Michal Ždanský It was June 2009. Apple traditionally started WWDC with its keynote, where it introduced a new phone from its stable as the main device. The iPhone 3GS was the first mobile example of the tic-tac-toe strategy. The phone did not bring any design changes, nor did it bring revolutionary functionality. A single-core processor with a frequency of 600 MHz, 256 MB of RAM and a low resolution of 320×480 will not impress anyone today. Even at that time, there were better phones on paper, with a better resolution and a higher clock speed of the processor. Today, no one even barks at them, because today they are irrelevant and outdated. However, the same cannot be said about the iPhone 3GS.
The phone was introduced together with iOS 3.0, which brought, for example, the copy, cut & paste function, support for MMS and navigation applications in the App Store. A year later, iOS 4 came with multitasking and folders, iOS 5 brought the notification center and iOS 6 further improvements to the popular mobile operating system. The iPhone 3GS received all of these software applications, although with each new system the features that the phone supported dwindled. The older hardware was simply not enough for the growing demands of the operating system, the low clock speed of the processor and the lack of RAM took their toll, after all, for the same reason Apple cut off support for the 2nd generation of the phone much earlier.
iOS 7 is the first version of the operating system that the iPhone 3GS will not receive and will remain with iOS 6.1.3 forever. However, it is still in the beta phase, so it can be said that the phone is still running an up-to-date system, four years after its release. And iPhone 4 will likely face the same situation next year. Now let's look at the other side of the barricade.
The longest officially supported Android phone is the Nexus S, which was released in December 2010 and ran the current software (Android 4.1.2) until November 2012, when Google released Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. However, in the case of phones that are not manufactured to Google's order, the situation is significantly worse and users usually wait for the next version of the operating system with a delay of many months at best. Samsung's longest-supported phone so far is the Galaxy S II, which ran the current Android for over a year and a half, but the update to version 4.1 came only after Google introduced Jelly Bean 4.2. Last year's flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S III, introduced in May 2012, still hasn't been updated even to Android 4.2, which Google introduced in November of that year.
As for the situation with Windows Phone, it is even worse there. With the launch of Windows Phone 8 at the end of October 2012 (with the first demo a quarter of a year earlier), it was announced that existing phones with Windows Phone 7.5 would not receive the update at all due to major changes in the system that caused incompatibility with the hardware of the phones of the time. Select phones only received a stripped-down version of Windows Phone 7.8 that brought some of the featured features. Microsoft thus killed, for example, Nokia's new flagship, the Lumia 900, which thus became obsolete at the time of release.
[do action=”citation”]The phone is definitely not one of the fastest, it is hampered by hardware specifications, but it can still offer higher performance than many current low-end smartphones on the market.[/do]
Apple has an indisputable advantage in that it develops its own hardware and operating system and does not have to rely on a main partner (software manufacturer), thanks to which users always get a new version at the time of release. It's also helped by the company's limited portfolio, where the company only releases one phone a year, while most other manufacturers churn out new phones month after month and then don't have the capacity to adapt a new version of the operating system for all phones released in at least the last year.
The iPhone 3GS is still a solid phone to this day, supporting most apps from the App Store, and from a Google services perspective, for example, it's the only phone from 2009 that can run Chrome or Google Now. Not even most Android phones released a year later can say that. The phone is definitely not one of the fastest, it is hampered by hardware specifications, but it can still offer higher performance than many current low-end smartphones on the market. That's why the iPhone 3GS deserves a place in the imaginary hall of fame of modern smartphones.
Good article and I still laugh about Android :D
Agreement. Still a great phone. It is enough for calls, SMS and internet, e.g. for a wife (undemanding)... :)
I was after a 3GS SamsungSIII. For the first few weeks I was hoping to get used to it. It did not happen. I gave the 3GS to my wife and I look at it sadly. She doesn't want to let him go.
I agree, I'm the owner of an iPhone 3G, so far I'm completely satisfied, I won't change until this fall. But I can actually say that about all Apple products, I have already upgraded the software 2 times on my Air laptop and I see no reason to buy a new cloth. If I compare it to the lifespan of the regular laptops with forks that I used in the past, it definitely pays off for me financially. I don't understand how anyone can claim that Apple products are overpriced, my own experience clearly shows that, on the contrary, they save money….
As for Windows Phone, yes, it is true that Lumia with version 7.5 only got an update to 7.8 (really 7.8 not 7.9 as it is wrong in the article), but there it is caused by a complete change of the system core. Now since version 8 two small updates have been released for all WP devices and support is promised for each new version for at least 36 months, with WP 9 and others already compatible with WP8
I have an iPod touch 1st generation. We use it to this day... Sometimes even for surfing the net.
I still have it (4 years) and only bought an iPhone5 a month ago. Mainly because of the better display and camera... Many of my friends are envious of how usable the 3GS is compared to their Samsung/Android.
I agree exactly, only android sheep think they hold only the best in their hands and I spit on apple in apple products, the power is real in regular and reliable updates, which android users can only dream about and after a year or two their phone dies, it must be quite It sucks when you buy an S3 and after a year there is no update on it and you have to buy an S4 to get it :-D
That's nice and true, but my Samsung Galaxy S has also been working for 3 years, even though it received an update too late (after a year), when another new Android has already been released and I don't have another update, it doesn't seem outdated to me and it still does things that the iPhone can't do either today. I don't miss the new confusing Android, on the contrary, I'm glad it's not there :) just as I'd rather keep iOS6 from the golden days of Apple than look at the graphical horror of iOS7. In the end, it probably won't work for me because I'm an inquisitive person and I've always gone to something new (the last time was 2 years ago from Win to Mac), but I really don't feel like it.
Bring on the day, even if I'm only using an iPhone 2G as a player. Until recently, it even worked as a second phone and there were almost no problems with it, only now the sound is a little annoying. I've had a MacBook Pro for almost four years now, and only last year at Christmas I bought an Asus for it, for school and battery life, because the MacBook had already received a few modifications and I didn't want to change the battery, but otherwise a super reliable book that I plan to retire until in the next three years, when all the bugs on the MacBook Pro Retina will be fixed, then I will go into it and guess that it will serve another 6 years :)
Exactly. Beautifully written. I use 3Gs, and I am completely satisfied. I'm only thinking about a newer model because of the better camera. After the Android experience, it's a nice change to see that even an old device can work comfortably.
A legendary phone, even the 3G is better for me than the Samsung galaxy S4. I myself have gone through all generations of iPhones and I had the 3G the longest, but the 4 was the best iPhone.
“…low resolution 480×320…”
I didn't know that Apple ever made a "wide-angle" iPhone :-D
I've always thought that a serious editor corrects by abbreviating. Or at least thank you for pointing out the error. :-P
This must have been corrected by the editor-in-chief, thanks for the heads-up anyway.
I've had a 3GS since 2010 and have no need to buy a newer one at all...it's a great holder still very competitive with most smartphones today.
I also use a 3GS and it has iOS 5.0.1 and I've had this smartphone since 2010 and it still runs like a Swiss watch :) but it's already slower :)
An impeccable article that describes my feelings as well. I used a 3GS for almost 3 years, since this year I have a Samsung galaxy SIII mini, but despite the fact that it has much more powerful hardware, it seems to me to be comparable in speed to the 3GS. The S3 mini isn't high-end, but it's not low-end either, and it's clear that Android has much higher hardware requirements. And that software update for a 3 year old phone by apple is just great.
The 3GS felt great in the hand.