Features

The new features of the iPhone 3GS are mainly internal changes regarding speed (indeed the "S" in "iPhone 3GS" stands for Speed).[9] Though in addition to the upgrades mainly regarding performance, various software features were also introduced exclusive to the iPhone 3GS. All of these exclusive features have since then been incorporated and/or improved in the iPhone 4 making these features not exclusive to the iPhone 3GS anymore.

[edit]Display

The display on the device is designed by Apple and is manufactured by LG, it features an LCD capacitive touchscreen with a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (ppi) on a 3.5 inch (9 cm) (480-by-320) display. Improvements over its predecessor's screen include 24-bit color emulation (18-bit color display plus dithering) [10] for a more color rich display and oleophobic coating to help reduce fingerprints on the display. The capacitive touchscreen is designed for a bare finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing.

[edit]Camera

The iPhone 3GS features an improved 3 megapixel camera manufactured by OmniVision. In addition to the higher megapixel count, it also features auto-focus, auto white balance and auto macro and is capable of capturing 720p HD video at 30 frames per second but is however limited to 480p by Apple.[11] The iPhone 3GS's Camera app features a slider which allows users to switch between capturing photos and recording videos and a tap-to-focus feature which allows users to tap on an area of the camera image to auto-focus on and 5x digital zoom (iOS 4 only)

[edit]Processor and memory

The iPhone 3GS is powered by the Samsung APL0298C05 chip, which was designed and manufactured by Samsung. This system-on-a-chip is composed of an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU core underclocked to 600 MHz (from 800 MHz), integrated with a PowerVR SGX 535 GPU. It also has 256MB of eDRAM. The additional eDRAM supports increased performance and multi-tasking in iOS 4.

Apple claims the iPhone 3GS is 2x faster than its predecessor, showing demonstrations of apps loading in just 2–10 seconds compared to 15–30 seconds on the iPhone 3G.

[edit]Storage

As on previous models, all data is stored in flash memory and not in the SIM and it does not offer any options to expand storage. Initially it was only available in 16GB and 32GB though however an 8 GB model was later released, with Apple doing away with both 16GB and 32GB models (forcing any who want a larger storage to upgrade to an iPhone 4, or purchase an older model 3GS).

[edit]Power and Battery

The iPhone 3GS is powered by an internal 3.7v 1219mAh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery and is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles. A battery life indicator in percentage was also exclusive to the iPhone 3GS.

Apple claims that the 3GS can last for up to ten hours of video, nine hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi or five on 3G, twelve hours of 2G talk time, or five on 3G, 30 hours of music, or 300 hours of standby.

[edit]Magnetometer

A magnetometer is also built-in the iPhone 3GS, which is used to measure the strength and/or direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the device. Sometimes certain devices or radio signals can interfere with the magnetometer requiring users to either move away from the interference or re-calibrate by moving the device in a figure 8 motion. The iPhone 3GS also features an exclusive Compass app which shows a compass that points in the direction of the magnetic field.

[edit]Connectivity

In addition to the iPhone 3G's Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA radio and Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio, the 3GS also adds support for 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA allowing faster downlink speeds though upload speeds remain the same as Apple had not implemented the HSUPA protocol. Other updates include the addition of a built-in Nike+iPod sensor which eliminates the need for an external sensor and allows native Nike+iPod support. The Bluetooth module on the iPhone 3GS has also been slightly improved adding support for Bluetooth 2.1 specifications.

[edit]Voice Control

Voice Control was introduced as an exclusive feature of the iPhone 3GS and allows for the controlling of the phone and music features of the phone by voice. There are two ways to activate Voice Control, one is to hold the Home button while in the home screen for a few seconds, while the other method involves changing the effect of what double-clicking the home button does so it will activate Voice Control. Unfortunately, Voice Control does not support voice commands through Bluetooth, though Bluetooth headsets have been known to activate voice control in later releases of the 3GS.

[edit]Accessibility Features

VoiceOver, Color Inversion, and Text Zoom were introduced as exclusive features to the iPhone 3GS. VoiceOver is a feature that dictates music details, system menus, text, and other things which was first introduced on the third generation iPod shuffle. Color inversion while Text Zoom allows users to zoom into a text on the screen.

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