3G iPhone reviews roll in: WSJ, NYT and USA Today tender assessments

You already know that Steve Jobs understands the power of deep device lust in American hearts and, indeed, in hearts around the globe.
And it may not be news that Jobs knows how to use this lust to produce a media splash in the days before his products hit the street.
This time around, reviewers for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today apparently received their “iPhone 3G” handsets about two weeks ago and all published their take today in their papers – with 48 hours to go to the launch of the new Apple Inc. handset. Apple used a similar ploy before the launch of the original iPhone last year.
Generally glowing reviews were tempered, more or less, with caveats and complaints.
First, all three reviewers “got” that Apple and AT&T Mobility have used the device subsidy/monthly service cost game to actually raise the overall cost of ownership and service for the new device. The two companies are offering a cheaper device upfront to entice purchasers, with higher monthly bills over a two-year contract than with the original device launched last year. That’s especially true if you sign up for “premium features” such as text messaging, 200 of which were included in the initial iPhone contract, but this time around run $5 per month.
3G concerns
As expected, the phone’s promise of 3G speeds is only partially fulfilled, mostly due to AT&T Mobility’s ongoing network upgrades. As Pogue pointed out, AT&T Mobility’s 3G coverage map shows 16 states where only three or fewer cities are covered and 10 states are without any 3G coverage. All duly noted AT&T Mobility’s promised 3G coverage expansion; Baig reported the carrier’s claim that it would expand from the current 280 major metropolitan markets to 350 by year’s end.
And when the 3G network is accessed, battery power is often gone in less than a day. Mossberg found that his unit’s talk time was about four-and-a-half hours, less than the five hours Apple claimed, and noted this was much less than the original EDGE-enabled iPhone.
“In daily use, I found the battery indicator on the new 3G model slipping below 20% by early afternoon or mid-afternoon on some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day,” Mossberg wrote. “I overcame this problem by learning to use Wi-Fi instead of 3G whenever possible, turning down the screen brightness and even turning off 3G altogether.”
That leaves users of the 3G iPhone relying on AT&T Mobility’s slower, underlying EDGE network – not quite a fulfillment of the device’s advertised promise. Ironically – but unmentioned in today’s reviews – this somehow leaves Apple’s reputation for innovation intact and AT&T Mobility’s credibility lagging somewhat, just as the carrier took criticism for its EDGE network when Apple decided not to include 3G in its first handset.
The “new” iPhone added certain features – Pogue cited the ability to talk while browsing, improved voice quality (“a gigantic step forward”) and “lots of small software improvements” including productivity enhancements aimed at making inroads in the enterprise, formerly the near-exclusive domain of Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry franchise.
Computing platform
All three reviewers noted that, with the introduction of the App Store and MobileMe offerings, the device is approaching “a true computing platform with wide versatility,” in Mossberg’s words.
None of the reviewers noted that Apple’s international expansion plans and that “true computing platform” are aimed at winning hearts and wallets for the coming battle over software-and-services to be fought by Apple, Google Inc. and Nokia Corp., among others. But these were device reviews, after all.
Apple clearly decided that certain features would not be included – likely to meet design criteria for size and cost criteria for components and software – and each reviewer had their own list of shortcomings or omissions.
“There’s not much you can do with the GPS,” Pogue said, which doesn’t provide the turn-by-turn directions available on other devices – such as the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Instinct at Sprint Nextel Corp., Baig noted.
“Unfortunately, most of the standard cellphone features that were missing from the first iPhone are still missing,” Pogue wrote. “There’s still no voice dialing, video recording, copy-and-paste, memory-card slot, Bluetooth stereo audio or phone-to-phone photo messaging (MMS).”
The “bottom line,” according to Mossberg:
“If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. … But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”