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Apple’s latest version, iPhone 4 looks great with new design, expecting to reach most requirement of user. They have put in a lot of work to give the best look and feel features. The most fascinating features are 1 GHz chip which helps in storage of huge data, two cameras when rest of the phones have one, HD video and retina display. The Apple iPhone 4 is seemed to be shaped up with a touch of old and new combined together to craft a flat, sleek and smooth device that one can flaunt.  Of course there are lots of better features expected after every release but iPhone 4 is one of the best phones in the market till date.

Design:

The iPhone 4 has remarkably had a major up gradation in hardware, looks and premium materials. The display measures 3.5 inches in size. It weighs 137 grams. The iPhone 4 has good quality display but in smaller size when compared to other phones lined up in the market. But it is one of the best displays till date with an LED backlit IPS LCD display. Overall it measures 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 which gives a slender look to the iPhone. The usage of scratch resistant glass makes the phone slippery, hence unsecure and uncomfortable to handle. It has an excellent resolution of 640 x 960 pixels. Clarity is 4 times better than the other phones.

The iPhone LCD display has LED backlighting, results contrast ratio of 800:1.It provides multi-touch support.

The volume control, ring/silent buttons are located left side of the Apple iPhone 4, whereas the microSIM card slot is provided at the right side. Sleep/wake button, audio jack and an extra mic for active noise cancellation during phone calls are provided at the top of the phone. At the bottom there is a pair of speakers, USB port for connecting charger and data cable. One of the interesting features is autofocus camera of 5 megapixels. It has got LED flash as well. Battery backup is quite decent with 300 hours of stand-by time and 14 hours of talk time. It can play non stop music up to 40 hours. 1420 mAh Li-Po battery is used in this.

Features:

Developers seem to have missed the multitasking idea and hence this it is less utilized on this phone. At present, the multitasking aspect on iPhone 4 is merely a quick menu launcher which serves as a history of all your recently used applications. Though it is proved to be hassle free, integration of all the apps is still a wait. FaceTime is available only through Wi-Fi at present. GUI is very simple and user friendly. It’s possible to make use Google/Wikipedia using Wi-Fi. Various applications can be saved in folders. Keyboard comes as QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY.One can choose preferred keyboard layout. As any other phones contacts can be added, edited and deleted as well. Spell checker feature does the automatic correction of spelling errors.

Emails can be viewed as thread. It has 5 megapixel digital camera. The iPhone 4’s gallery opens an image slightly zoomed in so that it fits the entire screen. One can either pinch the image or double tap the image to view full picture. Music lovers will love this version. This consists of iPod player where create, edit option is being provided. Huge files like pdf files also can be stored and read through pdf reader. However, the iPhone 4 has Bluetooth 2.1 which not just connects you to a wireless headset, but to a Bluetooth keyboard as well supported by iOS 4. An 802.11n Wi-Fi is on board alternatively for faster data connectivity.

The web browsing has also not been in the fact of innovation with this phone. But with a high resolution display, even the faintest details are visible. Every new technology will have its own demerits which give scope for future enhancement. Hence even Apple iPhone 4 has few disadvantages like one cannot set new ring tone or sms tone, does not provide support for social networking sites, no sms delivery notification. All this is done to serve some purpose. It could be to increase the performance. In order to provide a locking system a simple alphanumeric lock code can be used. Rest all the icons like date, alarm, clock are same as the previous version except for calculator. It’s a complete WinMo 6.5 rip-off.

Performance:

Apple iPhone has been a great await but has shortlisted few problems with signal connectivity and call quality not as expected. Messaging on an iPhone is unbeatable with its on screen keyboard, suggestions for misspelled word and predictive text. Misspelled words will be underlined and predictive text is accurate enough while you type. And hence is best till date. Apple’s iPhone 4 has improved battery life with 14 hours of talk time.1Ghz apple A4 platform is faster than ever before.Multi-tasking is not provided in all cases. It is mainly to increase the speed. Phone 4 is not affordable by common man. Its highly expensive, varies from 630 euro to 740 euro. Samsung I9000 gallery S is said to give a tough competition to iPhone 4.

Introduction

You can’t make a phone that everyone loves and Apple is not even trying. Much like any other iPhone so far, the iPhone 4 is a phone that everybody loves AND hates.

Apple’s latest is always the greatest – you have to give them that. Sometimes it seems they put less effort into making it than in letting people know they did. But with the Apple iPhone 4, they were obviously hard at work. The 4th generation iPhone has an all new look, new feel and plenty of new skill. We already caught a glimpse of the iOS4. But there’s much more: a 1GHz chip, two cameras, HD video and of course the Retina display – the highest-res screen we’ve seen so far on a GSM phone.

Apple iPhone 4

Surely there are still enough blank spots on the feature list but that’s Apple and its iPhone. Compromises are being made in every phone out there anyway. But the simple fact is Number 4 is the best iPhone to-date. Let’s see how good that is.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 3.5″ 16M-color LED-backlit TFT capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 960 px resolution
• Scratch-resistant glass front and rear, with fingerprint-resistant coating
• 1GHz Apple A4 SoC; 512MB of RAM
• 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and touch focus
• 720p video recording at 30fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 16/32GB storage options
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and three-axis gyro sensor
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary microphone
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Excellent audio output quality
• Slim waistline at only 9.3mm
• Secondary front-facing camera
• Some degree of multitasking
• Rich AppStore

Main disadvantages

• Hardware design is prone to reception issues
• MicroSIM card support only
• No Flash support in the web browser
• No true multitasking for all applications
• FaceTime video calls work only over Wi-Fi
• No file transfer over Bluetooth or USB Mass Storage mode
• No hardware shutter key for the camera
• No FM radio
• No stereo speakers
• No microSD card slot
• No smart dialing
• Too dependent on iTunes for loading multimedia content
• Poor loudspeaker performance

As you can see, most of the main disadvantages are simply passed from one generation to the next but – whatever iPhone you’re coming from – the Number 4 will tick most of your boxes. Upgraders will be used to the shortcomings, and unbiased observers will have less points to complain against.

It just seems some features will be forever missing. The iPhone’s memory isn’t expandable and you can’t use the thing as an external drive (this also means that files are only transferred via iTunes, again). Bluetooth has been upgraded to cover not only for music and calls but a compatible wireless keyboard too. File transfers however are a no-go.

The lack of Flash support in the Safari browser is no surprise given the Apple-Adobe feud. Luckily there’s the good old YouTube app to partly make up for that but Flash games are still out of the question.

There is now a secondary video-call cam but the “reinvented” FaceTime video calls feature only works over Wi-Fi (for now) and between two iPhone 4’s.

As for the multitasking, this is the closest the iPhone has ever gotten but there is no true multitasking, and certainly not for all apps.

You’ve probably also heard of the user reports of reception issues and you’re wondering how much of that is true. Well, we’ve checked that in detail, too.

The Apple iPhone 4 is a thing of beauty

All that (and a bit more) aside, the new goodies seem to merit at least some of the iPhone 4 hype. The Retina display is gorgeous. The 3.5” capacitive TFT touchscreen has four times the resolution of the older iPhones. At 640 x 960 pixels, it’s the best we’ve seen – statistically. But perhaps the most impressive too, for its actual performance.

There’s a generational leap in imaging too. The first two iPhones had a single 2MP fixed focus camera on board. Last year’s 3GS tried to make some sense with a 3-megapixel autofocus snapper. With the iPhone 4, Apple are finally beginning to look good. The primary 5-megapixel autofocus camera not only takes impressive images but shoots 720p videos too. Oh, and it has a LED flash.

Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB Specifications

Improved Performance

I’m not talking about the user interface or any additional applications – everything that runs on the iPhone 3GS can run on the iPhone 3G, but the 3GS is significantly faster. I was skeptical when Apple decided to concentrate on speed rather than introduce new features to the previous iPhone, and without using it myself I’d never have paid the extra money for a ‘more powerful’ model over the previous one.

When looking at the specs, the CPU in the 3GS is clocked at 600MHz, compared to 400MHz on the previous generation. As well as this, you’ll be getting 256MB RAM compared to 128MB in the 3G. When you’re using the 3GS it feels a lot more responsive, and the speed at which applications load (especially more intensive ones such as Sims 3) is staggeringly quick compared to what you’d get on the older generation.

Battery

A surprising feature of the 3GS is increased battery life, despite a higher clock speed in the device. Battery life is always a concern in smartphones, with most lasting no more than a few hours of intensive use, but the average user will be able to get a full days charge with the new improvements to battery life.

Camera

Apart from the increased speed and battery life, you’ve also got another reason to opt for the 3GS over the 3G or other smartphone. The camera in the iPhone has always been pretty shocking, as with many other phones in the market. I could never use the iPhone’s camera as my main point-and-shoot, but you’ll find a 3MP camera in the 3GS, which also boasts video recording and auto focusing for when taking still shots.

You’ll be surprised how much this will increase the quality of your shots over previous generations, especially when used with the new auto exposure and auto white-balance features. Even with these improvements, I couldn’t use the 3GS as my main camera – Apple has still got a lot of work to do before that’s possible, but it’s a definite move in the right direction.

When it comes to the quality of your video recordings, you’ll be impressed with the quality for a mobile device, although it simply can’t compete with dedicated recorders. Still, it’s a nice feature to have, and you can tap the screen when recording to focus your videos. After capturing video, you can upload your shots directly to YouTube with the help of a nice feature from Quick Time X on Snow Leopard, which allows you to quickly trim your video, allowing you to edit out unwanted sections.

Summary

If you’re a current iPhone user with either the original generation or the 3G model, you’ll definitely notice a speed increase which is always nice, but depending on your budget, you may not want to shell out for what’s essentially the same iPhone with a few tweaks.

For those of you thinking of buying an iPhone for the first time, you’re in luck, especially with it now being on multiple UK networks, so you’re no longer restricted to O2’s network. By the end of January 2010 you’ll be able to buy a PAYG iPhone or get one on contract with O2, or an Orange iPhone, or Vodafone iPhone and even a Tesco iPhone – who’d have thought a few months ago, we’d end up having this much iPhone network choice in the UK?

Have you got an iPhone 3G/3GS? Which network have you got your’s running on? What do you think to both your iPhone and choice of network, let us know by leaving a comment below!

It would be easy to dismiss the Apple iPhone 3GS as an inconsequential hardware upgrade. But to do so would underestimate how much, collectively, the phone’s new features augment the iPhone experience. With the iPhone 3GS, Apple solidifies its leadership position in a crowded smartphone landscape.

On the outside, the iPhone 3GS ($299 for 32GB, or $199 for 16GB, with a two-year AT&T contract, as of 6/22/09) looks and feels virtually identical to the existing iPhone 3G (now $99 for 8GB with a two-year AT&T contract). Yes, it’s disappointing that Apple made no refinements in the external case . And yes, it’s curious that the colors remain the same, black or white gloss .

Performance

Apple has played down the upgraded component specs on the iPhone 3GS; instead, the company simply promised noticeably faster performance. And the 3GS, with its CPU boosted (to 600MHz, from the iPhone 3G’s 412MHz CPU) and its memory doubled (to 256MB), indeed delivers a noticeably zippier user experience compared with the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G.

Not only do apps open faster, they respond faster, too. These differences were evident in my use over both 3G and Wi-Fi. The annoying lags for accessing data or redrawing a screen are gone; moving around from one complicated Web page to the next feels downright breezy, not onerous.

I wasn’t surprised that games–I tried Oregon Trail and Peggle–were snappier, since the graphics has been bumped up, with Open GL ES 2.0 for mobile 3D graphics and, according to teardown reports, Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX.

But I was pleasantly surprised to have a noticeably better experience navigating apps like Marco Polo CityGuide London, a largely text-based utility with hooks into the Maps app. And the London Tube Underground map didn’t need seconds to redraw as I rapidly scrolled within the map. These small differences add up in a big way (especially if you’re standing on a street corner while touring in London, trying to find your way), and made for a much more pleasing experience as I pounded on apps, switching among them at will, my fingers gliding fast to move from one feature to the next.

Call quality and reception remained the usual mixed bag we’ve come to expect from AT&T. Calls sounded adequate, but sometimes lacked the crisp clarity I’ve experienced with other handsets, including the T-Mobile G1 and the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G. How much of this is attributable to the AT&T network versus the handset itself is unclear, but moot anyway, given that the phone remains locked to AT&T, and its network is the one iPhone users must contend with.

Apple’s claims of longer battery life from the previous generation are true, though not by much. According to the PC World Test Center’s battery life tests, the iPhone 3GS had an average talk time 6 hours and 12 minutes–only 34 minutes longer than the iPhone 3G. Still, I couldn’t get through a full day of real-world usage without needing a charge (I engaged in talk and data activities, plus checking my location on a map, and shooting off some photos and videos, all with the Wi-Fi connectivity enabled). For data, the company rates the battery at up to 9 hours time over Wi-Fi, and 5 hours over 3G.

One pleasant battery-related addition is a new Battery Status indicator, which you enable In General/Usage. I’d often wondered aloud why earlier iterations of iPhone couldn’t do this seemingly basic task–tell me in numbers exactly what percent of the battery life was left. I’m still trying to gauge the accuracy of this battery meter, but I’m glad to finally have it there nonetheless. Now, at least, I don’t have to guess what the gauge icon represents; I know that after about 4 hours–with both Wi-Fi and 3G enabled, but no data transfers and 27 minutes of phone conversation–the battery was down from 100 percent to 78 percent.

Imaging

Beyond the performance boost, the iPhone 3GS features a notably improved imaging experience that ranks high among the hardware upgrades built into the iPhone 3GS handset. The camera jumps from 2 to 3 megapixels, a welcome if moderate increase that makes the phone’s camera somewhat more viable for on-the-go snaps. And the camera now includes a video mode–finally.

In my hands-on use, I found the iPhone 3GS camera surprised in some situations, and disappointed in others. The camera app opened and was ready to shoot with just a 3-second delay. I was pleased by the autofocus and tap-to-focus features; my images were reasonably sharp, and I found that by selecting different focus points, I could change the image’s exposure as well as composition.

In some shots, the focus select had minimal impact on what area of the image appeared sharp. But other shots seemed to benefit greatly, even though when the feature brightened the dark areas, it completely blew out the light areas. The macro mode works invisibly and without intervention. Still, I was annoyed that the autofocus box didn’t confirm sharpness for me by turning green, as happens on many point-and-shoot cameras; sharpness was often impossible to tell on the iPhone’s screen.

Though Apple boasts of improved low-light handling with the iPhone 3GS camera, I had mixed results with indoor andlow-light shots. A low-light dusk shot ended up being very grainy, with degenerating building details when viewed at full resolution. Some indoor shots looked decent, but others were barely passable and would have clearly benefitted from a flash, had Apple included one. Maybe we’ll see Apple catch up to its competition by adding a flash in its next version of the iPhone handset.

Also on the wish list: software-based image stabilization. I have often found that even images shot in daylight were not sharp at full resolution, especially images I tried to shoot one-handed. With its on-screen shutter button, the iPhone’s camera just doesn’t lend itself to one-handed photography. And while on the topic of what’s missing, the Camera Roll app still lacks integration with Web services; sure, Flickr has its own app, but that’s not the same as viewing a pic and deciding to post directly from the camera roll.

The bigger news is the inclusion of video capture and editing. The iPhone 3GS camera app has a slider switch to activate the video camera, which records 30 frames per second video at 640-by-480 resolution. In video mode, the camera shutter turns into a red record button you press once to start recording, and again to end recording.

Sending video is very easy: The phone has integrated hooks into YouTube, MobileMe (Apple’s $99-a-year service), and e-mail. Just select the service, and proceed from there; for YouTube, the iPhone 3GS will automatically compress the file in preparation for upload to your YouTube account. Want to trim your video before sending? No problem: The in-player iMovie-like frame editor makes snipping the beginning or end of a clip a breeze.

The videos I captured looked better than many typical camera phone images at the same resolution, and I found the inclusion of a video camera handy in a pinch when I was caught off-guard with a video opportunity and had no other camera on hand. But the iPhone 3GS can’t replace the video you can capture in 720p high-definition with many digital cameras and compact video recorders like the Flip Mino HD. And like-resolution dedicated camera and camcorder devices generally have a few advantages, such as greater stability for hand-held shots, and a tripod shoe if you want to steady the image.

The video feature has a few other rough spots. You can’t easily find the videos you capture: They’re lumped in with the rest of the images in your Camera Roll, with the video camera icon and length running along the bottom of the thumbnail. You also can’t access your videos from within the iPod music and video player. And, unfortunately, the much-ballyhooed editing feature is rather limited: Once you make an edit, it’s done.

One major gripe about both the images and videos: On a Windows XP-based netbook, Windows’ camera import tool brought all 257 pics and vids across to my netbook, but the order of the pics was completely jumbled compared with the order things were captured in my Camera Roll. I’m not sure where the communication failure is between the two devices, but it was very frustrating.

Voice Control

Voice dialing is fairly common, and has been for years. This is a seemingly basic feature on which the iPhone 3GS is playing catch-up. But, at least it goes further by providing a range of voice controls for both dialing and music playback. When it works, I found it a wonderfully handy feature when driving, or even when walking down a street.

Hold the Home button for a count of three (a count of two invariably took me one page to the left), and the Voice Control screen pops up. Your command options scroll across in a rush, prompting your memory of the available commands (some imprecise mutations of the “accepted” options appeared to work): Play album, previous track, play songs by, dial, call, play, what song is playing, yes, no, cancel, shuffle, play more songs like this.

I found this feature worked with varying degrees of success. If I said to dial Rita and didn’t specify the number, it asked me which number I wanted. If I said Rita Home, it dialed Rita Home–even when I asked in a noisy restaurant or in a room with the TV on in the background. But Voice Control stumbled on other names, either offering the wrong name or not recognizing anything. And it missed some voice commands when a TV blared nearby. Also odd: If I said Perenson and there were three Perensons in my Contacts, it just accessed the first one in the Contacts list, and didn’t ask me which of the Perensons I wanted (even though I’ve seen reports that say it should). I asked it to play songs by REM and it played ABBA, and sometimes I didn’t say a thing and I suddenly noticed it dialing a number I hadn’t asked for. Oops.

One detail worth noting: Apple makes the iPhone 3GS more accessible to vision-impaired users through its new Voice Over feature. Once enabled, the phone can talk at you as you navigate among the touchscreen icons.

Display

The iPhone 3GS has the same 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display as its predecessor. The display still looks beautiful, displaying images at 320-by-480-pixel resolution. But these images are a bit “warmer”–they don’t have quite the vividness that they do on the iPhone 3G.

The iPhone 3G’s colors pop more; it has deeper browns at the top of the notepad, and deeper grays in the keyboard. The same screen on an iPhone 3GS has a dullish gray on the keys. In both instances, the auto-brightness setting was off, and the brightness level was identical.

In some images, we detected a slightly greenish cast on the iPhone 3GS. We found the color distinction quite noticeable on screens with white backgrounds, such as the search tab, the calendar, and the photo library. While some of these differences may not have stood out when we looked at the iPhone 3GS on its own, they did when we put the new handset next to the 3G.

When asked, an Apple spokesman said the color temperature and brightness level of the display has not changed from the 3G phone. Apple also says the new oleophobic (oil-resistant) coating had no impact on the screen, as the coating is transparent.

While some aspects of the 3GS’s display look dull and washed out in comparison with the 3G and even the original iPhone, I noticed a clearly visible improvement in blacks. An example was when I compared the original iPhone and the 3GS, both in the camera app, with their lenses facing a black table. The black of the table appears more dark gray than black on the original iPhone, so it’s clearly washed out and too bright; the table appears to be a more pure black with the iPhone 3GS. However, in this example, the noise level of the 3GS is also abundantly clear: Parts of the image show dramatic and intrusive evidence of reddish artifacts and noise.

The aforementioned smudge-proof coating, at least, is the real deal–it attracted fewer fingerprints than an iPhone 3G did when both cameras were used similarly, and those fingerprints wiped off more easily. Another benefit: The new screen’s texture has an ultrasmooth glide to it. In contrast, my fingers would more easily catch on the iPhone 3G (typically as they passed over a fingerprint or three).

Also, text appears slightly sharper on the 3GS compared with the 3G. That’s surprising considering that the iPhone 3GS has the same resolution as the iPhone 3G does. Apple says that fonts on the iPhone 3GS are rendered by the phone, as opposed to being bitmaps, and that this approach accounts for the smoother and sharper appearance of text.

Everything Else–Including OS 3.0

A couple of stray features have been crammed into the iPhone 3GS, and while they may seem minor, they’re sure to find their fans.

The newly integrated compass is handy for location-based and mapping applications (and if you’re communing with Mother Nature). The compass has distinctive, easy-to-read graphics, and it allows applications to orient to your current position. For example, the Maps app will reorient based on your directional heading.

Nike+ support is built-in now, too. Take iPhone 3GS on a workout with you, and it can track your progress together with the $19 Nike+ accessory.

Certainly, the OS 3.0 software update, which makes many cool features available to all iPhone users, could persuade some people to decide they don’t need a new handset. Among OS 3.0’s features: a landscape keyboard for all core apps; an innovative and useful implementation of cut, copy, and paste, the long-elusive iPhone feature; A2DP stereo Bluetooth; push notifications, an improved call log that shows details like the time and length of a call; spotlight search for searching apps, e-mail (subjects and to/from lines), music, and more; shake to shuffle; voice memos; and support for MMS and tethering, common features bizarrely not available to AT&T until later this summer.

Although the iPhone 3GS offers some compelling improvements for heavy users, I’m disappointed that Apple didn’t build more innovations into the handset, to differentiate itself from the pack. Some areas are still lacking, and there’s still no true multitasking (you can’t log into instant messaging while surfing the Web, for example).

But the performance enhancements do distinguish this otherwise evolutionary step-up phone from its previous iterations. The new features of the 3GS are few but choice. With 32GB of storage and its data and multimedia strengths, Apple’s iPhone 3GS is, despite the reservations noted, one of the best smartphones you can buy for the money.

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but when it comes to Apple products it lies in every eye set upon them. Aesthetics is something that has been integrated with the brand Apple from the very beginning. With innovation at its best, the company has its fingers dug deep in every tech field right from computers and music players to mobile phones. Calling this much coveted Apple handset a mere mobile phone doesn’t somehow justify the device’s existence, as it proffers much more than the basic calling and

messaging functionalities. The iPhone 3GS too has a plethora of features archived in its kitty, but how many of them have managed to make us jump out of our seats? Well, read on to know what this handset scored on our rating card.

Packed in its petite black coffer, the compactness of the iPhone 3GS has spread out to encompass even its box. Simplicity is what appears to be the thought behind the packaging as it housed the handset cradled on a plastic crib. Located below were perfectly encased Apple earphones with a remote and mic, USB power adapter, dock connector to USB cable, along with a product information guide. The first thing that struck us on opening this elegant box was the debonair handset that lay within. With striking candor and an unpretentious appearance, the device maintained its sleekness by tipping the scales at 135g while measuring 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm.

Its pristine 3.5 inch fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coated glass screen took up the entire front leaving enough space right at the bottom to fit in a center circular home button. While the top edge was fitted with a SIM card tray, a 3.5mm stereo headphone mini-jack and the sleep/wake button, its right panel was left untouched. Situated on the left-hand spine were the ring/silent button and the volume buttons. The in-built speaker was found below sharing space with the microphone and the 30-pin dock connector.

The moment we plugged the device into its USB charger, the iPhone 3G S surged to life. After sipping some battery juice it took us to the main homescreen which had four icons namely, the Phone, Mail, Safari and iPod functionalities at the base. Even though the handset came with a single homescreen users can save up applications in over nine pages. On adding our favorite ones, we had four loaded pages. However this did not slow down the ability to slide between pages as the user interface was all about seamless navigation. With utmost simplicity and smoothness, the interface enables you to customize the pages by simply pressing on any icon for long. As all the symbols wiggle, you can drag and drop any of them in your desired place, even the four located below.

The signatory home sign on the menu button that we see on certain phones was obviously not present here as it was replaced with an unpretentious square probably representing all those quadrangle shaped icons sitting peacefully inside. The general ones that we found were App Store, You Tube, Calendar, Camera, iTunes, Messages, Notes, Photos, Settings and Utilities. We first proceeded to analyze what lay behind the Settings icon to arrange this device as per our preference. It was loaded with a myriad of options allowing us to alter various functions other than the basic ones like sound, brightness, wallpaper, and general. One thing we really liked about the device was that it allowed us to customize several key tasks which made using it fun.

Being photography lovers, we decided to take on the iPhone’s 3.2MP camera to test its capturing ability. Just as expected, the camera scored an ace on our list as the clarity was pristine, while the camera interface was quick and wasted no time toggling between the camera roll and the homescreen. Zooming in to capture little details could easily be done by tapping on the screen and then sliding the scroll bar, although full zoomed images weren’t exactly that clear. However the ace just fell a little low in rating as no modes or flash could be found in the device. Shifting to the video mode was quick with the help of the video mode scroll bar placed at the right hand side corner of the camera interface. The video quality failed a bit as the resolution of the VGA videos shot was not quite up to the mark.

The Camera Roll housed all our images, thus we headed there to checkout their quality. Pictures appeared great on the screen, while sifting through them or zooming was found to be quick and easy. Jumping satisfactorily from the camera, we paused a while at YouTube’s icon to view some amazing videos. They looked stunning in high clarity and loaded up quickly without any latency. The dedicated icon enabled us to dive into a sea of videos, waiting for us to explore them. We then moved onto the App Store to dwell on the deluge of applications it houses.

Updating and expanding your library can be done either directly from the device’s App Store or by syncing it to a computer. However, on pairing the device with another PC, adding content seemed tedious as it would overwrite the previous data. Apart from a wider view of the iTunes profile on accessing through a USB cord, no other difference was found while visiting the Store without connecting it. We checked out a few games like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Spider, Street Fighter IV, Shrek Karting, World Cup and others. With the help of options like check on updates, rate top 25, search, and view apps by various categories our journey through the fun-filled App Store was made even pleasant.

The iPhone 4 created uproar for wrong reasons, as many complained about its poor call reception. The iPhone 3GS never gave us a reason to grumble, while we indulged in long conversation with pristine voice clarity. On the point of communication, we would like to add that typing out messages with the virtual touchscreen QWERTY keypad was no different from its predecessor. Moreover, the added copy/paste facility makes it simpler to type out those lengthy mails and messages. Other features that remain unchanged were namely, marking important days in calendars, creating general notes, tracking stock market trends or using the pre-loaded maps. Utilities however housed a new functionality, the Voice Control which lets you locate content, or play music with voice commands.

Another fresh specialty of this iPhone version was the included hardware compass, which let us navigate new cities effortlessly. Voice Memos too caught our eye, enabling us to record our voices and save it or share it with others. With the introduction of Spotlight to the iOS, almost all the content could be accessed on the homescreen. This handset ran almost twice as faster when compared to its older versions. This could be accredited to the addition of improved hardware mainly a 256MB RAM coupled with 600MHz CPU. Audiophiles world over already know that Apple’s expertise in music products is unquestionable. The music quality was ace as we plugged in the earphones. Coming finally to the battery life, it lasted for about five hours just like the iPhone 3G.

Pros:

The touchscreen experience was a seamless indulgence, be it swiping or scrolling.

Browsing was swift as downloading applications took barely any time.

The improvised utilities are worth a mention.

Cons:

The ability to tag photos, crop, geo tag, edit images is amiss, whereas the video recording functionality could have been better.

The lack of a music shortcut is troublesome.

An added multi-tasking capability would surely be appreciated.

In conclusion, we would like to say that if you are looking for intuitive navigation and quick responsiveness, then look no further. The iPhone 3GS meets the Apple benchmark, however a few tweaks especially in the camera would surely augment its popularity. Proffering a cascade of attributes, the handset would be an apt companion for you to take off with. Rating it a 9 out of 10, you would have to shell out approximately Rs. 40,000 to procure this 32GB beauty.