Apple iPhone 3G S Cell Phone Review - Hardware

The hardware of the iPhone is generally very good; the screen is great and the phone feels robust.

Text Words Per Minute (14.33)
Much has been written, discussed and whined about the iPhone's virtual keyboard. The truth is that it's a matter of preference. As we've seen in previous iPhone reviews you can type plenty fast on a virtual keybaord, as long as you're willing to let the software save you. Of course sometimes it doesn't, and the iPhone's on-screen keyboard isn't going to be fast in all situations.

As you can see below we're plenty fast on the iPhone's keyboard as we were able to type 71.64 words per minute. We should mention that we ran this test using the portrait keyboard. Using the landscape version that so many have clamored for in the email and notes app we actually found ourselves moving significantly slower, perhaps because of the larger distance our fingers had to move. As such we were only able to manage 63.57 WPM in landscape, which is still pretty darned good. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S continues to offer a outstanding auto correction feature for its software keyboard.

One-Handed Typing (0.0)
Write
For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Keypad Backlighting (0.0)
There are no physical keys or keyboard, as such there's no points for backlighting.

D-Pad/Joystick (0.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S lacks a d-pad or joystick.

Touch Screen (10.0)
Almost all interactions with your Apple iPhone 3G S are via the 3.5-inch touchscreen. We've remarked in previous iPhone reviews, and it continues to be true, that this is best touchscreen we've ever used. New on the 3G S is a new oleophobic coating that is supposed to reduce grease accumulating on the display. Grease or not interacting with the iPhone's touchscreen continues to be one of those experiences that lead us to believe we're living in the future. This is only made better by the much improved responsiveness of the Apple iPhone 3G S.

Jog Dial (0.0)
Ther is no jog dial on the Apple iPhone 3G S.

Soft Buttons (0.0)
There are no soft buttons on the Apple iPhone 3G S.

Volume Control (7.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S's volume rocker is located on the left side of the phone, just below the vibrate/ringer switch. The rocker is exactly the same as the previous iPhone's, which means it does a decent job.

Power and Standby (7.0)
The power button on the Apple iPhone 3G S is located on the top of the phone. A long press on this button will cause a prompt to appear on the screen asking you to slide a button in order to shut the phone down. Another long press will start it up. The button combined with the software interface make it exceedingly unlikely you will turn your phone off by accident, which is exactly what we want to see from a power button. A short press will put your iPhone 3G S into standbye mode.

Other Buttons (3.0)
In addition to the volume and power buttons the Apple iPhone 3G S has a rocker switch just above the volume keys to switch between silent/vibrate and audio on. There's also the home button below the screen, which has a myriad of functions now. A single press will take you to the home screen. A second press will take you to universal search. A long press will activate voice commands. Finally a double tap can activate any of several customizable features.

Primary Screen Gross Resolution (9.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S's display stays at the same 480 x 320 pixel resolution we've seen on every other iPhone model. This is still amongst the best in the cell phone world, although we are beginning to see more mainstream devices with full VGA displays, for example the AT&T Fuze.

Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (8.24)
The Apple iPhone 3G S offers the same 164.8 pixels per inch that previous models did.

Screen Physical Size (8.75)
The Apple iPhone 3G S's display is 3.5 inches across, which makes it amongst the largest displays out there on a mobile device.

Screen Brightness (13.35)
Apple seem to have stepped down the screen brightness of the Apple iPhone 3G S, as we measured it at 133 lux, which is significantly less than either of the previous iPhone models, although still brighter than the vast majority of phones. Frankly we felt like the iPhone 3G's 200+ lux brightness was a bit overboard, the iPhone 3G S's display should be plenty bright for almost any situation. Also the same as previous iPhones is the scrub control for brightness and the ability to have it set according to ambient conditions.

Screen Bright Light Performance (9.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S does an excellent job in bright light, despite the reduced total brightness things on the display are still very legible and easy to use.

Color Depth (0.0)
As with previous versions of the iPhone, Apple has not made any information available concerning how many colors can be displayed. As such it receives a zero in this section.

Power & Data Ports (3.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S uses a standard iPod connector for both data and power. We never like to see proprietary ports such as this one ona  device, but we have no hope that Apple will ever change it's ways. As such we'll just continue to hand it poor scores in this area. On the plus side the iPhone 3G S does charge over USB.

Headphone Compatibility (8.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S has a 3.5mm headphone jack and support for wireless stereo bluetooth headphones via the A2DP protocol. We tested that functionality with a pair of Motorola S9 headphones, and the audio came through just fine. We do have to mention, however, that the skip buttons on the S9s did not function. We should also mention that anytime the Apple iPhone 3G S is paired with A2DP headphones you lose volume control on the device. I guess the assumption is that the headphones will have such a control, but not all do, which can lead to the uncomfortable situation of not being able to adjust the volume at all.

Internal Storage (10.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S comes in two flavors, 16GB and 32GB. Either should provide plenty of storage for most people's needs.

Expansion Slot & Format (0.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S does not support expanded memory via a memory card slot.

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