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Print 24 comment(s) - last by Alexstarfire.. on Jul 7 at 9:01 PM
iPhone 3GS takes top spot in smartphone ranks according to Consumer Reports

The iPhone 3G S was one of the biggest gadget launches of the year when it hit store shelves last month. Other notable launches during the month included the Palm Pre, hyped as one of the best competitors to the iPhone.

Consumer Reports has released its top smartphone rankings reports InformationWeek and the ever popular iPhone 3G S has taken the top spot in the rankings. Consumer Reports does point out that while the iPhone 3G S has taken the top spot; the rankings were very close with the Palm Pre and the Blackberry Storm on its heels.

Consumer Reports ranks the iPhone 3GS tops based on what it calls "top-notch" multimedia navigation, web browsing, and battery life. The publication also reports that the 3G S excels in display quality. The Pre on the other hand was bolstered in the rankings with superior multitasking, while the Storm bested the iPhone in messaging.

Consumer Reports also changed its ranking criteria with the new smartphone rankings release. The change in scoring means that some smartphones like the Blackjack II from Samsung and the Pearl Flip from Blackberry dropped in ranking while the iPhone 3G rose in the ranks.

InformationWeek reports that the change in rankings places more of an emphasis on non-calling features of a phone and puts less of an emphasis on talk time and voice quality. With the huge increase in the number of texts sent, many mobile users find that voice quality and talk time are no longer the most important features in a mobile phone.

The top five handsets in the Consumer Reports rankings according to InformationWeek are the iPhone 3G S at 73, the iPhone 3G and the Samsung Omnia at 70, the Blackberry Storm, T-Mobile G1, Blackberry Bold, and Samsung Epix at 69, the Pre and curve 8900 at 67 and the LG Incite at 66.

Despite the iPhone 3G S' popularity and strong showing in the rankings, the device isn’t perfect. Many owners of the iPhone 3G S are finding that sunlight is no friend to the smartphone with overheating problems being reported.

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The more the merrier...
By captainBOB on 7/6/2009 10:35:34 AM , Rating: 3
Time for Apple to start feeling some heat from the competition. They're becoming too complacent with the iPhone, OS 3.0 doesn't run as smoothly on a 3G as they would like you to believe, and the App Store is becoming a massive fail with the massive backlog of apps waiting to see the light of day.

I love my iPhone, for me it was $200 well spent, but it pisses me off how Apple allows at&t to treat us like crap, and they seem to leave the 3G owners behind, iPhone OS 3.0 seems to be optimized for the 3G S exclusively, because it runs sluggishly on my 3G (I only have about 7 apps installed right now). If the crap with at&t and Apple leaving previous generations in the dark keeps up, I won't be coming back for more.




RE: The more the merrier...
By Motoman on 7/6/2009 10:46:20 AM , Rating: 5
You don't get it. Apple could sell "iPoop" - a box containing a turd - for $500 a pop, and it would be an instant sell-out worldwide.

All you hear about Apple stuff is how it overheats, it doesn't have obvious features, it's unreliable, blah blah blah. But they sell every single one they make despite all of this. I'll leave it to you to figure out why that is.


RE: The more the merrier...
By captainBOB on 7/6/2009 11:07:13 AM , Rating: 2
The phone itself is fine IMO, however certain carrier and a manufacturer are making a good phone less desirable to me . It may be overheating, it may not have had obvious features for a long time, but if Apple took the competition seriously the OS would actually run as fast as they claim and may give at&t the finger and switch carriers or become a CDMA/GSM hybrid and be available on all networks </pipe dream>.

Sure Apple could sell iPoop and make a killing, but the reality distortion field has its limitations and they would not get a cent from me either way. I'm not an iDrone.


RE: The more the merrier...
By Chaser on 7/6/2009 11:08:02 AM , Rating: 1
Leave it to Consumer Reports, one of the most biased organizations in the country to give the 3GS a good review.

I'll rely on the unbiased iPhone geniuses here on Daily Tech to guide my blind, empty box, sheep purchases, from here on.


RE: The more the merrier...
By elmikethemike on 7/6/2009 11:40:33 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
I'll rely on the unbiased iPhone geniuses here on Daily Tech to guide my blind, empty box, sheep purchases, from here on.


That's the way to go since every single DT reader has access to all the phones like CR does and therefore the means to present an objective, unbiased review.


RE: The more the merrier...
By augustwest2000 on 7/6/2009 2:00:43 PM , Rating: 3
@Chaser

I think you are confused. Consumer Reports accepts no advertising and purchases all the products they test. They accept no gifts.

From the consumer reports website:
"To maintain its independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising and no free samples and employs several hundred mystery shoppers and technical experts to buy and test the products it evaluates"
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/aboutus/mission...

Not sure how this qualifies them to be "one of the most biased organizations in the country"


RE: The more the merrier...
By cabjf on 7/6/2009 2:51:51 PM , Rating: 3
Consumer Reports tends to like Apple products, going against Chaser's personal opinion. Therefore, they must be biased.


RE: The more the merrier...
By Mojo the Monkey on 7/6/2009 7:54:40 PM , Rating: 2
re-read his post again, but imagine a highly sarcastic tone while doing so.... I'll wait.

See? Makes more sense.


RE: The more the merrier...
By Chaser on 7/7/2009 8:44:32 AM , Rating: 2
Thank you. Good grief.


RE: The more the merrier...
By akugami on 7/6/2009 2:52:10 PM , Rating: 2
In Apple's defense, people were buying friggin pet rocks. People = Stupid. Apple is just relieving them of their money in the hopes that they don't have enough resources to propagate.


RE: The more the merrier...
By captainBOB on 7/6/2009 5:00:37 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately our previous president proved even Apple cannot stop stupidity.
kinda like pissing in an ocean of piss


RE: The more the merrier...
By Gio6518 on 7/6/2009 12:31:30 PM , Rating: 2
ive used the iphone, but me personally prefer my blackberry hands down just drop a 16gb micro sd in there and your good to go, ive also found the iphone plans very pricey comparred to competitors blackberry plans


No android or symbian phones?
By tlbj6142 on 7/6/2009 10:56:57 AM , Rating: 2
I wonder if any android and/or symbian OS phones were considered in the review?

I frankly, think the app store is what will keep apple at the top. Developers can make so much money selling their apps why would they consider any other platform?




RE: No android or symbian phones?
By bruce24 on 7/6/2009 12:07:28 PM , Rating: 2
No Symbian OS phone in the top 20+. The G1 came in 5th.

Here is the list of phones and OS.

Apple iPhone 3G S (16 GB) - Mac OSX
Apple iPhone 3G (8 GB) - Mac OSX
Samsung Omnia - Windows Mobile
BlackBerry Storm 9530 - Blackberry
T-Mobile G1 - Android
BlackBerry Bold - Blackberry
Samsung Epix - Windows Mobile
Palm Pre - Palm WebOS
BlackBerry Curve 8900 - Blackberry
LG Incite - Windows Mobile
HTC Touch Diamond - Windows Mobile
Palm Treo 755P - Palm
BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 - Blackberry
Motorola MOTO Q 9c - Windows Mobile
T-Mobile Shadow - Windows Mobile
Samsung Blackjack II - Windows Mobile
Palm Centro 685 - Palm
BlackBerry Pearl 8120 - Blackberry
Palm Centro 690 - Palm
BlackBerry Pearl 8130 - Blackberry
BlackBerry Curve 8330 - Blackberry
BlackBerry 8830 - Blackberry
T-Mobile Dash - Windows Mobile


RE: No android or symbian phones?
By DLeRium on 7/6/2009 12:37:39 PM , Rating: 2
Sorry that's the dumbest list ever of all carrier provided phones. It's basically what the top phones are that your carrier will provide. Definitely NOT representative of phones out there in the world and what not. Symbian isn't in the top 20 because no carrier provides a Symbian phone.

Touch Diamond only made it because Sprint carries it when its been selling like hotcakes in Asia. What about the X1 which trumps the Touch Diamond in every possible way? Oh right. Not offered in the US even though Rogers offers the X1a in Canada.

LG Incite? Are you kidding me? One of the worst smartphones ever. 240x400 resolution and 128mb of RAM only on a WinMo phone? Wow. True I haven't used many WinMo phones but I can see why they're "so bad" now because a lot of the offerings by carriers honestly just suck balls. TBH I don't think WinMo is bad at all. My experience has been on HTC Touch Pro and Touch Diamond which are really flagship phones but apparently a lot of "consumer friendly" phones are just trash (i.e. incite, dash, Q, epix)


RE: No android or symbian phones?
By Lakku on 7/6/2009 1:13:58 PM , Rating: 2
Consumer Reports doesn't care about phones out there in the world. They only care about phones offered in the United States, since they are a US magazine. Everything they deal with is for US customers.


By Alexstarfire on 7/7/2009 9:01:21 PM , Rating: 2
Except that you can use those phones in the US. Just because carriers don't sell them doesn't mean that consumers can't and don't buy them. How you think I got my SE K850i phone? Ohh wait, I didn't buy the crap the carrier sell. And it works on EVERY network, save probably the new 4G network that Sprint has, in the US. Perhaps they should test all the phones that work in the US and not just the crap that carriers sell.


RE: No android or symbian phones?
By rudy on 7/6/2009 2:41:46 PM , Rating: 2
Not one Nokia phone either most US consumers are not even aware that all the functions you can do on the iphone/pre/storm are represented in nokia phones as well and give me a break the HTC touch pro is the same thing as the diamond with more how could it not be up there.


By cocoviper on 7/7/2009 1:01:25 AM , Rating: 1
Are you insane? Have you even used the iPhone or Pre and then used Nokia's offerings? I mean are you seriously comparing the N97, 5800, or N72 with the iPhone/Pre? Just because they all have internet access does NOT mean the experience is the same.

Educate yourself:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/22/nokia-n97-revie...


By Alexstarfire on 7/7/2009 6:37:16 AM , Rating: 2
I agree completely. I tried going through the links in the article to see what phones were actually compared only to find that I had to subscribe to CR to see the ratings list.

First thing I looked for in the list was the X1 by SE. I actually didn't know the X1a was even out yet. Though I'm in the US so it's not really surprising. We get all the good phones last.

List was just how I thought it would be. Just whatever the cell carriers provided. And they usually provide crap. I noticed that most of the good smartphones weren't even compared.


By ltcommanderdata on 7/6/2009 12:41:30 PM , Rating: 2
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&...

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2009/07/05/iphone-3gs-...

Well, in the latest twist, it appears the iPhone itself may not be at fault for the discoloration. Some third-party cases are having a chemical reaction with the iPhone that causes the discoloration. Putting a sticker between the case and the iPhone has been found to leave the area it's original white. Luckily, supposedly ethanol can help clean up some of the discoloration so the damage may not be permanent.

http://gizmodo.com/5303743/hows-your-palm-pre-hold...

And it's not like possible quality issues are unique to the iPhone. The supposed iPhone-killer the Palm Pre is having quality issues of its own, with it's major feature, the slide-out keyboard, proving to be a structural weak point.




By weskurtz0081 on 7/6/2009 1:51:04 PM , Rating: 2
Are the stickers and cases causing the iPhone to over heat and shut itself down too?


By PrinceGaz on 7/6/2009 2:59:42 PM , Rating: 2
Good point. Not so much the stickers, but the cases will certainly to some extent be insulating the phone and preventing heat being dissipated when in use (the cases that are designed to allow the phone to be used while in them). At best the case will make the phone a bit hotter, at worst a lot hotter.


My self prefers the competition
By superPC on 7/6/2009 4:51:57 PM , Rating: 2
I actually like Iphone competitor better. HTC Hero, LG KM 900 Arena, all have similar capabilities to Iphone with better camera and less problem with mobile networks. and the interface isn't bad either.




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