iPhone 3GS review

I had the iPhone 3G 16GB. Was I happy? Of course. Could I resist upgrading to iPhone 3Gs? Absolutely not.

I walked into the Apple store a day after the iPhone 3Gs was released. I think a summary of the review is that, if you dont have an iPhone, why? Go get this now. If you do have an iPhone 3G, then it depends on how involved the iPhone has become in your day to day life. I am not going to talk about the basics (that is plays music, etc) but instead about what really differentiates this machine.

I travel... a lot. Not a lot of overnights, but a lot of day trips out and back. The iPhone is perfect for me. Of course, I use the email client, I use the iPod, I use many of the basic features. The iPhone has become central to my life at this point and is near perfect (just give me tethering already!). The NYTimes App and Wall Street Journal app (both free on iTunes) are central to my daily education. Furthermore, I now have gotten used to reading books on the iPhone (this took time - see my other upcoming posts on this).

The iPhone is amazing for 3 main reasons: the ease of use, the apps available, and now the speed. Truly, it is so easy my 18 month old has figured out how to do basic functions on this machine. I'll talk about the apps in a minute. But a major reason for me to upgrade was the speed. No longer do I wait what seems like forever for the NYTimes and WSJ app to open. The download speeds are so much faster. With the amount I use the machine, I probably gain 10 minutes a day in eliminated wait time!

But back to the apps - its about the apps. I have now been able to eliminate taking a turn by turn GPS with me while on a trip. I am using Gokivo (please see my review on this) and it works great for me. Additionally, I now am using RunKeeper (please see my upcoming review on this) for my workouts and I can play music while I run. Lastly, a plethora of other apps keep me constantly looking at the iPhone.

My biggest issue at this point, to be honest, is that I have information overload. On the NYTimes and WSJ apps, I can save the articles. I usually catch up on these on planes. But I can never catch up. I am in tune with the facebook app and Tweetdeck, but again, cant keep up! This is the current big problem I am trying to solve.

Therefor my advice is: If you dont have the iPhone, get on it! If you have the 3G, and you use it like crazy, like me, switch to the 3GS. If you are a light user of the 3G, then you are fine where you are.