10 Things You Need to Know Before Buying a 3G iPhone

The 3G iPhone goes on sale this Friday at 8am. But before you rush out and buy one you should consider some details about the iPhone 3G that have been revealed in early reviews of the iPhone popping up online. Reviews from from Walter Mossberg, David Pogue, and Edward Biag shed more light on the iPhone 3G's pros, cons, and quirks.

Price

One of the main draws of the 3G iPhone is the fact that it is "half the price" of the old iPhone. However when you take into account the service plan for the 3G iPhone, the numbers look a little different. The new service plan for the iPhone is $70 per month compared to the previous plan of $60 per month. The new service plan also doesn't include text messaging anymore, compared to the old plan which included 200 text messages a month, so you'll have to pay an additional $5 per month to match the old plan. When all is said and done, at the end of a two year contract the new iPhone with the new service plan costs at least $200 more than the old one.

Existing iPhone Owner Gotcha

Existing U.S. AT&T Wireless customers who have service contracts under 18 months old will not be able to buy the iPhone 3G at either the $200 or $300 price point. Those people will have to pay an Early Upgrade fee of $200 bringing the cost to $400 the 8GB iPhone and $500 for the 16GB model.

Should You Stand in Line?

Even though some Apple iPhone fanboys are waiting in line right now for the iPhone 3G, should you? According to an Apple Insider report, some iPhone re-sellers are not getting as many iPhones are originally anticipated. One distributor was originally expecting 50,000 iPhones at launch, but now will only get 5500 8GB 3G iPhones and around 3500 16GB 3G iPhones. Lets hope that this was an isolated incident. But if you do intend to get one of Friday, you may want to consider getting to your Apple store early just to be on the safe side.

You Can Check Availability Online

Just as you were able to check availability at local Apple Stores online when the original iPhone went on sale, you can do the same this time around. Just visit Apple's iPhone 3G page each day after 9:00pm starting Friday to check the next day's availability for any Apple Retail Store.

Missing Features

Walt Mossberg's Mossblog got an early impression of the new iPhone, and reports that it is still missing some key features. Specifically Mossberg mentions the lack of any copy/paste function for the iPhone as well as the lack of ability to save files aside from emailed photos. The 3G iPhone also lacks any type of instant messaging function which is common to most other smart phones. Most notably though is that the iPhone camera, while decent, isn't up to snuff with the overall quality expected from a high-end Apple product.

Battery Life Lags

And in his Wall Street Journal review of the iPhone Mossberg points out that the 3G iPhone's battery drains much faster than the previous iPhone due to the strain of using the 3G network. Mossberg cites that in a battery stress test the 3G iPhone lasted almost 4 and a half hours less than Apple's maximum battery life claims, and it lasted 3 hours less than when he tested the original iPhone last year.

Better Sound

There is plenty of good news too about the new 3G iPhone though. The New York Times review of the iPhone by David Pogue notes that the iPhone sound quality is among the best of any cellphone.

Apple App Store a Big Plus

The big positive that every review agrees on is the new Apple App Store for the iPhone. The ability to get third-party apps for your iPhone without hacking it is a huge step forward. It should also be taken into account that for every feature that the 3G iPhone might be missing, an app could be made available to fill the void, so the iPhone has potentially limitless functionality. Of course, the App store will be available for all iPhones, so if you don't upgrade to the 3G, you'll still be able to reap the benefits of the App store.

OS Update for iPod Touch

For iPod Touch owners it will cost $10 to upgrade to the latest software. The update will give existing iPod Touch owners new features and functionality. Most important the update will give owners access to Apple's App Store where a host of new applications will be available for purchase.

Be Prepared Before You Head Out the Door

Required to purchase and activate the 3G iPhone is a credit card, your social security number, a valid government-issued photo ID and current wireless account number and password or PIN (for those new with AT&T). A full list of activation requirements and what to expect are available at Apple's Web site and also AT&T Wireless retail stores.

Comments

You need to check your sources. The 9000 iPhone number struck me as somewhat absurd; Apple's been producing the new iPhone since before Jobs did his big reveal.

If you backtrace the cites, eFluxMedia stated that 50k iPhones were shipping, 5500 8gb and 3500 16 gb. Notice how this doesn't add up?

eFluxMedia got their numbers from AppleInsider. Those numbers actually refer to a *single* UK supply chain, Carphone Warehouse. According to the rumor, Carphone Warehouse was intiially expecting 50,000 iPhones, but instead is expecting the 5500 and 3500 as stated.

Bloody hell. I mean, it's possible that I didn't suss the facts quite correctly, but I can't believe the numbers you're citing refer to the total number of U.S. iPhones available come Friday. I mean, that's just ridiculous.

Aristeia

July 09, 2008

5:27 PM PT

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