My highly anticipated thoughts on the new 3G iPhone
That’s one, small, very girly device for a man, one giant leap BACKWARDS for Apple’s industrial design”
-Dr. Macenstein (on the 3G White iPhone)
That’s right, I have actually quoted myself in an article I am writing. It’s sort of like when you plug a video camera into your TV’s RCA jacks and point it at the screen. Sorry if I blew your mind.
Above: Adding Hello Kitty to the back of the white iPhone is one way Apple could make it more manly.
The white iPhone is the girliest thing I have seen since breasts. There, I said it.
I’m not saying there’s not a place in the world for a white iPhone, but I feel that place is somewhere behind “teal” in the gadget rainbow. In general (and I admit, I have not seen either the white or black iPhone in person) the move to the solid black or white plastic back, and the total dropping of aluminum, seems a horrible design decision. The black iPhone, while not hideous, is certainly not better looking than the 1st gen iPhone, and the white just looks silly.
While I agreed with most people that the Crunch Gear iPhone leaked pics were fake, the black, gray and Product (RED) iPhones actually looked much better than the “real” white Apple ended up releasing, and I was somewhat looking forward to getting one. As it stands now, there is nothing in the iPhone 2 (either feature or design-wise) that makes me feel I need to rush out and “upgrade” my iPhone to the new model. Yes, Apple has done the impossible, they have released a portable product I am not excited about.
Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t already have an iPhone, the new lower price and (slightly) faster model is a great buy. But as far as an “upgrade” goes, there’s not much here to get excited over, and certainly nothing worth standing in line over (although, to be sure, some freaks faithful will…).
The lower unit price (but higher data plan costs) mean the lower-priced 3G iPhone will actually cost more than the current iPhone over a 2 year period. The addition of GPS is nice (although it would be nicer if it didn’t make the iPhone thicker) but I don’t need it. The 3G speed improvements appears to be in line with what we saw in that somewhat unimpressive test video. In fact, despite Steve’s assertion they addressed the most criticized shortcomings of the iPhone v1, to me (and many other iPhone users) the biggest shortcoming of the current iPhone is the lack of decent storage. It is a crime there is no 32 GB model available, thus allowing the iPhone to truly live up to its promise of reducing the number of gadgets in our life.
Looks like I am waiting for the iPhone 2.5 before upgrading… So, when shall we start speculating THAT will happen? November? 🙂
I didn’t see anything posted about the rates for 3G. How much more will 3G cost? I suppose you could buy a 3G phone with the Edge data plan.
Aside from more memory, where is: video recording, voice recording, a Bluetooth streaming music profile? a Bluetooth keyboard profile, Nike+iPod compatibility, etc, etc, etc.
Just put a scar on it. Scars are manly.
I’ve actually missed the old white ipods and white imacs. Kinda saw them as classic Apple.
But just as we start getting used to the Al Silver / Grey – they stick us with a white iPhone?
I agree – the Grey / RED ones looked awesome.
Well one of the reasons why the new iPhone is so much cheaper was clearly the transition they decided to take from aluminum to plastic (which will also provide better reception). I think the black one looks great, but then again, just as the author of this post mentioned, I don’t think this “new” device makes me want to suddenly throw my current iPhone Edge (or 1.0 or whatever) away and burn it….. not this time Apple… not this time….
Apple could have done so much better tho…. for god sakes….. THEY DIDNT EVEN IMPROVE THE CAMERA!
I still love ma iPhone. And as time goes by….. I will just keep cleaning it and admiring it as the first phone the Apple ever released (just like the newton for all the apple-tablet fanboys!).
As has been mentioned on other Apple blogs: GPS antenna and an aluminum back on the phone would be incompatible. That leaves plastic and ceramic as EM-transparent materials. While ceramic would be pretty cool (definitely different), it’s either heavy+durable or light+brittle. Who knows, though; maybe they put some of that wicked anti-scratch stuff that’s on the touchscreen on the plastic back, too. There are things out there made of plastic that don’t feel like plastic and this might be another one.
People wanted GPS in their iPhone. They got it. They wanted 3G. They got it. They wanted all these applications to throw on their iPhone. They’ll most likely get them (or at least most of them). Does that mean people will need or even want an upgrade. Definitely not, but this move wasn’t to get people to upgrade it was to get more people to use the iPhone. Build it and they will come.
I don’t own an iPhone but want to get one and will when my current contract is up. The new price point is a great incentive and the added features are a bonus as well.
As for the color… I’m not sure why they went back to white when they were pushing forward with silver… but I don’t think it looks terrible. It would’ve been nice if they kept the silver back as well. I’m sure it was to give more people options but…
I do agree about the storage capacity, especially with the price drop. And I haven’t heard about any increases to the rates, but who knows with the 3G service now.
Somehow i have the impression, someone is trying to blandish his old iPhone 😉
I think that’s the “living in the cloud” thing that is the argument no. 1 why Apple doesn’t put more memory in the device. At first I was unimpressed about the same sizes of memory, but now I think: “F’k it!”.
You can already store a lot of things online and with a device like an iPhone you have ubiquitous connectivity, especially in Europe.
I’ve waited and waited and waited… and now it’s almost out, the second generation iPhone and I’m heavily impressed and think that the changes are a move in the right direction.
Yay, someone who agrees with me. I personally find aluminum (metal in general) to be the most attractive material that can be used in a consumer electronic product’s design. Plastic is at the other end of that spectrum.
When the rumors of a black glossy back came around, I thought surely Apple would never make something so ugly. I actually really liked the duo-tone thing iPhone 1 had going on on the back. This is a step backwards.
one of them freaks/faithful…
=
okay seem like you don’t drive around the country!!!
at first I wanna say you are right is not that big deal to upgrade but look at it this way
1. I do drive around Europe alot so I am happy because I don’t have to carry my TOMTOM anymore, and I don’t care if the new iphone is 0.7mm thicker!!! its much better than a 200g tomtom.
2. the new features are good enough!!!
and the reason I say this, it ‘t not EVEN a year past we got a new iphone!!! so it’s all good that they can upgrade about a year time…
3. the iPhone 2.0 has lot to offer come… app store, will blow everyone away, people will forget the ipod function and keep downloading/buying games!
4. 3G… dude 2.5x faster internet! that what I was looking for far back…
5. the storage must have upgraded! and I think in September or maybe xMAS 32 GB will be out!
6. the WHITE is cool, if you only can get yourself a NICE TATOO sticker from ebay.
7. camera 2mp is absolutely shame… I expected 3.2mp
8. its good to hear steve said audio has been improved…
9. metal keys….. I dropped my iphone second week of usage and the plastic silent switch was gone! so metal keys are good to go…
10. £££, the price, come on stop moaning about the price, this is a high end tech device for god’s sake… pay the price and enjoy the tech…
11.and respond to you all above, video/sound recording will have free apps so stop thinking to hard…
12. and finally I am moaning about:
-plastic back (filliping hell what was wrong with the metal back) “despite the fact new iphone is 3g lighter”
-why didn’t you upgrade the camera !!! pooofff !!!
-bigger screen would be good but that would mess up the whole sizes and all the old OS and apps had to written again…
thank god they sorted the headphone jack!!!
(I will get one 11/july morning at 10am in london regents street branch for SUREEEE)
(these 2 words down here are hard to see)
I agree. The grey and red iPhones looked great, but polished black (and – well white)?? “Smudge” is the first word that comes in my mind.
But besides of great 3G networking and GPS (I think that’s a great thing) why did they kept this old 2 MegaPixel Cam??? Alle demo-photos shown on the iPhone where definitely not made with that cheap cam.
Anyway – in Germany the cost/performance ratio of the T-Mobile tariffs are so bad I don’t have to think about it anyway.
Apple gives the iPhone HSPA to bring it up to the latest technology but then opts to leave out a video calling front-end camera. Then they compare it’s browsing and email speeds to that of the Nokia N95 which is a device that does have video calling, not to mention a higher-end 5 MP camera. Apple needs to realize that HSPA is not just for the speed of data transmission but also the ability to stream voice and data at the same time. Everything else about the device I think is great but the lack of video calling makes me wonder if Apple really sees what the future of mobile computing and telecommunications industry is moving towards and what it can offer consumers. Rogers here in Canada has over 60% of the country coast to coast with HSPA coverage (over 25 cities and towns) and is expanding this to cover the rest of the country by the end of the year. In the UK and Asia HSPA is more used and the amount of video calling cellphones is more known. It’s to bad Apple couldn’t see this opportunity to compete on a level playing field by offering the iPhone version 2 with video calling.
In the UK we have amazing 3G coverage but no one actually uses it for video calls, because you can hardly walk and talk on them like that.
Also wheres this months mac chick?