iPhone 3Gs Performance?

[Brandon]

I've been through a lot of phones recently. Had a Nokia e63, then got a HTC Magic (Android), now have an iPhone 3G... all in the matter of 7 months. My contract isn't up until late spring, and I will wait until summer to decide what phone to get next (new) as the Galaxy phones are around 7 months old and the iPhone 4 is also due to be replaced in June.

Anyways, I would love to get a new Android phone, but they are a bit too expensive without contract. I found an iPhone 3GS locally for $225, but I'm not sure if its worth the $40 or so to upgrade from my current 3G. I do enjoy the iOS platform and apps, but do find with iOS4.x to be slow as heck on the 3G especially when listening to music and trying to do anything else. I saw some inital comments on iOS4 on the 3GS that it was also slower and killed battery life, but was wondering if it was still true or if Apple fixed it

[threetonesun]

I have a 3GS, I didn't notice it being any slower on iOS4. My battery has taken a hit recently, although I'm not sure if it's because of a) multitasking (iOS4) b) me using bluetooth now or c) the age of the phone. I still find it acceptable for phone usage, as it will last almost 1.5 days as an iPod/phone, but if I plan on playing a game or anything intensive I absolutely need to bring a charger with me.

[Rudy]

I have no problems with iOS4 on my 3Gs (it's really only the 3G that has LOTS of problems with iOS4....to be honest I think it should have just not made the cut for the new OS)

[Wakers]

I have a 3G on iOS4 - what problems? Nothing going wrong on my end.

[Draconian Guppy]

Battery performance and better processor + double the ram = worth it, when compared to the iPhone 3G. I used a 3Gs on iOS 4.0.2 for about 6 months, worked liked a charm, didn't notice any battery drain aside from normal use. (obviously games will drain the phone so that doesn't count).

[Brandon]

I have a 3G on iOS4 - what problems? Nothing going wrong on my end.

Its just slow. Games stutter on occasion. Opening messages can take upwards of 10 seconds if I was using Safari. Doing a hard-reset solves this for about a week or two, then it slows down again.

[hagjohn]

Its just slow. Games stutter on occasion. Opening messages can take upwards of 10 seconds if I was using Safari. Doing a hard-reset solves this for about a week or two, then it slows down again.

I have the same problem. Over time the phone slows down and you have to do a hard-reset to speed it up.

[Xenomorph]

The 3GS is a great phone (it's not "3Gs", as that would just be the plural of "3G").

Like it was pointed out, better CPU and twice the RAM. That double RAM also translates to way more (more than double) available memory to applications after iOS loads. You also get the Wallpaper, Multitasking and other bells and whistles of iOS 4 that you just can't get access to with an older 3G. Being able to listen to music and do other things in the background without your program quitting is worth the price of admission alone.

Just make sure to install the latest iOS. 4.0.x has some known performance issues compared to 4.1 and newer.

[Wakers]

I have noticed messages taking a while to load, however I received this phone from a friend and it already had iOS4 on it.

I have an app called Backgrounder that came with it that lets me listen to music while doing other things? It doesn't stutter unless I try to do that and play a game at the same time, which is a bit pointless anyway because I see it as being a smart phone rather than a portable computer.

[Brandon]

Well I picked it up. Way faster than my 3G. Even things like the NY times app loads at least twice (probably 3x) as quick. Of course whats freaky is that when I set it up, I couldn't tell the two apart as they are both 16GB and white. I had to play with them for a bit to figure it out.

Now to only figure out how to get custom wallpapers when using winterboard themes

[Billus]

I'd have a look at the Motorola Atrix. It's not due for another couple of months (?) so it should fit nicely with your plan to upgrade. Feature wise, dual-core processor (less power hungry than current single cores) and Tegra 2, 1930mah battery, 1gb ram, 4-inch screen and docks that allow it to become it's own computer running Ubuntu (?) *drools*. The Atrix will replace the Galaxy S as the most powerful Android phone though and by quite a significant margin. The new Galaxy phones should be good too but only time will tell. But yea, I'd look at the Motorola Atrix.

[The Guvnor]

I have a 3G with os4.2 installed and jailbroken for multitasking. it is definitely usable and the speed is only a shade slower than OS3. but yes 3GS is definitely a better phone if you are gonna be using OS4.

[RvXtm]

I'm on the 3G here, but it's time to upgrade to maybe iPhone 4, the battery is just not cutting it anymore for me.

[iuerg87yerg879e0rg9erugjer]

i am on the same page here, since 4.0 my 3GS's battery will die out in matter of a few hours just by listening to music, i think its time to go to the iPhone 5 when it comes out :/