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Existing iPhone users, stay away from the iPhone 3G: Mossberg
Ouch! That must have hurt Cupertino. One of the most influential tech journalists, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, reviewed the iPhone 3G and doesn’t seem impressed with Apple’s latest toy. Mossberg starts his review by indicating that the iPhone 3G is “half the price” ain’t true and is quite vocal about AT&T’s poor 3G network.
“While AT&T now has 3G networks in 280 U.S. cities, and aims to be in 350 by year end, it is converting its cellphone towers gradually, so not all areas of included cities have 3G coverage. The new iPhone falls back to EDGE speeds when 3G isn’t present.Â
One side benefit to 3G is that in some areas, voice coverage improves. At my neighborhood shopping center, where the first iPhone got little or no AT&T service, the iPhone 3G registered strong coverage. But I still found that calls regularly broke up on some major streets. In New York City, riding in a taxi along the Hudson, one important call was dropped three times on the new iPhone. Finally, I borrowed a cheap Verizon phone and got perfect reception.”
Eh, did he just say that the ‘cheap Verizon phone’ was better to make calls than the iPhone 3G on AT&T’s network? He spewed more venom when he blasted Apple’s claim of better battery performance and counter-claimed that the original iPhone had a bettery battery backup on a 2G network than the iPhone 3G’s on a 3G network!
“In my test of voice calling, I got 4 hours and 27 minutes, short of Apple’s maximum claim and nearly three hours less than what I recorded in the same test last year on the original iPhone. In my test of Internet use over 3G, I got 5 hours and 49 minutes, better than Apple’s claim, but far short of the nine hours I got using Wi-Fi in last year’s tests.
More important, in daily use, I found the battery indicator on the new 3G model slipping below 20% by early afternoon or midafternoon on some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day. I overcame this problem by learning to use Wi-Fi instead of 3G whenever possible, turning down the screen brightness and even turning off 3G altogether, which the phone permits.
The iPhone 3G’s battery life is comparable to, or better than, that of some other 3G competitors. But they have replaceable batteries. The iPhone doesn’t.”
Oh my! Mossberg did like the fact that the iPhone is now compatible with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and also the online App Store for third party applications. But then, even users of the original iPhone will be able to access the same stuff by a free software upgrade!
He suggests that only those who don’t have an iPhone and want one or those who already have one but really need 3G data speeds should go for the iPhone 3G. Not worth upgrading if you browse the Internet over Wi-Fi and couldn’t care less about 3G.
9 July 2008 in Phones by Rajat AgrawalComment on this post
