Behold, the New iPhone 3G S Is Here

The new iPhone iteration has been rumored to get an official launch at WWDC for the past couple of months, and it seems that Apple has decided to put an end to all the speculation and finally unleash the revamped handheld onto a world of awaiting fanboys and fangirls, either confirming of debunking some of the many rumors in the process. And while the new iPhone 3G S is indeed a very interesting piece of equipment, it remains to be seen whether the upgrades with respect to the previous 3G model are so radical that they're really worth the high price point.

First and foremost, the most important fresh feature the iPhone 3G S will be its running the new iPhone 3.0 operating system, which, as we all know only too well, represents a major step forward from the point of view of usability and available features. But we've already talked earlier about this new OS, so we'll move forward to the actual spec improvements.

According to Apple, the new iPhone 3G S features an improved processor (although no specific info regarding this component has been provided), capable of doubling its overall functioning speed. Plus, it takes advantage of the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard for high-quality 3D graphics, thus improving mobile gaming and other graphic intense applications.


New iPhone 3G S features built-in compass
Enlarge picture
Another major upgrade is represented by the fresh 3-megapixel autofocus camera, which lets users adjust focus, exposure, color and contrast, and includes an automatic macro focus for extra close up shots. Additionally, the camera can be used for recording videos at 30fps and 640x480 pixel resolution, the OS also providing very useful in-phone editing features.

Furthermore, the iPhone 3G S also supports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA for faster networking speeds and an improved battery life, offering up to five hours of talk time on 3G, up to nine hours of Internet browsing on Wi-Fi, and up to a whopping 30 hours of music playback time.

Copy and paste, plus landscape view
Enlarge picture
Another function worth mentioning is the voice control feature in iPhone 3G S, which offers hands free operation for both iPhone and iPod functions by allowing users to simply speak the appropriate commands into the built-in microphone or headset microphone to dial by name or number. Apple’s handheld also sports a new built-in digital compass for instant navigation, plus a couple of fresh accessibility features including VoiceOver, a screen reader that speaks what appears on the iPhone 3G S display, enabling visually impaired users to make calls, read emails, browse web pages, play music and run applications and the new universal Zoom function that magnifies the entire screen. iPhone 3G S supports Mono Audio, which combines left and right audio channels so that they can be heard in both earbuds for those with hearing loss in one ear.

And now, for the pricing. The fresh iPhone 3G S will be available in the US on June 19 for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16GB model and just $299 for the new 32GB model, but people who want it, will have to enter, as expected, a two-year agreement with US carrier AT&T. No word on worldwide availability for the time being, but that's most likely to follow in the coming months.