Hey,

A friend who currently has an iPhone 3G and is looking for something faster (iPhone 3G is a little sluggish with modern apps) was asking me if O2s current offer was worth taking.

http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pa...%208GB%20Black

iPhone 3GS 8GB (Free)
100 Mins
500 Texts
100MB Data
£18.50 / Month (24 Month)

Although I know a new iPhone is likely due out in September this seems like quite a good deal to me, what do you think?

I also looked at benchmarks http://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/07/s...iphone-2g.html and the difference between the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 is minimum.

Gormond.

100MB data, few minutes and a 24month contract on a phone originally released 18 monhs ago. It might be cheap, but I don't think it's that good a deal tbh.

They currently have 100 mins, 100MB and find it sufficient (with O2 family bolt on).

The next alternative ATM would be an iPhone 4 which on a similar contact costs £300 or wait until September for iPhone 5 to be released but even then the price of the iPhone 4 may still be very high.

I'd guess (though of course it is a guess) that a low capacity iPhone 4 will accompany the iPhone 5 (same pattern as iPhone 3GS/3G and 4/3GS). Price probably broadly similar the current 3GS pricing - if they've lasted so long with a 3G (same as me incidentally) then probably best to hold out a little longer!

Not when you can get a phone that was designed and built this decade, on a superior network, for not much more.

The 3GS is probably going to stop getting OS updates soon (perhaps that is why they are doing it - clearing old stock). I wouldn't tie myself into a contract when that might happen.

The thing is the 3GS wasn't this cheap, just yesterday they wanted £150 for the phone on that contract but now it's free.

So my guess is the iPhone 4 will probably drop to about £150 (currently £300) when the iPhone 5 comes out.


Hmm well firstly "phones built this decade" are not that much faster on everyday tasks such as email and web browsing. Also O2 have the best network and excellent UK based customer service here so not sure what you mean by on a superior network.

As for updates the 3G was only dropped recently because it couldn't support the latest features. While the iPhone 3GS was twice the speed of the 3G the iPhone 4 is only very slightly faster than the 3GS so my guess is support will continue for a couple of years but I could be wrong.

It is still a £444 contract for a phone with a decent CPU but a with a low res screen.

I wouldn't. The 3GS is the year before last's model and it only has 8GB of space. Chances are if there's an OS update this year, that the 3GS won't get it, so she'd be behind with the newest features, but still tied for another 2 years.

IMO, I'd wait until the Apple conference in June when it's likely that there will be a better idea of when the next phone is coming out, and therefore when the current iPhone 4 will get stepped down to the cheaper option (presuming Apple do the same thing they've done the last couple of years).

I've used a 3GS; a huge comedown from even my antiquated Nexus One. Definite sluggishness. Although some of that is due to the relative "toyishness" of the OS.

By "superior network", I mean one that doesn't break down all the time and has more than the minimum 3G coverage required of it by Ofcom. So basically not O2.


Who said it was purely about specs? This is Apple; once the contracts start to come up for renewal you'll see the 3GS starting to lose new key features or indeed updates. Apple needs to get you on the iPhone 5.

There's also more to the specs than the CPU - RAM is a key factor, something which I think is doubled between the 3GS and 4 and might double again for the new iPhone.

Dropping the phone while many of its users are in contract is not good for business - it will make people think that Apple doesn't stand behind its products (well, that's true) and they'll get only a few sales until that time by people who must have the latest.

My concern would be what happened with the 3G. It's pretty much given that the 3G cannot handle iOS 4 as it's excluded from the majority of core features (and for that matter the 3GS is also excluded from some features of iOS 4.3) and even excluding those features it doesn't perform well

It would be reasonable to expect a similar situation with the 3GS come iOS 5 if indeed apple even make iOS 5 available on the 3GS or if, having learnt from iOS 4 on the 3G, they decide to exclude it

Whilst sticking on iOS 4.3 may not be an issue, it's worth mentioning that the onus then falls on app developers to ensure compatibility with older versions of iOS which isn't always the case and your friend may find himself stuck on an old version of iOS, with apps no longer supporting it and stuck there for 18 months still

Therefore like the others I would also suggest getting either a 4 or hanging fire for the 5 or a price reduction on the 4

Thanks for the suggestion guys, I will suggest that they wait for the iPhone 4 to drop in price