Once the iPhone 3G was annouced, many iPhone, first generation, owners began to head to E-Bay and dumped the relic phone in favor of the newest model. Were they rash decisions and was this the best idea? I will run several tests on both the iPhone and iPhone 3G with a stopwatch to show the run time difference.

First, I sent a text message from my iPhone to my iPhone 3G. The 3G received the message at around 5.4 seconds after pressing send. The first generation iPhone received the text from the 3G at around 6.2 seconds. This test was run when both phones were at 2 bars, so with that in mind, the iPhone either can send messages faster than the 3G or the 3G can receive messages faster than the iPhone, for all intents and purposes, the 3G had the better timing, in that it received a message .8 seconds faster than the iPhone. Next, I am going to test the start up on applications. First, I am running TanZen, a polygon placement puzzle. On the iPhone 3G, from the icon screen to the first chance when you can select a puzzle, the start-up time is around 2.5 seconds. With the original iPhone, the time clocked in at 2.3 seconds. This test was too close too call, so I will try three more apps – ReQall, Lux Touch, and YouTube. On the 3G, ReQall took 3.6 seconds while on the iPhone original, it took only 3.1 seconds to load. On both phones, Lux Touch, from home screen until the first unit is placed on a country, took 7.9 seconds to load. With the 3G, YouTube loaded in 4.7 seconds, while on the original it loaded in 3.3 seconds. The most impressive test however is the internet test. With the iPhone first gen, it took 13.2 seconds at 3 bars to go to CNN.com, but it too a blazing 5.1 seconds for the 3G to do the same task at 3 bars. To check for any issues, I loaded the graphic intensive Mobileforum.com. On the iPhone 3G, it clocked in a 28.2 seconds to load the entire homepage. On the iPhone original, the same page took 30 seconds to load. These loading times may seem really small and insignificant because they are. Unless you find waiting an extra 2 seconds to load large webpages intended for desktops to be unbearable, there is no difference in the load times. So, what is the benefit to the 3G? For me, living out side the 3G network, nothing. The few times I had 3G with my phone, it was quite the difference online and service-wise, but 3G is still not in every area, just mostly major cities.

In the end, the decision between an iPhone and iPhone 3G comes down to location. Most places will be getting 3G within the next year or two, so if you are a complete novice with the iPhone, it'd save you money in the long run to go 3G; however, if you have an iPhone and have no real complaints, there isn't much reason to upgrade in terms of basic features that people would use daily. The ultimate choice is up to the consumer, but an educated consumer needs to know what they will use the phone for versus which phone looks better (3G looks better to me, btw).