First reviews: iPhone 3G improved, but still flawed

Is the iPhone 3G worth waiting in line for? Early reviewers of Apple's new smartphone are mostly positive, but they share some common gripes about battery life and two aspects of dealing with AT&T: service plan costs and skimpy 3G coverage areas.

The New York Times' David Pogue, the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, and USA Today's Ed Baig, the Holy Trinity of Apple's marketing department, all received the phone about two weeks ago. (Most other reviewers, including ours, will have to wait with everyone else to buy one tomorrow morning.) All three reviewers liked the first-generation iPhone, and they all like the second generation even better.

Pogue's bottom line: "So the iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade. It more than keeps pace with advancing technology, and new buyers will generally be delighted."

Mossberg concludes: "If you've been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life."

Baig is more effusive: "... this handheld marvel has no equal among consumer-oriented smartphones."

Mixed in with the raves are a fair number of complaints, however.

The 3G network: Mossberg says downloads were three to five times faster on the 3G iPhone than on the standard iPhone. Baig accepts Apple's claims that the new phone is twice as fast as the old version. Loading popular Web sites took 10 to 30 seconds, he says. But all three reviewers complained about holes in AT&T's 3G coverage, despite the fact that they're all based in and around New York. Imagine what the coverage will be like in rural Iowa.

Actually, David Pogue did more than imagine. He points out that, according to AT&T's 3G coverage map, "in 16 states, only three cities or fewer are covered; 10 states have no coverage at all." And you guessed it, Iowa is one of them.

Mossberg says he found problems even in Manhattan: "In New York City, riding in a taxi along the Hudson, one important call was dropped three times on the new iPhone. Finally, I borrowed a cheap Verizon phone and got perfect reception."

Battery life: Mossberg's tests found that the iPhone 3G delivered 4 hours and 27 minutes of talk time. "More important," he said, "in daily use, I found the battery indicator on the new 3G model slipping below 20 percent by early afternoon or midafternoon on some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day."

As with the first iPhone, you can't replace the battery in the iPhone 3G, meaning you have to charge early and often or use workarounds. Mossberg says he used Wi-Fi for data transactions instead of 3G, turned down the screen brightness, and turned 3G off entirely at times to save juice.