Apple iPhone 3G S Cell Phone Review - Software

Apple's OS has changed considerably over the years, and has grown into a powerful, flexible system. The extras speed and memory of the iPhone 3G S is very noticeable here; programs started much quicker and were more responsive. The software that comes on the phone has likewise matured, although it still doesn't support multitasking; you can't run more than one program at a time.

OS (8.5)
The Apple iPhone 3G S runs Apple's third iteration of the iPhone operating system. Unlike last year's release, which included the revolutionary support for the app store,  this release is more an evolutionary update. Key new features include universal search, landscape keyboard everywhere, cut/copy/paste (finally) and the push notification system. There are also a ton of small updates to programs that help improve functionality.

The push notification system is Apple's way of avoiding support for background applications, and at this point we still feel like it's something of a kludge. Our scores for smart phone operating systems are standardized, and we now feel that the iPhone OS is better than many of its competitors such as Windows Mobile, BlackBerry OS and Symbian. As such we have pushed our score for the OS up to 8.5. The lack of background app support still holds it back from a 9 or 10, however, and we must mention that all those aforementioned operating systems do support this important feature.

Home Screen Score (7.0)
This is one area where we still feel like the Apple iPhone 3G S needs work. Apple has basically kept the simple application launcher approach, with a couple of minor upgrades like more pages for applications, and one big one, a screen to the left of the home screen that allows you to access the universal search feature.

Icons on the home page can still give you some information via badges, but this still falls far short of the interactive and rich home screens we see on other smart phone platforms like Android. It would be great to get a list of upcoming appointments, current weather conditions and other such handy at-a-glance information on the Apple iPhone 3G S's home screen.

Extensibility (8.0)
When we wrote the first iPhone review two years ago we bemoaned the lack of third party applications. When we wrote the iPhone 3G review a year ago we were excited to see what would happen as Apple opened up the platform to third party developers. Today we can say that the iPhone app store is without a doubt the most successful selection of third party applications available for any smart phone platform. In two years Apple has gone from zero to hero as far as extensibility goes. It's only going to get better as the iPhone 3.0 update opens up a host of new APIs and functionality, enabling applications like GPS turn-by-turn directions, for example.

As with our OS score we've also upped our standard score for extensibility for iPhone OS devices. And yes, it would have been even higher if background third party apps were supported.

Customizability (3.5)
Still an area where the Apple iPhone 3G S lags behind competitors. There's not a lot you can do on the device about things like background photos and fonts. You can rearrange your apps, but even this is a somewhat kludgy interface, especially if you have a lot. Would it have been too much to add folders Apple? Not to mention themes, yes themes would be great.

OS Responsiveness (8.0)
The "S" in the iPhone 3G S stands for speed according to Apple, and this phone does in fact earn the name. We saw faster performance throughout the interface, web sites loaded faster, programs launched faster, this thing is just, well, speedy. This is thanks to a significantly upgraded processor and twice the RAM of previous iPhones, now 256MB. We love these upgrades and for anyone coming from an iPhone 3G this is going to be the most obvious improvement apart from the camera.

Browser Features (6.5)
Safari supports full HTML and javascript. Not supported are mobile WAP pages, but these are dying as a form of mobile browsing anywayws. More significant is that there is still no support for Flash content, and at this point we wouldn't bet on ever seeing it. New on the 3.0 OS is support for auto filling forms. Unfortunately there's still no support for RSS.

Browsing Interface (9.5)
The iPhone 3G S offers one of the best browsing interfaces on any mobile device, a hallmark of iPhones since the first was released. Full web pages are rended and Apple's tap to zoom and finger scrolling functionality makes them incredibly easy to navigate. Bookmark support is robust, as is history. Almost all the features you want are just a tap away, with a minimalist but very usable design. Apple continues to set the bar for web browsing on the mobile phone.

Browser Access (10.0)
For this test we count the number of steps it takes to go from the home screen to our website. We use steps instead of time because we don't want network issues to get in the way. On the Apple iPhone 3G S this process involved four steps, which is excellent. Even though we don't time speed, we do want to mention that Safari on the iPhone 3G S is definitely a speedier beast than on previous versions. In side by side tests with an iPhone 3G we noticed significantly faster startup times and much faster rendering times.

Gaming (3.67)
The Apple iPhone 3G S still doesn't ship with a single game out of the box, which hurts our score for it significantly. Don't let that number fool you, however, as there are a plethora of free and paid applications available for what is undoubtedly the best gaming platform on a cell phone. With a faster processor, dedicated graphics chip and the potential for real controllers becoming available now that dock access is open to developers this device has the potential to challenge dedicated mobile gaming platforms like the Nintenod DS and PSP.

Calculator (7.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S has a calculator. If you turn it to landscape you get a full scientific calculator. That's all we have to say about that.

Alarm (8.0)
You can set multiple alarms on the Apple iPhone 3G S, with separate tones for each and the ability to create complex repitition patterns. Too bad the calendar application isn't this flexible.

Document Software (4.0)
The Apple iPhone 3G S does not ship with any document software, but is natively capable of viewing Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF documents. There's also the unfortunate fact that third party applications that can edit such files don't have access to those files in other places on the device, like your email. Apple either needs to step up and create a full document editing suite for the iPhone, or create a way for those third party solutions that exict to access files anywhere on the device.

Other Software (2.0)
In addition to the software discussed above there are several other pieces of software on the Apple iPhone 3G S that we think are worthy of additional points. Google maps gives you access to maps and directions, and with the new compass built into the 3G S it becomes even more useful. The Youtube application is also worthy of mention, with access to thousands of videos available for streaming anywhere you have a data connection.

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