Understanding the iPhone 3GS
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 7, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Final Words
I always feel like I need to congratulate or somehow gift those readers who make it all the way through an article like this. Maybe I'll start handing out lollipops one day. If you made it this far you'll know that there's a lot of concluding that needs to happen.
First, the phone itself. Honestly, if you have the original iPhone then this is absolutely the one you'll want to upgrade to - you'll feel like you've been swept off of your feet one more time (assuming you did like your iPhone). Upgrading from the 3G is also a good idea in my opinion, just because of the tremendous increase in performance. Where the upgrade recommendation becomes stickier is if you have to pay full price for the phone. Unlike the iPhone 3G launch, AT&T isn't letting everyone move to the 3GS at the $199/$299 upgrade price (16/32GB models). Under immense pressure from the market, AT&T has made terms a little more favorable but there is a sizeable population that won't get upgrade pricing until later this year. At $500 or $600 I'm not sure the 3GS is worth the price today, simply because I'm expecting an updated model around this time next year. Remember that Cortex A9 based phones will be out in 2010 and Apple also has the option of using a multi-core A8 variant as well, especially at 45nm. If you have to spend that much money, either wait until the next iPhone or wait until your upgrade price drops; $500 can buy you a Core i7, it shouldn't be the cost of a CPU upgrade for your phone.
Next, there's the Palm Pre. I continue to be impressed by not only how much Palm was able to do in such a short period of time with webOS but how frequently Palm is updating the OS on the recently launched Pre. We're now up to four OS updates since its launch in June and I fully expect more from the Palm crew. By the time the Pre debuts on Verizon and AT&T the phone should be sitting pretty. If you don't mind being on the bleeding edge of a platform that needs work and real developer support, the Pre is a real alternative to the 3GS - and in some senses, a better device to use.
Finally, there's the hardware itself. The real story behind the 3GS isn't that Apple took longer than necessary to move to the Cortex A8. No, the real story here is that both ARM and Imagination Technologies are significantly improving the CPU and GPU performance in high end smartphone SoCs at a rapid pace. There's significant room for improvement in both CPU and GPU performance, right now all we're limited by is power consumption. Within the next year we should see more SoCs transition to 45nm and at that point I'd expect to see multi-core ARM implementations as well as wider PowerVR SGX cores. Then there's always ARM's Cortex A9, the first out-of-order ARM core. In the distant future we also have to start thinking about Intel; Atom was always intended for the smartphone market, and at 32nm I'd expect to see an Atom based CPU in an iPhone-sized device.
If you're bored by performance improvements on the desktop, then keep an eye on the ultra mobile space. Smartphones are going to see significant performance gains over the next few years. The iPhone 3GS is just the beginning.
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psonice - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
My understanding is that the iphone 3gs GPU is actually a 535, not a 520. At least, this is the current understanding among iphone developers, and there's an SGX535 driver on the phone to support that. The extra power might explain the hit on battery life when playing games.Real numbers are pretty hard to come by, but it seems the 535 is roughly 4x faster than the 520. If so, that's a massive upgrade rather than just a decent one. The 535 also supports HD video decoding where the 520 doesn't - not that apple seem to be supporting it if it does.
I heard too that the palm pre has a 530 GPU, which is 2x faster than the 520. That puts the iphone a long way ahead for graphics instead of behind.
One thing in the article I really disagree with btw: you say that the phone makers should provide detailed specs. I think they shouldn't, as it's not helpful at all for the average buyer. If you go into a shop without having much clue and ask for an iphone because it's the latest thing, and the shop assistant says "well this is like an iphone, but it runs 200mhz faster" you'll end up buying the "better" phone based on the spec sheet, even if it's running win mobile 5.
I was in Japan a while back, and they tend to buy phones based on the spec sheets there. The phones all compete on having the most features. They're all really big and HORRIBLE to actually use. None of that please!
I think apple actually get their commercials right with the iphone on the whole: show somebody actually using the phone to do stuff. If the other manufacturers did the same, that would be a perfect way to compare.
christinme7890 - Thursday, July 9, 2009 - link
I agree with you holistically. There are not many people in this world that even understand the specs. Not to mention when it comes to specs, and the person has no clue, they end up getting the one with the highest numbers. This is bad. I think you are right in saying that the way apple works their commercials is perfect for people. They show people all the great apps that they could use and they say that ALL of these apps can be on one phone.This is why I hate the Best buy MS commercials where the kid goes into the BB and buys a PC instead of a mac. The person always buys the computer with the best specs and care little about the OS, which is what they will be using. Windows, imo after using a Mac for a year, sucks in comparison to Mac. I rarely have a problem with a mac. I sit in class everyday and watch all the pc people have startup errors and os sleep or hibernation errors. I can close my mac and KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that it will wake up totally fine. Not to mention it wakes up seamlessly without load screens or anything. I will not compare the two but for business and usability the MAC gets my vote and I think if Apple does their commercials for the macs just as great. Sure most people are still using MS but that is because MS strong arms people into buying their stuff everytime you buy a Computer (not to mention Apple is very strict with their software and rightly so).
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Ooh, very interesting - do you have any links to discussions on the 535 being in the 3GS?I don't think end users need to be bombarded with specs, but I think there needs to be more information put out about these things. We shouldn't have to play guessing games about clocks and specs; don't market them, but don't hide them either - that's my thinking.
Take care,
Anand
BlazingDragon - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Anand, here it is:http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/25/iphone-3gs-has...">http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/25/iph...has-more...
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Very interesting - thanks guys, I've updated the article.Take care,
Anand
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
It should probably also be noted that the MBX-Lite supports OpenGL ES 1.1 as implemented by Apple not just OpenGL ES 1.0. I believe it's Android's implementation that currently only supports OpenGL ES 1.0.It's also been reported that the iPhone OS 3.1 betas include improvements to the OpenGL stack that include additional OpenGL extensions. Whether these are focused on OpenGL ES 2.0 and the SGX or are also for OpenGL ES 1.1 and the MBX remains to be seen. Although on the issue of reducing market segmentation, it'd be great if Apple could implement the OpenGL ES 1.1 Extension Pack although I don't know if the MBX-Lite can actually support it in hardware.
BlazingDragon - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
Anand, here's it is:iPhone 3GS Has More Powerful PowerVR SGX 535 GPU?
kelmerp - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
I'm trying to decide between the MyTouch or a jailbroken iphone.sxr7171 - Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - link
JB iPhone vs. MyTouch? They're not even in the same league. Pre vs. iPhone is a comparison.pennyfan87 - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - link
anand,i love you writing and tech analysis.
but please, drop the fanboyism.
3 articles on such a minor upgrade? please.
more SSD stuff please.