iPhone News Updated

iPhone 3G not drawing unconditional devotion in days before debut

Where’s the love?

To be sure, when it comes to Apple’s new iPhone 3G, the techno reviewers are still offering plenty of praise in the days before consumers can start buying the device.

They just don’t seem to be offering the same over-the-top, unconditional devotion that was so prevalent a year ago when the original iPhone made its debut.

Om Malik said he’s going to be among the throngs picking up one of the shiny new phones, saying it’s “part of my duties as an intrepid reporter (and a shameless Apple-holic.)”

But he noted, however, that the Big 3 – Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Edward Baig of USA Today and David Pogue of the New York Times — mentioned plenty of flaws as well as strengths of the new phones that they were allowed to try.

“I am sensing some hesitation on the part of these reviewers,” Malik wrote. “And now that you have read their reviews, are you still interested in buying the iPhone 3G?”

Mossberg said he’s been testing the new iPhone for a couple weeks and “have found that it mostly keeps its promises. In particular, I found that doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited.”

Mossberg, however, took two hard slaps, one at the Apple phone and another at AT&T, the exclusive wireless carrier in the U.S. for the iPhone.

The iPhone 3G battery drained much more quickly than the power on the original iPhone, he wrote.

“This is an especially significant problem because, unlike most other smart phones, the iPhone has a sealed battery that can’t be replaced with a spare,” he stated.

Secondly, AT&T was battered by criticism a year ago for its slow data network that made surfing the Internet on the original iPhone a sometimes painful experience.

Apple’s Steve Jobs has basked in the praise for lowering the price of the new iPhones. But AT&T is taking some shots for the calling plan prices that iPhone consumers will have to pay.

“AT&T has effectively negated the iPhone’s up-front price cut by jacking up its monthly fee for unlimited data use by $10,” Mossberg wrote. “Over the course of the two-year contract you must sign to get the lower hardware prices, that adds $240, overwhelming the $200 savings on the phone itself. If you want text messaging, the cost rises further.”

USA Today’s Baig said Apple’s blockbuster smartphone has no equal among other smartphones in the U.S. He’s not quite as thrilled with AT&T.

“Meanwhile, for all the hoopla involving AT&T’s speedier, third-generation network, I couldn’t access 3G in parts of my northern New Jersey neighborhood and elsewhere. When the fast network isn’t available, the phone automatically reverts to the pokier and oft-maligned Edge network,” he wrote.

Hmmm. Now if Sprint only could come up with a sleek, Internet-browsing phone, that could operate at faster speeds on its high-speed wireless network, came with a back-up battery and cost less than the iPhone. It might actually be a hot seller.

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