New iPhone 3GS review

Anyone want to buy a new, white iPhone 3GS?  Wow, am I disappointed in this phone.  If you already have an iPhone, I would advise you to WAIT before you upgrade.

I have found in the 2 short days of owning this phone that it gets very hot, as early reports indicate, too hot to use on occasion, and no, it was not left in a hot car or out in the hot NC weather. Forget about the cute, lime green protective cover made out of that stretchy, rubbery silicone stuff. It makes the phone even hotter. And supposedly, if you own a white iPhone 3GS, the phone gets so hot, the white back cover cooks itself until it turns golden brown.

When I worked as a cell phone transmitter designer for a major cell phone manufacturer, the small size of the phones, combined with a small PCB area for heatsinking the power amplifiers, caused headaches for engineers trying to remove heat that is always produced by the amps when transmitting. Ususally the heat would find its way out of any holes in the phone’s case, including the earpiece holes near the top of the phone, which is not the ideal solution, but at least the heat got out of the phone and did not damage the electronics.

In the case of the iPhone, the heat problem appears to be associated with the batteries, given that the brown areas on the back of he phone correspond to the battery area.  So as an engineer, I would guess that either 1) there is too much heat being generated in these phones becuase of all the new features added, combined with the fact that there are NO openings in the case for the regular phone components like keypad buttons, and add on top of all that a huge, heat generating backlit display, or 2) battery problems, 3) it’s something else.  Engineers always know to add option #3.

Here is a link to an excellent article to help you decide if you should get the new iPhone 3GS.

In any case, I loved the ability to listen to radio stations using the WunderRadio app that I otherwise could not receive while at my gym. Using their public WiFi, however, the phone got so hot while using it with an armband, I had to turn it off for a while lest I have an Apple logo burned into my upper arm.

I love the Facebook and Tweetdeck apps, and email, but I HATE the lack of MMS picture text messaging support. Come ON AT&T and Apple, I want to send other AT&T users photos using picture text messages, not email, since, duh, the other phones don’t support email too well…Right now, I am using the PicFree app from Pinger to do this task, and it works ok with other AT&T MMS-enabled phones.

So overall, I want to ditch this phone and go back to my Sony Ericsson W580i. I think I will.  Now I need to figure out how to do that.

******UPDATE**********

My iPhone 3GS has not had the overheating problem since I turned off the GPS locating feature.  (The “WunderRadio” app wanted to turn on ‘location services’ to see where I lived, allowing it to determine my local radio stations.)

I just did a Google search on ‘iPhone GPS overheating’ and found this link, which confirms that another user has found that turning off the GPS will keep your iPhone from cooking itself.

So when you are finished using an app that wants to turn on the ‘location device’, make sure to go to ‘settings’ and turn off the location service. This will improve your battery life as well.  A cell phone radio engineer friend tells me sometimes GPS circuits can use as much current as the phone does in transmit mode.

I have also had a problem with the iPhone overheating  in 3G mode when left in a purse or gym bag if one of the apps was accidnetally left running (accidentally left WunderRadio on during my swim while the phone was in the gym bag with a weak 3G signal!) Others indicate this also causes heat a problem for them.

So the moral of the story is:

1) Put phone in Airplane mode when not using

2) turn off WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS location services when not using

3) ditch the cute silicone covers, they will not allow heat to escape from the back of your phone

4) Remember to check to make sure all apps are turned off before placing your phone in your purse or pocket. A good way to do this is to use the Activity Monitor App from Recession Apps. (what an aptly titled company).