Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB SIM-Free - Black

After a couple of years of deliberation, and ownership of a few Nokias and a Samsung (all of which disappointed in some way or other) I finally decided to give in to colleagues peer pressure and get one of these. Needing it to work with corporate email was a key driver in pushing me away from the likes of Android and having owned Symbian phones, none of them were fully capable of HTML mail as this thing is so the email experience is far far better now.

Don't get me wrong, after coming from quite customizable OS's, the iPhone does feel a bit restricted and over simplified, but some may argue those are it's key strengths too. No bluetooth file transfer, limited options for choosing ringtones / sms tones, no settings for the camera etc etc all made me think twice before placing my order, but considering my alternatives were the likes of Blackberry or Windows Mobile (ugh) I'm glad I went Apple.

Camera wise, so far I'm actually quite impressed. Considering it's "only" 3mp with no flash, it copes quite well in low light with limited noise levels despite the high ISO's used. Video recording on it is excellent at 30fps and you can crop them too afterwards which is brilliant. I have bought a new point and shoot camera anyway as the ones fitted to phones are never going to give the same performance. Sure, they look fine on the screen but view them on a laptop etc and the quality soon shows. However, in emergencies or when you just need to take a quick pic the camera is more than good enough. I think people need to realise that there's more to a camera than megapixels alone. Having owned a Samsung I8910 HD with 8mp, the shots with that were still not as good as my Sony 7mp dedicated camera and in low light due to the tiny sensor it was useless. 3mp on a phone is plenty. Want outstanding photos? Buy a camera.

Otherwise, since getting the phone I've been hitting the app store big time. There's oodles of apps available, many of which are free, and lots of others are cheap enough not to concern me. There's a lot of rubbish on there though, like fart apps and sound effect ones but also some real gems too. Makes me think that out of the so called 100,000 apps they claim to have, 90,000 of them are probably pointless (and with a LOT of apps that do the same thing) with the remaining 10,000 being actually of some use. Aside from that though the store is dead easy to use and getting apps is a doddle.

I do have some gripes though, oversimplicity and lack of configuration options aside.

Firstly, the phone signal strength is pitiful sometimes. The phone will often lose signal completely in areas where my Nokia's and Samsung never struggled. Quite odd.

Secondly, GPS signal is not as strong as on other phones I've had. My Nokia's (N97 aside) could get a signal easily in the car, and my Samsung could even get one indoors. The iPhone however needs a really clear view of the sky and it took a good 20 mins to get a fix first time round, with it dropping out several times before it became usable.

Lastly is battery life. This thing chomps battery like it's going out of fashion, so carry a charger/ USB lead with you if out and about for a bit and buy a car charger too. Compared to other touch screen phones I've had it's marginally worse so far but then I have been playing with it a lot so this may settle down when I do. :)

To confirm, this phone is listed as PAYG on O2, but should work with any O2 SIM I think. I inserted my work O2 SIM and it works fine so it's only a network lock and nothing more. It comes without a SIM so you'll need to get one from O2 if you do actually want to go O2 PAYG.

The iPhone is a fantastic device - nothing else comes close. The phone works well. Emailing is excellent. Texting is excellent. Internet browsing is a bonus. The interface generally is better than anything else I've used, and I've used a lot of technology. Battery life is acceptable, given what the device has to do. And, if you have/use iTunes, then you are really laughing. Any criticisms are just quibbles or confusions. Get one from O2 and enjoy this product which is years ahead of its time - be happy.

This is the best phone I have ever had by quite some margin. My last phone was a Nokia N95, which was a nice phone all things considered, the screen broke on it twice though so made do with a cheap and cheerfull replacement until contract ended. Did think of not bothering with a fancy phone but thought would check out the iphone as the stranglehold 02 had on the iphone market had ended. Having tried one out in the Orange shop I was instantly hooked. As a phone for the basics, ie texting and calling goes, no complaints, as good as any I have used. I was a little concerned that the text inputing would be challenging but have found the interface to be very user friendly, the landscape keypad is useful if you have larger fingers. Now where the phone really comes in to it's own, the multi media aspects of the phone. There is so much it can do, internet browsing via the Safari browser, itunes for your music, podcasts etc, checking your hotmail at the touch of a button. Then there are the apps, this is where it leaves all other phones in it's class standing. A few I can say that I have found useful are the Orange Wednesdays app, great for the cinephiles out there, uses your phones GPS tracking to give you the location of your nearest cinemas and what is on at your local picture house. The phone also supports BBC iplayer which is very useful, lots of games to be going on with and media from lots of sources, eg the Guardian online, BBC homepage for news etc.I Could go on all day about the apps, there are so many, and because they are third party apps, they keep coming thick and fast, every developer worth there salt wants to get there wares out there for all to see. I originaly purchased the 3g 8gb, (second generation), which is fine, my girlfriend has one and loves it, but being a bloke and knowing there was a third generation phone out there I had to have it, so sent back my 3g and got a 3g S, the S stands for speed, which basicly means that the phone runs up to 2x faster. There is also a better specced camera and a compass built in. Is it better? I would say marginaly, it is faster opening apps and downloads are quicker, but not by much. Overall though I would have not been happy knowing there was a better specced phone out there, especialy as I have a 2 year contract to run. That's just me though!

The screen is a capactive screen which means it responds to finger touch, a pinching motion will increase the size of the picture or website page you are viewing, if supported by page/site being viewed, and a swipe in tne desired direction on the screen will move pages left or right. Very smooth and very intuitive, another lovely touch.

If there were anything about the phone which may let it down, the camera is only 3.2 mega pixels and does not have a flash, not an issue for me to be honest as would rather use a proper camera for my photo's personaly, if a camera on your phone is important to you I would probably give this one a miss. Another minor gripe is that the Safari browser will only open certain file types, ie those supported by Quick time, this can limit you to what you can watch online, in so much that not everyone on the internet uploads content in the Quick time file format. Minor gripe though for me. Also battery time is eaten up fairly quickly, in fairness this is to be expected though, turning of WI FI when not in use is a good way of getting the most out of a full charge

To sum up a great phone which does most of what it sets out to do exceptionaly, as mentioned camera could be better and a flash would make it pretty much the ideal phone. Highly recommended.

Atticus.