Product Reviews

Few Apple products have polarised opinion in the way that the iPhone has done since it was first announced back in January 2007. Depending on who you listen to, it's either the most desirable gadget on the planet, or an over-priced, not very clever and fairly ordinary mobile phone. And despite the fact that it's getting close to a year since it first hit the UK, there's no sign of the breathless blanket coverage slowing down, as you will have noticed if you happened to be browsing practically any technology website on 11 July.

So is this latest incarnation, the iPhone 3G, worthy of all the attention? Yes. And no. As a piece of hardware, the improvements over the original iPhone - GPS, 3G and an increase in capacity to 16GB - barely merit a mention. But in terms of what it can now do, thanks mostly to the software update to version 2.0, it's a world away from the first iPhone.

And there's the rub. The greatest improvements, the best new features, and the cause of most of the excitement around its launch, are all contained inside the software update, which is free to owners of the first iPhone. This makes the decision about whether or not to upgrade relatively easy. Unless you need the 3G data transfer, or more space for music and movies, don't bother. If you don't already have an iPhone, and have been waiting for a 3G version before buying, then there's no reason for further procrastination.

The iPhone 3G comes in two capacities, 8GB and 16GB, and its most obvious physical difference from the original iPhone is its plastic, curved back. On the 8GB model, the back is black, matching the front of the iPhone, while the 16GB iPhone comes with either a black or white back. Unlike the MacBook, there's no premium for choosing a different colour.

The slight curve on the back makes it more comfortable to hold than the original model. Other than that they're practically identical. Hardware controls are still limited to the on/off switch, home button, hold switch and volume controls, and the screen, while lovely, is still prone to smears. The camera is stuck at two megapixels, which is something of a bone of contention. There are those who would argue that two megapixels is miserable given that there are phones now available with five-megapixel cameras. However, squeezing more pixels onto a tiny CCD means more noise and a lower quality image. And if uploading

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images to the web or showing them to friends on your phone is all you want to do, two megapixels is plenty. Battery life on 3G is up to five hours' talk or web surfing time, and up to 300 hours' standby.

The GPS receiver works in partnership with the Google Maps app to provide data on your current location and the surrounding area. In our tests it worked well, pinpointing our location and plotting it on the map.

Central to the new iPhone software is its link with MobileMe, Apple's replacement for .Mac. You can sync mail with your MobileMe email account, as well as contacts, calendars and bookmarks, all over the air. Just set it up, ask it to check for updates automatically every 15 minutes, and you'll never be out of touch, so long as you're in range of O2's 3G network or a wifi hotspot.

If the new iPhone has a killer feature, it's this. Rim built an empire on the back of push email. By building it into the iPhone, albeit with the requirement that you shell out £59 a year for MobileMe, and adding support for Exchange, Apple will grab a big chunk of the BlackBerry's market. It's not perfect, though. There's no way to sync notes from the iPhone's Notes application, and iCal To Dos, which also appear in Mac OS X Mail, don't seem to sync either - although there is a folder for them on the iPhone. And there's no way to view calendars to which you've subscribed on your Mac.

If push email is the most important feature on the 3G iPhone, then the new App Store is the most exciting. On launch day, there were already hundreds of free and paid-for third-party applications on the Store. Some are astonishing, others merely very good. One of the best, and the most popular free application at the time of writing is Remote, from Apple, which allows you to use your iPhone as a remote control for iTunes. It operates over wifi and lets you view your playlists on the iPhone's screen. So if you have a media streaming device, like Airport Express and have your Mac housed in an office or upstairs room, you can now listen to and control your music without leaving the living room.

Other applications range from the frivolous - PhoneSaber, which emits a Star Wars light sabre 'swishing' sound when you wave your iPhone around - to the genuinely useful - phrase books, currency converters and flight checkers are particularly popular.

There's no doubt that the iPhone 3G is a quantum leap ahead of the original iPhone in terms of what it can do. But equally, there's no doubt that the hardware improvements don't really merit paying £99 for the upgrade. The conclusion? If you already have an iPhone, upgrade the software and wait for the next version. If you don't, the only decision to make is which contract to choose - the £35 per month tariff is best value for most users. But if you make lots of calls, you can have an 8GB model for free on a £45 per month deal, and both versions free on a £75 per month contract.