It was with great anticipation I awaited the much coveted OS4.0 for the iPhone. Unfortunately I own the second generation iPhone 3G, which still features a slower CPU, so many of the ‘new’ features are not accessible. You can choose to jailbreak your phone and have the ability to activate some of these features, however for us folk who do not want to take the effort and have settled for Apple’s proprietary software here is a review after using the update for little over 3 weeks.

First up it is slow. I have tried all the tips online to speed the phone up and although initially after a reboot or reset the phone is quicker certain application have lost their speed.

The biggest and most noticeable for me is the Google Maps application. With the older software it was up and running in a space of 4 seconds… now it can take anywhere up to a full 30 seconds before you can do anything. Even when you think the application has loaded and is now ready for your input, it is incredibly laggy.

Another application which has slowed to the pace of a crippled snail has to be the SMS app. When you open the app, which was slow to begin with, it can take up to 30 seconds to finally show something.  Once again when you think the app is now ready is filled with lag. Typing can be a complete pain in the ass as the online screen keyboard is slow and buggy.

These problems do not seem to be noticeable on the newer iPhones (3Gs and iPhone4)

If you have not updated your iPhone 3G to OS4.0 I would not bother and rather wait for an update which I am sure will resolve most of these speed issues. If you do search the internet there are various methods to roll back your software update to the speedier more reliable OS3.x

The limited ‘new’ features one gains on the iPhone 3G with the new OS4.0 update are simply not worth the frustration that it brings.

I now anxiously await a new update from Apple to make my phone acceptable once again.