iPhone 3GS vs. 3G

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
Going tomorrow to pick up an iPhone for myself. There's a $100 price difference between the 3GS and 3G, so I was wondering... are there any significant differences that would make the 3GS a better choice?
 

alfa147x

Lifer
Jul 14, 2005
29,307
105
106
Are you planing on Jail-Breaking? If so get the 3Gs you will enjoy the faster CPU and more ram plus the 3G is almost 2 years old. I hope you love it! I loved my iPhone and still think it's a great phone. (Just got a BlackBerry Bold 9700)
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
Shit, I didn't realize there were that many differences. :O

My parents were planning on buying the 3G for me as a Christmas gift, but I'm thinking that I might give them the $100 difference for the 3GS...

Since you mentioned it... what are the advantages of jailbreaking? I mean, is it something that's really necessary?
 

alfa147x

Lifer
Jul 14, 2005
29,307
105
106
Shit, I didn't realize there were that many differences. :O

My parents were planning on buying the 3G for me as a Christmas gift, but I'm thinking that I might give them the $100 difference for the 3GS...

Since you mentioned it... what are the advantages of jailbreaking? I mean, is it something that's really necessary?

I liked the ability to run apps in the background thats where the 's' comes in handy. Look into Backgrounder and SB Settings. Also liked it customized:



I think any geek that has an iPhone for long enough will jail break it
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
Wow, looks like 3GS FTW.

In other news, I picked up one of these for about $5 today thanks to a gift card and a sale at BestBuy. :)
 

sourceninja

Diamond Member
Mar 8, 2005
8,805
65
91
My 3GS is a noticeable improvement over my old 3g. My wife has my old 3g and I can't stand when I need to use her phone. It is slow.

I don't jailbreak anymore now that push has been released. I haven't found the need to. The one problem I do have is that my 3GS is slow to switch from edge to 3g. My wife's phone will show full bars 3g and mine will still be stuck on edge for sometimes an hour. I thought it was just a display problem, but testing it with youtube has proven her phone is using 3g and my phone is not.
 

saratoga172

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2009
1,564
1
81
As a matter of fact, the refurbs undergo more rigorous quality control testing than the new ones do. Also when I got my iPhone 4 months ago I went with the 3g and within 2 weeks took it back for a 3gs. The 3gs is about twice as fast and can background about 3x more apps when jailbroken. Don't regret the choice one second.

Oh and you will end up jailbreaking it. It's how the phone is meant to be.

Also alfa you need to send me the themes and apps you used to get your lockscreen like that. That's pretty sick. I've been using lockinfo and weathericon but nothing else so far.
 

alfa147x

Lifer
Jul 14, 2005
29,307
105
106
As a matter of fact, the refurbs undergo more rigorous quality control testing than the new ones do. Also when I got my iPhone 4 months ago I went with the 3g and within 2 weeks took it back for a 3gs. The 3gs is about twice as fast and can background about 3x more apps when jailbroken. Don't regret the choice one second.

Oh and you will end up jailbreaking it. It's how the phone is meant to be.

Also alfa you need to send me the themes and apps you used to get your lockscreen like that. That's pretty sick. I've been using lockinfo and weathericon but nothing else so far.

Hell Yes dude loved my lock screen:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=333070&highlight=

LockInfo is no longer free so if you would like to get around it PM me
 

KeypoX

Diamond Member
Aug 31, 2003
3,655
0
71
I liked the ability to run apps in the background thats where the 's' comes in handy. Look into Backgrounder and SB Settings. Also liked it customized:



I think any geek that has an iPhone for long enough will jail break it

Hey where did you get that theme? I just ordered 2 refurbs 50 each on sat 16GB 3gs. Hoping they dont need teathered but i can deal with that.

I really want a background theme with realtime or semirealtime weather.
 

alfa147x

Lifer
Jul 14, 2005
29,307
105
106
Another jail-broken look
c672c9e23758dbe47c2ea95a2e99e8c8.jpg
 

secretanchitman

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
9,352
23
91
mil83t.png


i just changed the dock to be like the original ipod touch. i also made the dock icons be reflective too! i used to have this theme called "illumine", but half of my apps didnt have custom icons so i took it out (and i also got too lazy making icons for them myself :p ).
 

Rottie

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2002
4,795
1
81
how do you screen capute your iphone? anyway I dont see any speed improvement between two iphones.
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
Alright, so against the advice of everyone, I decided to go with the 3G. Mainly this was because the 3G would cost me nothing, while a 3GS would have cost me at least $50+ (assuming I got a refurb). Also, my parents told me that they'd pay for the data plan for a year as part of the present if I went for the cheaper model.

While the 3GS might have been a better choice from a feature standpoint, it was MUCH more cost-effective to me to get the 3G. Who would turn down a free iPhone and a year of free data? :p

I've been playing with it all day and I LOVE it. It feels fast and smooth, the screen is bright and clear and the interface is extremely intuitive. I downloaded a few useful apps – Skype, Yelp, AIM, and Facebook. I'm lookout for more apps though (and I have a $10 itunes GC) so if anyone has any suggestions I'd like to hear them.
 

chin311

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2003
4,306
3
81
Good to hear!

I've had a 3g since March (before the 3gs!) and its been great, ive even dropped it numerous times and its still holding up well. hopefully i'll make it til the next one is released presumably this summer.

I dreaded switching to an all touch screen phone for texting etc but i'm just as fast now as i was on my old Voyager.

enjoyyyyy
 
Sep 7, 2009
12,960
3
0
Alright, so against the advice of everyone, I decided to go with the 3G. Mainly this was because the 3G would cost me nothing, while a 3GS would have cost me at least $50+ (assuming I got a refurb). Also, my parents told me that they'd pay for the data plan for a year as part of the present if I went for the cheaper model.

While the 3GS might have been a better choice from a feature standpoint, it was MUCH more cost-effective to me to get the 3G. Who would turn down a free iPhone and a year of free data? :p

I've been playing with it all day and I LOVE it. It feels fast and smooth, the screen is bright and clear and the interface is extremely intuitive. I downloaded a few useful apps – Skype, Yelp, AIM, and Facebook. I'm lookout for more apps though (and I have a $10 itunes GC) so if anyone has any suggestions I'd like to hear them.



lol sounds like a parental test... Don't worry, you passed.


I went from the 3g to 3gs and there is a noticeable difference even when typing out a txt or whatnot.. Which imo is bizarre - isn't the 3g like a >300ghz cpu? Hell it should be able to play doom wtf can't it type out a lag free txt?

Have any of the 3.0 and greater firmware updates helped this with the 3g?
 

Rottie

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2002
4,795
1
81
I knew you would pick 3G instead of 3GS...It feels like faster as 3GS or not much of different when I had it for 30 days before switch to 3GS.