iPhone 3GS, 3G, and original iPhone Comparison

A lot of people are talking about "new" features of the iPhone 3G S, however, many sites listing new features are listing items that exist for previous generation iPhones as well. Also, several sites are only comparing the new 3G S to last years 3G and not even including the original Edge only iPhone in their comparisons. So I felt the need to put together this table.

Hardware Differences

Original	3G	3G S
Metal back	plastic back, more curved shape
Recessed headphone jack	standard headphone jack
No stereo Bluetooth headphone support	Stereo Bluetooth headphone support
Edge	3G (3.6Mb/s HSDPA)*	3GS (faster 7.2Mb/s HSDPA)**
No GPS (simulates using triangulation=very inaccurate and often unavailable)	GPS	GPS + Compass (should allow turn by turn directions in future software)
No video		640x480 30fps video (fixed focus during recording)
2MP fixed focus Camera		3MP auto focus camera
Original CPU		Faster CPU
Original graphics		Faster 3D graphics
Powered by old iPod chargers****	Powered only by newer chargers****
Supports 1 button inline headphone remote		Supports 3 button inline headphone remote including volume control
No voice dialing		Voice Control
No tethering	Tethering**
No MMS	MMS**
No Nike + iPod		Nike + iPod built in

New features added with the free 3.0 software update to all iPhones

Original	3G	3G S
Cut, Copy and Paste	same	same
Global Search	same	same
Horizontal keyboard in most apps	same	same
Voice memos	same	same
Notes sync with Mail/Outlook	same	same

Notes:

* Some reports state that AT&T artificially limits 3G access to 1.4 Mbps instead of allowing the full 3.6Mbps HSDPA speed.

** Not available in the US with AT&T yet.

**** The original iPhone supported the 12 volt charging (as did older iPods) and many car chargers only supplied that voltage. The 3G and 3G S require newer chargers that do not rely on the old specification.