On call: Why we haven't lowered the iPhone 3G's rating
The iPhone 3G still warrants an excellent rating.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)When you review an Apple product, you can be sure that readers will say one of two things: either you didn't rate it high enough or you rated it way too high. Rarely, if ever, is there any middle ground.
Just take the review of the original iPhone, for example. Soon after we posted it last June, letters from CNET readers started pouring in. As veteran Apple reviewer Donald Bell had predicted, the letters fell into the aforementioned camps. However, after some time, I noticed that most readers felt we were too hard on the iPhone, which received an "excellent" rating of 8.0 (or four stars out of five). From our perspective, the rating was justified: although the iPhone was a gorgeous device with a fantastic display, a great user-friendly interface, a top-notch media player, and a breakthrough Web browser, it suffered from variable call quality and a lack of basic cell phone features. That's why Donald and I withheld the CNET Editors' Choice award.
Now fast-forward a year to our review of the iPhone 3G. Since the second-generation iPhone brought a host of added features and better call quality, we assigned a higher rating--an "excellent" rating of 8.3, which also equals four stars under CNET's new rating system. This time, however, we left the possibility of an Editors' Choice award on the table and decided to wait for full battery testing results to make that decision--on the first day of use, I had noticed the battery depleting too quickly while using the 3G network. So we posted our review and waited.
While we waited, I got a different set of letters. As concerns about the iPhone's dropped calls, battery life, and shaky 3G connections grew louder, I received many letters complaining that we had been too easy on the iPhone 3G. Readers asked me to reconsider the rating because of the problems that were affecting so many iPhone customers. Of course, the problems concerned me, but I wanted to see them for myself before I took action. (It would be irresponsible and a disservice to CNET readers if I adjusted the rating based solely on reports I had heard from other people.)
It took a while to put our review iPhone 3G though the battery drain paces and get it back from CNET Labs, but once I did, we performed more usability testing. And gradually, we did notice a few problems. Dropped calls on our phone remained rare, but the 3G connection issues were apparent. Specifically, I noticed the weak connection and the sloppy hand off between the 3G and EDGE networks. Also, while the official CNET Labs battery testing results fell within the promised times, our iPhone's battery came close to running out after a long day of heavy multitasking. I added the new observations to the iPhone 3G review and spent time questioning whether they warranted a rating change.
Ultimately, we felt the issues that we experienced on our review device weren't reason enough to reduce the iPhone's 3G's rating. We are, however, withholding the Editors' Choice award once again. We agree that these problems are significant, but the iPhone 3G remains a landmark product in many ways. It still offers a great design, the interface and display are no less lovely, the music player and Web browser remain top-notch, and we admire the App Store. Even the sometimes-frustrating Microsoft Exchange e-mail support merits a few points. But more importantly, we want to see whether Apple successfully fixes the problems, as the company said it is planning to do on Friday, September 12 with the 2.1 software update. If the problems continue to persist over the next few months, we'll revisit the issue.
Kent German, CNET's cell phones guru, answers your questions about cell phones, services, and accessories and reports on the state of the industry. Send him a question.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent.
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Have you admired the lag of the iphone 3g or the constant browser crashing or apps crashing? It happens much more on this phone than it ever did on my palm treo. Not to mention the dropped calls.
You admire the great design? It's plastic thin design just begs to be dropped. This isn't a great design.
Do you admire the multihour sync sessions?
And your Treo rarely crashed? Baloney. I've owned several and they had to be reset weekly.
The phone is called "iPhone 3G"
You've admitted that you're having problems (like many other consumers) with the 3G part.
How much more cut and paste does it get????? If the upgraded feature is lack-luster, then it shouldn't be rated any higher than the original feature!
In fact, here's a simpler example: I create a new brand of juice. You decide it's excellent and give me a high rating. I create an updated version of it with a promise of it being sugar free. I call it "juice free". Yes, the juice is free of sugar.....but it has a horrible after taste. Are you going to give me a higher rating because I still kept my promise???
Are you going to wait until I correct the problem before lowering my rating??? Lord knows there are consumers who live by ratings. They see that you gave my updated juice an 8.3 and they might feel confident to try it...
Look I worked a few years with a company that made Windows Mobile phones. Admittedly this OS has the ability to be more functionaly than the Iphone OS. However, when I handed it to my wife and asked her to (1) play me a video (2) play me a song (3) send me a text msg (4) send me an email (5) call me.
How many could she do? Only two. Now On the iphone she can do all of them.
Is the phone perfect, absolutely not. Does it enable the vast majority of the technoidiocracy to do much more with there phone then previously, absolutely.
This has to be worth something. Especially when these issues are not over 100% of the devices.
I wonder if Mister German scored all Windows Mobile phones lower then iphone because
Please don't patronize us by trying to "rationalize" this bias somehow.
Not docking points for the iPhone 3G which has serious 3G issues is just silly.
I came from the WinMo 6.0 world and while that O/S was great and the free apps were endless, the UI started to really grate my nerves. I moved to the iPhone 3G a month after it came out, even through all the reports of dropped calls, bad connectivity, etc. My girlfriend ran into the same problem where it was pop out the stylus, try to find the app required, etc. With the GUI of the iPhone, that confusion has now been expunged and I haven't even really run into the issues most have complained about. But, I haven't upgraded the firmware since my original purchase either.
You have to realize, this one truly is more than just a phone. The main example I can give is from personal experience. I got really tired of bringing in my laptop, personal cell, work cell, badge, and MP3 player (I'm withholding the name in the interest of staying on topic; not an iPod). Just the sheer combination of 16G of space + MP3 + Phone ability eliminated the need of bringing in my MP3 player. Now I have music whenever and wherever I want it at my noisy office. WinMo phones didn't have nearly the elegant interface to play music, nor the storage capacity short of purchasing an additional card and even then, it was a toss-up as to how much external storage space each phone could read.
It's by no means the perfect device, plenty of flaws remain, but for the price point and features, you really can't go wrong. And just one more note, this is my first apple product purchase so no need to start throwing the Apple Fanboy daggers.
The complainers posting here most likely don't actually own one, and unfortunately, purchased a more inferior product by a wanna be smart phone company. They're all playing catchup to Apple, and ironically, just making the iPhone 3G look better in the process.
If I pay $300 for a product, I do expect it to work out of the box and not require it to be reset, turned off and on, reset again and then upgrading the software.
So has the 3G issue been resolved? Inquiry wants to know.
The complainers posting here most likely don't actually own one, and unfortunately, purchased a more inferior product by a wanna be smart phone company. They're all playing catchup to Apple, and ironically, just making the iPhone 3G look better in the process.
These very important criteria must not have been considered when assigning the rating. Otherwise, the rating would have been lower.
Apple is cut much too much slack.
Apple deserves all this hate. I will never buy an Apple product ever again!
Yes, times they are a changin'.
This appears to be a problem product and we had to turn off the 3g due to constant dropped calls.
This appears to be a problem product and we had to turn off the 3g due to constant dropped calls.
Yes the product with all its faults is way way way superior to my Blackberry 8800. and that is way I love the phone! The glitches are a little disappointing.
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by Dalmatian28
September 10, 2008 2:00 PM PDT
- CNet bias???...sad but true!!!!!
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Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (38 Comments)The "unwritten rule"....when it comes to Apple and Google products, you just can NOT trust CNet!!! I have to give CNet credit that they do pretty good job with products that comes from other companies. Usually that make up around 95 % of the cases! The moment you start talking about Apple/Google Products ...it feels like they loose their minds. Suddenly you get the feeling that they stop being CNet employees and turn into Apple and Google advertisers. Why is this happening???? What happen to professionalism??? High standards??? If the product from Apple/ Google has issues or it is falsely advertise (like iPhone)...don't be afraid to say so! Based on the review from this site and the fact that I was IDIOT to believe you...I bought the stupid iPhone only to go back to my Black Barry couple days later. Now I am stuck with iPhone contract that I don't use!!!
Why was so hard to write that iPhone price is not final price that the people will pay for it. They will have to pay for the warranty that you must buy even if you don't want it because you have to replace battery stupid battery that can't last 4 hrs even when it is new. Another thing is what about the typing. The keyboard is a pure junk. Try typing something on it. The 3 G...that is the best joke of 2008. GPS...haha Buuuu. This product (iPhone) is NOT entirely bad and it has so many great things in it ....but your job was to show us the bad side so we can decide. You fail and you did it miserably!!!! Please STOP being advertisers and do your job on fer and honest way so your readers don't get screwed by trusting your reviews! NO APPLE'S AND GOOGLE'S ADVERTISING PLEASE!