Apple iPhone 3G

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Call quality

When we reviewed the original iPhone, we withheld our Editors' Choice Award largely over middling call quality because of low volume and a slight background hum. The iPhone 3G corrects these problems--our tests revealed louder volume and clearer audio. We also noticed that we could hear better at a variety of angles, whereas the first iPhone had a sensitive sweet spot. Also, while it was difficult to hear the original iPhone in noisy environments, we had better luck with this model. Reception didn't vary between GSM and HSDPA calls.

iPhone 3G also improves speakerphone calls. The phone's external speaker creates louder output, and callers said they can hear us better. Voices don't sound quite as natural, but that's typical on a speakerphone. Automated calling systems could understand us via regular or speakerphone calls. The iPhone's signal remained strong. According to FCC radiation tests, the iPhone 3G's highest digital SAR is 1.38 watts per kilogram.

Battery life

Apple rates the iPhone 3G's battery at 5 hours of talk time over 3G and 10 hours over AT&T's standard cellular network; 6 hours of Internet time on Wi-Fi, or 5 hours over 3G; 7 hours of video playback; 24 hours of music playback; and a standby time of 12.5 days. In our first round of testing we 4.95 hours of 3G talk time and 8.75 hours talk time over EDGE. We'll continue to run further tests over the next few days.

Though our official lab tests aren't bad so far, real-world use will be a better judge of the iPhone 3G's endurance. And on that front, we've noticed that the iPhone 3G's battery life does seem to drop faster than on the original model, particularly while using the 3G network or GPS. That's to be expected, but we noticed that after a couple hours of use, the battery life dropped by about 30 percent. Large color displays like the iPhone's tend to be battery drainers as well, so you should expect to use more juice when you're constantly switching between applications.

Comparing the battery life (in hours)
Apple iPhone 3G - 4.95
AT&T Tilt - 3.5
HTC Touch Dual - 3.2
Motorola Q 9h - 4
Motorola Z9 - 3.16
Nokia N75 - 2
Nokia N78 - 8.5
Nokia N95 - 3.5
LG Shine CU720 - 3.68
LG Vu - 3.16
Palm Treo 750 - 3
Pantech Duo - 4
These tested talktime figures were first published in a Crave post.

Update (July 28): Our CNET Labs team has unveiled their battery performance results for music and video playback on the iPhone 3G. We're still working on iPhone talk time testing and we'll be doing another round of audio and video tests with 3G disabled--but at least we have another piece of the puzzle to add to our review.

To give the test results some context, we also retested the first-generation iPhone, and simultaneously tested a comparable 3G multimedia phone, the Samsung Instinct. Apple's public tech specs claim the iPhone 3G is capable of up to 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of music playback. Surprisingly, with 3G switched on the iPhone sailed past 24 hours of music playback, but tanked when it came to video. Further testing with 3G disabled may yet redeem Apple's claim of 7 hours of video playback.

Enough talk--here's the numbers:

Music playback battery drain
Apple iPhone 3G (Wi-Fi off, 3G on): 25.5 hours
Apple iPhone (Wi-Fi off, EDGE on): 31.4 hours
Samsung Instinct (3G on, Wi-Fi unavailable): 18.2 hours

Video playback battery drain (same settings as audio)
Apple iPhone 3G: 2.68 hours
Apple iPhone: 5.99 hours
Samsung Instinct: 4.28 hours

For good measure, we also threw in a data transfer test, which measures the time it takes to transfer a single 500MB file to the phone from a PC. Files were transferred in iTunes 7.7 for both the iPhone 3G and first-generation iPhone, and Windows Media Player 11 for the Samsung Instinct.

File transfer speed
Apple iPhone 3G: 1.35 minutes
Apple iPhone: 1.6 minutes
Samsung Instinct: 7.71 minutes

Activation
Unlike the original iPhone, you cannot activate the iPhone 3G via iTunes. Instead, you will have to activate the phone and sign your new contract in either an AT&T or an Apple store. Though we understand the motivation behind this move--AT&T is trying to ensure every iPhone sold is activated on its own network--the user experience isn't as nice as sitting in the comfort of your home.

Once you have your phone out of the store, you will need to sync it with your iTunes account after first downloading the latest iTunes update (7.7) first. That took us a long time on the iPhone 3G's first day on sale but hopefully those glitches will subside over the next few days. If you're replacing an original iPhone, make sure you back up your data from the old iPhone first; you'll then be able to transfer it to your new handset. As before, you can sync multiple iPhones to a single iTunes account.

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