The iPhone 3G has now been released for over a year. The iPhone 3GS was released last month with some nice new features, but this review will tell you about the iPhone 3G, aswell as telling you if you should pay the extra money for an iPhone 3GS.

First of all, let’s have a look at what an iPhone 3G looks like.

As you can see, it is a very nice looking gadget. The iPhone 3G used to be released in white too, but that is no longer offered after the release of the iPhone 3GS. Previous higher models of the iPhone 3G have also stopped production. The only available iPhone 3G now is the 8GB model, and not the 16GB or 32GB models. This must be Apple’s way of getting you to pay more money.

Let’s first take a look at the materials used to create the iPhone 3G. In the iPhone Original, the back of it was completely metal, as you can see below.

Although the metal was obviously quite strong, it meant that it got scratched really easily. Nobody likes scratches.

It was a really interesting decision from Apple to change the casing to plastic. It doesn’t feel as strong at all, but it seems to be quite difficult to scratch without actually trying to do so. It’s your decision if you think this is a good thing or not.

One very annoying problem with the iPhone 3G (And the iPhone 3GS too) is the Apple logo on the back. There is no problem with having it there, but it scratches very easily. I have tested the iPhone 3G for around a week now and there is no marks or anything on it at all, except on the logo. It would have been nice for them to protect this a little better.

Another downfall of the iPhone 3G is the home button on the front. It can be slightly difficult to press it sometimes, it doesn’t seem as… easy as the old iPhone did.

Do you like to listen to music? Well you’ll be very disappointed when you see the earphones they provide for you. They feel very poorly made and cheap. If you’re going to be listening to music through earphones, it’s recommended to buy your own as it’s obvious these won’t last long.

It’s not all bad though, lets move onto the actual usage of an iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G runs on the Operating System Mac OS 10, as you would expect to be honest. It does a fantastic job. You will see some of the basic applications pre-installed for you in this screenshot:

One of the great features of the iPhone 3G is the amazing camera it has in. According to Apple, it can take 2 megapixel photos. That seems pretty low compared to some phones on the market, but when you actually take a photo, you’ll see the great quality – Of a HD camera. Don’t be fooled by this 2 megapixel claim, the quality of the photos will be a lot better than you think.

The application which seems to be the main success of the iPhone 3G is the App Store. This is where Apple and other Third Party Developers can create applications and then share them in this virtual shop, either paid applications or free ones. There are thousands of high-quality applications to use, and it’s all at your fingertips. You can make your iPhone your own.

Now let’s look into the main use of an iPhone – The phone. When phoning people, the quality is actually pretty good. If you put the iPhone on speaker and turn the volume quite high though, you’ll notice that the quality starts to decrease. It’s best to keep it at your ear, or at least don’t put the volume on too high. SMS Texting is very good on the iPhone 3G, it’s much, much easier to message people than on usual phones. The messages are also displayed in an ‘Instant Messenger’ type fashion too, which looks great.

When Apple first announced the iPhone, one of their main selling points was that it was a music player – Like an iPod. This is definitely the case with the iPod application. The media on your iPhone is organized in a very clean way that makes it easy to access all of your music and videos. The coolest feature in this application is the accelerometer in the iPhone. If you hold the iPhone horizontally, you’ll get the nice coverflow from previous iPods, as you can see below:

One of the obvious features that we haven’t mentioned yet is the touchscreen. The touchscreens on some of the older phones have been very poor – And not very responsive. This is certainly not the case with the iPhone 3G. The touchscreen is definitely the best touchscreen on any device I’ve ever seen.

The final point to look at is the internet on the iPhone. iPhone’s also have a Safari Internet Browser installed – A fully functioning browser, unlike poor versions on other phones, such as over WAP. This can connect via WiFi or 3G. 3G networking is great if you’re out-and-about because you can browse the internet anywhere, and still get fairly decent speeds. The only problem is that it drains your battery life very, very quickly. It doesn’t take long at all. If you’re in an area where you have access to WiFi, it’s recommended to use that and then disable 3G.

Final Conclusion: The iPhone 3G is a great quality device with only a few flaws on the design and build.

Now, what about the iPhone 3GS? Let’s take a look.

Have you noticed anything yet? Yes, it looks exactly like the iPhone 3G. Infact, it’s really difficult to tell between them.

The iPhone 3GS brags about it’s increase of speed. After testing, yes the iPhone 3GS is a lot quicker. Then again though, the iPhone 3G wasn’t slow to begin with, so although it’s always nice to have it run quicker, it’s not the greatest of features.

Another feature of the iPhone 3GS is the camera. They have apparently improved the camera from 2 megapixels to 3 megapixels. However, after personally looking at it, I couldn’t see any difference at all. They both look the same.

There is a difference with the iPhone 3GS though. It has a video camera, which is what the iPhone 3G should have had in the first place. There is something Apple aren’t telling you though. It is already possible for the iPhone 3G to use a video camera! There have been several applications created by Third Party Developers which have been rejected from the App store. This is obviously because they want more people to pay more for the iPhone 3G.

The best video application for the iPhone 3G is called Cycorder. To use it though, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone 3G. You can read more about this application at iPhone Hacks. Beware though, jailbreak it at your own risk.

The final main feature of the iPhone 3GS is the compass. This enables you to see the direction on the iPhone 3GS. It’s also integrated with Google Maps so it moves the map based on the direction you’re facing. This is a rather interesting feature.

So if you were thinking of purchasing an iPhone 3GS, you might want to think again. You can purchase an iPhone 3G and get a just-as-good gadget which does more-or-less the exact same stuff (Including the video camera) for a much less price.

Feel free to give your review in the comments section.

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