moving on to a Blackberry Bold 9000. I like the iPhone but I have such a need for a physical keyboard. And after trying out other BBs i have to agree with most ppl that if you are heavy web surfing, looking at vids, listening to music type: you should get an iPhone. if you are much more into messaging and business (ME), get a blackberry. Plus the 3GS is rather annoying...mainly AutoCorrect, TERRIBLE battery life, and its been crashing my beloved twitter app constantly.
Pros.
-The phone that started my revolution
-Very easy and addictive platform/OS
-Web Browser is not seriously rivaled
-SMOOOOTTHHH
-iPod app is 2x convenient
CONS:
-Horrid battery life( iget MAYBE 6-7 hours on 3G while constant twitter, sms, and iPod) I know thats alot to do at once but thats still unacceptable
-CRASHES programs all the time
-LOUSY reception and take minutes to get it back when lost
-AutoCorrect is oppressive
iPhone still the best
I'm not an anti-any other phone person by any stretch. I've had samsung, htc, and motorola devices. But iPhone still beats them out of the water. You either love it or hate it, and i have to love it. Below is my pro's and cons.
PROS
Nearly unlimited applications
Great display
Touch screen is very responsive
Sound is fairly decent
3.5 mm headphone jack is amazing
simple and easy to understand
Running system is simple and good to use
You don't have to jump through hoops to do just one thing
CONs
Battery life, always needs to be charged but thats just part of the smart phone thing
No expandable memory, this is common amongst iphone user qualms
My belief is that iPhone is number 1. Will it always be? Probably but i may be opinionated. Do i believe Droid is going to de-throne the iPhone? If it hasn't yet, it never will.
Never thought I'd own an APPLE product!!
I have to admit I used to be a big APPLE iPhone/iPod hater, just did not want to give them my money, tried everything to stay away Archos, Creative, and HTC and was devoted to Sprint as a carrier. But biggest thing for me is I want one device that does MP3, Games, Email and internet. I tried the HTC Diamond, Touch, Hero, Moment, Palm Pre, etc. finally I settled on the HTC Hero running Android 1.6 or something like that, which was my last Sprint phone. I loved the Android OS and the things it could do, but it came with a price of stability issues. I bought my Hero in October and I swear I must have reset/hard reset that phone a total of 150 times between Oct 2009 and March 2010 no exaggeration hell I even exchanged and got a new one, but got the same issues. So being totally fed up with the Hero, I stumbled across a co worker on his iPhone 3GS playing a PSP/NDS looking video game (graphically) right on his phone. I figured what the heck I will try the iPhone for 30 days if I donât like it I will get rid of it and go back to Sprint.
I picked up a iPhone 3GS in March and all I could say was WOW I was blown away, it was beautiful, fast, and could do everything my Hero could do only 10 times better/faster. I live in Vegas and I have coverage just about everywhere I have been so far, and have only had 3 total dropped calls since March. Yes the Android has Apps, but iPhone seemed to be better/more responsive. Yes Android has Games but iPhone had better graphics and responsive. Since I have had my iPhone I have only had to reset it once and that was due to something I did. TWO major things I noticed that I didnât like about the iPhone, was the lack of multitasking and the way it handles emails (VERY VERY frustrating) but Apple is fixing both of these areas. SO Iâm really looking forward to the upgrade because then it will be almost perfect for me. I honestly canât see anything that this phone does WRONG⦠iPhone is hands down the winner for me.
