The iPhone 3GS, originally the iPhone 3G S, retroactively re-stylized the iPhone 3Gs,
is a touchscreen smartphone, designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the third generation
iPhone, successor to the iPhone 3G. It was introduced on June 8, 2009, at the WWDC 2009
which took place at the Moscone Center, San Francisco.
Improvements include performance, a 3.2-megapixel camera with higher resolution and video ability,
voice control, and support for 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA downloading. It was released in the
U.S., Canada and six European countries on June 19, 2009, in Australia and Japan on June
26, and internationally in July and August 2009.
The iPhone 3GS runs Apple's iOS operating system. It is controlled mostly by a user's
fingertips on a multi-touch display. It was succeeded as Apple's flagship smartphone in
2010 by the iPhone 4; however, the 3GS continued in production until September 2012 when the
iPhone 5 was announced.
History The iPhone 3GS was made available for pre-order
on June 7, 2009 and released on June 20 in the United States, Canada, and 7 European
countries, and on June 26 in Australia and the United Kingdom. Within the first weekend
of its release, over one million iPhone 3GSs were sold.
Features The new features of the iPhone 3GS are mainly
internal changes regarding speed. The 'S' in iPhone 3GS stands for 'Successor' of iPhone
3G. The iPhone 3GS is speedier and is 2x faster than its predecessor. Though in addition to
the upgrades mainly regarding performance, various software features were also introduced
exclusive to the iPhone 3GS such as Video Camera, Voice Control and Digital Compass.
All of its exclusive features were incorporated into the iPhone 4.
Operating system and software The iPhone 3GS features iOS, Apple's mobile
operating system. The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation,
using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and
buttons. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse
pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system
and its multi-touch interface. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to
shaking the device or rotating it vertically. Hardware
The LCD display on the device was designed by Apple and made by LG. It features a capacitive
touchscreen with a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch on a 3.5 in 480-by-320 display.
Improvements over its predecessor's screen include 24-bit color emulation for a more
color rich display and oleophobic coating to help reduce fingerprints on the display.
The capacitive touchscreen is designed for a bare finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch
sensing. The iPhone 3GS features an improved 3.2-megapixel
camera manufactured by OmniVision. In addition to the higher megapixel count, it also features
auto-focus, auto white balance and auto macro and is capable of capturing VGA video.
The iPhone 3GS's camera app features a slider which allows users to switch between capturing
photos and recording videos, a tap-to-focus feature which allows users to tap on an area
of the camera image to auto-focus on, 5x digital zoom, auto focus and auto exposure lock when
holding an area down, and gridlines for composition. The iPhone 3GS is powered by the Samsung APL0298C05
chip, which was designed and manufactured by Samsung. This is the first iPhone with
a system-on-a-chip. This system-on-a-chip is composed of an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU core underclocked
to 600 MHz, integrated with a PowerVR SGX 535 GPU.
It has 256 MB of eDRAM, twice the amount of the 3G, allowing for increased performance
and multi-tasking. Apple claims the iPhone 3GS is 2x faster than
its predecessor, showing demonstrations of various apps loading in half the time its
predecessor does. As on previous models, all data is stored
in flash memory and not in the SIM and it does not offer any options to expand storage.
Initially it was only available in 16 and 32 GB though an 8 GB model was later released,
with Apple discontinuing the 16 and 32 GB models, forcing those needing more storage
to select an iPhone 4, or buy an older model 3GS.
The iPhone 3GS is powered by an internal 3.7 V 1220 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer
battery and is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge
and discharge cycles. A battery life indicator in percentage was also exclusive to the iPhone
3GS. Apple claims that the 3GS can last for up
to ten hours of video, nine hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi, twelve hours of 2G talk time, or
five on 3G, 30 hours of music, or 300 hours of standby.
A magnetometer is also built-in the iPhone 3GS, which is used to measure the strength
and/or direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the device. Sometimes certain
devices or radio signals can interfere with the magnetometer requiring users to either
move away from the interference or re-calibrate by moving the device in a figure 8 motion.
The iPhone 3GS also features a Compass app which was unique at time of release, showing
a compass that points in the direction of the magnetic field.
In addition to the iPhone 3G's Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA radio and quad-band GSMEDGE radio, the 3GS
also adds support for 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA allowing faster downlink speeds though upload speeds
remain the same as Apple had not implemented the HSUPA protocol. Other updates include
the addition of a built-in Nike+iPod sensor which eliminates the need for an external
sensor and allows native Nike+iPod support. The Bluetooth server on the iPhone 3GS has
also been slightly improved adding support for Bluetooth 2.1 specifications.
Voice Control was introduced as an exclusive feature of the iPhone 3GS and allows for the
controlling of the phone and music features of the phone by voice. There are two ways
to activate Voice Control: hold the Home button while in the home screen for a few seconds;
or, change the effect of what double-clicking the home button does so it will activate Voice
Control. VoiceOver, Color Inversion, and Text Zoom
were introduced as exclusive features to the iPhone 3GS. VoiceOver is a feature that dictates
music details, system menus, text, and other things which was first introduced on the third
generation iPod shuffle. Color inversion reverses the color scheme from black on white to white
on black, while Text Zoom allows users to zoom into a text on the screen.
The iPhone 3GS retains the design of the 3G, with a glossy plastic back with tapered edges
and metal buttons. The 3GS has reflective silver text on the reverse side which matches
the silver Apple logo, replacing the 3G's grey text. Unlike its predecessor, the iPhone
3GS was available in white and black for 16 GB and 32 GB, although the 8 GB model was only
available in black. Critical reception
Reviews of the iPhone 3GS have been generally mixed to favorable. Walter Mossberg of The
Wall Street Journal described the device packed with "new features that makes a great product
even better, but for many users, the software may be enough of a boost to keep them from
buying the new model." Engadget also said that "the additions of video recording, a
compass, and a speed bump just don't seem that compelling to us".
The device managed to receive numerous favorable reviews. CNET gave the iPhone 3GS 4 out of
5 stars, citing battery life improvements and speed bump. Engadget praised the performance
improvements. The 8 GB version received more favorable reviews
mainly because it comes pre-installed with iOS 4. Jason Snell of Macworld praised the
iPhone 3GS, saying that "the device's internal changes shines in the iOS 4 update, making
the iPhone 3GS a worthwhile upgrade compared to its predecessor although a little too late
compared to the iPhone 4". TIPB stated that "aside from hardware specific features like
FaceTime, Retina Display, and gyroscope support, the bottom line is iPhone 3GS users are getting
the same software that makes the iPhone 4 great".
Issues Overheating
Shortly after the release of the iPhone 3GS, some users reported overheating of the device
while in heavy use, and others reported discoloration of the device due to heat. The discoloration
issues were largely discounted as being as a result of iPhone covers rubbing against
the back of the iPhone. Apple responded to the heat issue reports
by warning users against leaving their iPhones in a car on a hot day, leaving it in direct
sunlight for extended periods of time, and refraining from heavy usage while in a hot/sunny
environment. It is also worth pointing out the temperature specifications in which the
iPhone should be operated, which follows safety standards in the countries the 3GS was released.
Continued support iOS 5
After the release of the iPhone 4S, the 3GS was still offered for free until November
2011, when AT&T raised the price to 99 cents with no explanation as to why. The 99¢ price
is only available with a two-year contract on AT&T in the United States and a three-year
contract on Telus, Rogers, Bell and Fido Solutions in Canada. This is a departure from Apple's
previous trends, in which only two phones were sold.
New Bootrom and 2011 Baseband Update On September 9, 2009, Apple launched an updated
model of the iPhone 3GS that patched a segment overflow in the SecureROM of the Device that
had allowed loading an unsigned LLB. After the release of the iPhone 4S, Apple
killed the unlock for the new iPhone 3GS devices that were produced after week 36 of 2011 by
updating its baseband hardware from an Infineon Baseband chip to a Toshiba Baseband chip.
Although the new chip uses the same modem firmware as the Infineon chip, it cannot be
updated to iPad baseband 06.15.00 that is still vulnerable to the AT+XAPP exploit.
iOS 6 The iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPad
are the only iOS devices to support 4 major versions of iOS. Although the 3GS was still
supported, some major features of iOS 6 were not supported. The 3GS had generally positive
reviews of smooth performance on iOS 5, making it still a good candidate for iOS 6. On September
12, 2012, Apple announced that they will no longer be selling and supporting the iPhone
3GS, and iOS 6, specifically, iOS 6.1.6 is the latest version of iOS to support the iPhone
3GS and it does not support iOS 7 due to future performance issues. The iPod Touch also doesn't
support iOS 7 due to performance issues on iOS 6.
Timeline of iPhone models
See also
List of iOS devices Comparison of smartphones
References
External links Official website archive