3G iPhone - My First Impressions

[randomlinh]

I saw one in the store today... I have to say I like the new look better. It feels good, doesn't feel cheap at all. I'm s till not a fan of the chrome rim. Almost makes me want to switch, heh.

 

[alevasseur14]

Well, my battery didn't quite make it 12 hours with a good mix of standby, phone calls, app installs, internet, txting, and games. I think once the novelty of having a smart phone wears off I'll most likely be able to make it through an entire day. Still, 11 hours isn't that bad for the amount of activity I was doing.

Edit: I've had excellent 3G coverage in the Minneapolis, MN area. 5 bars every time I've looked.

 

[FP]

Does the new iPhone use solid state storage or hard drives?

 

[alevasseur14]

it's flash memory

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Originally posted by: alevasseur14
Well, my battery didn't quite make it 12 hours with a good mix of standby, phone calls, app installs, internet, txting, and games. I think once the novelty of having a smart phone wears off I'll most likely be able to make it through an entire day. Still, 11 hours isn't that bad for the amount of activity I was doing.

Edit: I've had excellent 3G coverage in the Minneapolis, MN area. 5 bars every time I've looked.

Thanks for the update. If you get a chance, let me know what the usage time was (Settings -> General -> Usage). Right now my meter states I have 4h35m usage & 1d15h standby time...still in the green battery meter wise, I'd estimate 30-35% left. Just trying to correlate usage times, I know they won't directly translate from phone to phone, but I'd like to get an idea.

 

[bearxor]

I went and stood in line Sunday and picked one up, but cancelled my contract with AT&T today. I couldn't get them to give me my corporate discount on anything but the voice plan so off it went. It's a shame. I got better reception in my house on AT&T, but until they can come somewhat close to the pricing I'm getting on Sprint, it'll be a no-go for me.

 

[aphex]

Updated the OP, i'm kinda annoyed right now with the phone.

 

[bearxor]

Battery life was pretty abysmal the day I used it too. I started out around 10am or so and by 5pm got the low battery warning. My day wasn't even half over yet. When I got home by 11, it turned off on me.

Thing is, there's no 3G service in my area and I turned it off in the network settings the day I got it. It's not 3G causing the battery to drain so quickly.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: bearxor
Battery life was pretty abysmal the day I used it too. I started out around 10am or so and by 5pm got the low battery warning. My day wasn't even half over yet. When I got home by 11, it turned off on me.

Thing is, there's no 3G service in my area and I turned it off in the network settings the day I got it. It's not 3G causing the battery to drain so quickly.

I kinda suspected as much as it didn't seem to hot the day I got it, before 3G was turned on. I dunno at this point.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

thats too bad that you are didn't like the 3G iPhone. I had the feeling that the battery life would be weak (especially since the battery isn't very large and it isn't user replaceable). I had the Sprint/Samsung M610 (EVDO) and I barely got through 2 days without charging, and that was barely using the phone.

I do have a feeling that the battery management isn't that great in the 2.0 firmware, or that push (or location, or something) is draining the battery at a faster rate. My 1G iPhone dropped 1/8th battery for no reason...I didn't talk on the phone for 1 minute, and got 3 push emails, installed 2 apps for about 15 total minutes using the phone. It is probably something like the 1st firmware where the battery indicator wasn't working right.

I'm going to wait for another couple of weeks to see how things shake down. I'll let you know if I decide to sell my 1G iPhone

 

[earthman]

Originally posted by: Narse

Originally posted by: bearxor
It's tempting, but doubling my phone bill by switching to AT&T from Sprint and losing 3G in the process is a no-go. I'll hopefully score a Treo 800w Sunday.

I mean, the iPhone is really, REALLY tempting. If I could get 450 minutes, data, unlimited text and insurance for $65 a month I would go for it. As is, that would run me $90/mo before taxes and insurance, if it's even possible to get that on AT&T.

I have 700min, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited nights and weekends. 200 text a month and unlimited data. All for 69.95 a month. Oh and I got rollover. There is NO INSURANCE on iPhones.

I have 2 phones, 1500 shared minutes, unlimited data on one phone, 200 text on the other, unlimited mobile-to-mobile, unlimited nights and weekends, for 89.95. I also have unlimited data EVDO for my laptop for 59.95. Last cycle we had over 2700 minutes used total with no extra charges at all. I will stay with Sprint/Nextel, they have been good to me.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Originally posted by: earthman

Originally posted by: Narse

Originally posted by: bearxor
It's tempting, but doubling my phone bill by switching to AT&T from Sprint and losing 3G in the process is a no-go. I'll hopefully score a Treo 800w Sunday.

I mean, the iPhone is really, REALLY tempting. If I could get 450 minutes, data, unlimited text and insurance for $65 a month I would go for it. As is, that would run me $90/mo before taxes and insurance, if it's even possible to get that on AT&T.

I have 700min, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited nights and weekends. 200 text a month and unlimited data. All for 69.95 a month. Oh and I got rollover. There is NO INSURANCE on iPhones.

I have 2 phones, 1500 shared minutes, unlimited data on one phone, 200 text on the other, unlimited mobile-to-mobile, unlimited nights and weekends, for 89.95. I also have unlimited data EVDO for my laptop for 59.95. Last cycle we had over 2700 minutes used total with no extra charges at all. I will stay with Sprint/Nextel, they have been good to me.

Yeah on Sprint we get like 4,500 shared min (unlimited from 7 on), full EVDO on 2 Treo phones, unlimited text, MMS, etc. all for like 99 bucks (for 4 lines including two full data phones). God I want an iPhone but ATT is by far the worst of the carriers in the US (and that aint saying much) plus they are one of the chief warrentlesss wiretappers I believe
Because of that Im hopefully gonna get a BBerry Bold.

"Think Different" indeed Apple. They should have gone carrier neutral like OpenMoko, Apple could have forced that since they hold the power.

 

[Reckoner]

make sure you guys pick up the AT&T universal rewards card. 10% off your monthly bill when you pay with the card for the first year

 

[DnetMHZ]

To the OP.. about your battery issue.. I have the original iPhone with 2.0 software. I used to charge my phone maybe every 2nd or 3rd day. But since installing and using some apps and setting up my Exchange push mail, I'm charging every night.. the apps (especially games and streaming apps) eat the battery like crazy.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: DnetMHZ
To the OP.. about your battery issue.. I have the original iPhone with 2.0 software. I used to charge my phone maybe every 2nd or 3rd day. But since installing and using some apps and setting up my Exchange push mail, I'm charging every night.. the apps (especially games and streaming apps) eat the battery like crazy.

This is the same with the iPod Touch. Also, I've seen reports about certain apps not FULLY quitting when you exit out of them, which means that your battery takes a huge nose dive until you reset.

Looks like there are many more fixes that they need to implement to get the battery life back on par. I do have confidence that they'll get it worked out.

 

[2Xtreme21]

OP: Regarding your signal issue-- I think it's something buggy with the software. There are times when mine says I have 1 or 2 bars, but I'm still surfing as fast as when I have full. You'll probably see that too.

 

[BZeto]

Has anyone noticed with their iPhone 3G that it will randomly open apps? I was just looking at the home screen and all of the sudden Pandora opens. I was no where near touching the screen. Also it seems that when I bring it from standby a different screen will be open, such as contacts or recent calls.

Another thing... My ring volume (thru the settings - sounds menu) will always default back to 60% if I try to set it to about 90%. The only way it will stay higher is if I max it to 100%. A minor, yet annoying issue.

 

[aphex]

Well, I think im gonna have to Restore, again. I'm having some really weird issues here, now with my mail. Although my Mail.app on my Macbook and my Mail Settings on my 3G iPhone only show 1 account, my Mobile Me account, all the old accounts are still showing in iTunes and it won't adjust to the new settings with the single account.

I'm also having issues with the Mail on the iPhone not downloading all my recent messages properly, its missing QUITE a few from the past week that should be contained in the last 50 that it requests. They show up in Mail.app, on the Mobile Me Web Apps, but not on the iPhone.

Grrr.

I'm also really ticked that every time I sync with my computer, the backup phase takes a good 20 minutes. It does it every other time I plug it in and Sync, drives me NUTS.

 

[aphex]

I'm also having issues with the Mail on the iPhone not downloading all my recent messages properly, its missing QUITE a few from the past week that should be contained in the last 50 that it requests. They show up in Mail.app, on the Mobile Me Web Apps, but not on the iPhone.

Ok I narrowed down the issue with all the email not showing, its not sorting by date automatically in the Mobile Me web apps, nor will it hold the setting, so its sending the first 50 messages that show up on the web app, not the last 50 by date. WTF

 

[aphex]

One more update, Anyone having weird issues with the Auto Brightness? It seems to so all over the place for no reason, even getting brighter when the room gets darker (the opposite of what it should do)

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: aphex
One more update, Anyone having weird issues with the Auto Brightness? It seems to so all over the place for no reason, even getting brighter when the room gets darker (the opposite of what it should do)

My iPodTouch has actually done that since I bought it with 1.1.4 firmware. I just turned the feature off.

As for the web app not saving settings, have you deleted your cookies? I set mine to show the most recent first... closed my browser and then reopened it and it was still set to most recent.

 

[Muadib]

I've had it with mine, and I'm taking it back tomorrow. The rf on it is horrible. I've had no service off & on all day. I have no choice but to return it, as there is no stock.

 

[mflacy]

I had problems with the battery life for the first few days, but it's been much better after I let it completely drain the battery.

 

[ric1287]

If you decide to return it, i'll gladly buy it

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: ric1287
If you decide to return it, i'll gladly buy it

It's going back, for sure. I can't sell it though, because then I couldn't get another at the discounted price.