With minor restore glitches and battery training issues, my overall first week impression of the 3GS is "speed". Apple was right in adding the "S" to the 3G moniker. Applications like Trip Cubby which were sluggish on the 3G, run smoothly on the 3GS. Everything is just faster from web page rendering to GPS acquisition.
I like the new auto focus camera; although I can't say that I have seen a dramatic improvement in picture quality.
I had noticed that the 3GS' screen was not as bright as the 3G and Jason Kneen mentions a yellow tint in his first impression post. I put both units side by side and he is absolutely correct. Although this picture taken with my Omnia i910 does not show the difference clearly, you can see that the 3GS on the right has a yellowish tint compared to the 3G on the left. It is not dramatic but enough to notice.
I am befuddled by the lack of a full Stereo/Remote control (A2DP/AVRCP) Bluetooth implementation. Although the sound quality is very good with my Motorola HT820 headphones, the lack of a full AVRCP (remote control) implementation has me puzzled. It is like they went a quarter of the way by implementing start/stop and answer/call last number dialed but no track forward/backward. I also found that the Bluetooth stack won't recognize A2DP on my Altec Lansing iMT 525 Bluetooth stereo speaker. It recognizes it as Hands Free device, but I suspect this could be an Altec Lansing issue since the Motorola HT820 headphones which are older paired which no issues.
The biggest issue I have had this week has been with the battery. It seems that battery needs multiple full charges before it starts providing enough power for my average usage day, but at this point I have to say that battery life is no better than the 3G.
All in all I find the 3GS with OS 3.0 are a good evolutionary upgrade, but Apple still has work to implement key Bluetooth and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync functionality. Bottom line I am sticking with the 3GS.






iPhone 3GS - Bluetooth Stereo (update)
Blogging from the iPhone listening to my music library using Bluetooth A2DP stereo streaming to my old Motorola DC800 home stereo adapter I reviewed back in 2006 on pocketnow.com. After re reading the review the problem with pairing the iPod (with BT adapter) was problematic at the time because you could not enter the required 0000 pairing code. That is not a problem with the iPhone and it works very well with the iPhone OS 3.0. Although AVCRP remote control does not impact this configuration, I would love to understand why Apple left out the functionality.
Another point: I was able to write a blog post and stream using Bluetooth back in 2006 on Windows Mobile. Sometimes it seems we have to take one step back to take two steps forward..
Posted by sskarlatos on June 29, 2009 at 11:42 AM in Apple, Bluetooth, Commentary, iPhone, Windows Mobile | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)