iPhone 3G S Specs Revealed

The “S” in the speed of the iPhone 3G S has been divulged by T-Mobile, Apple’s carrier partner in the Netherlands. A specifications page indicates the CPU runs at 600 MHz, up from 412 MHz in previous models.

The iPhone 3GS will also come with 256MB of RAM, up from 128MB. While not mentioned by the T-Mobile site, the new iPhone is rumored to have upgraded the GPU to the PowerVR SGX, up from the PowerVR MBX. So how does the iPhone 3GS compare with previous devices? Very favorably.

Device Released CPU speed RAM
EDGE iPhone 6/29/07 412 MHz 128 MB
1G iPod touch 9/13/07 400 MHz 128 MB
iPhone 3G 7/11/08 412 MHz 128 MB
2G iPod touch 9/9/08 533 MHz 128 MB
iPhone 3GS 6/19/09 600 MHz 256 MB

Besides surpassing the iPod touch again, the 600MHz CPU puts the iPhone 3G S on par with the just-released Palm Pre. While the Pre still has a tacit advantage in application switching, opening and closing programs quickly simulates part of that experience, especially on a device where you can only see one program at a time.

The question now becomes whether the iPod touch will again leapfrog the iPhone in CPU speed in the next revision. Even if it does not, the increased speed and memory, and possible GPU upgrade, of Apple’s latest devices will almost certainly impact future software development, fragmenting what has been thus far a unified user base.

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post