IPhone 3G S: Is it Worth It?

Two years ago Apple unveiled the iPhone to the public, and the masses reacted with a quick buying frenzy. I should know. I was one of 'those' people who stayed the night in front of the store, simply to be one of the first to obtain the mythical half phone half ipod. But before you chastize me as a 'loser' let me attempt to defend myself. I never ever intended to stand in line for that amount of time. The original plan for me was to show up to the store an hour or two early, just to make sure I was able to grab one before the limited supply was sold out. The night before the phone went on sale I drove past the At@T store to grab some food, only to see a line already starting. I sighed, picked up my grub and returned to stand in line, at the same time swallowing my pride because I could never again make fun of those who stood in line over night just to get some electronic product.

Anyways, here we are two years later, on the verge of a brand new iPhone. I still have my original, with my two year contract about to expire. It has also been my tradition to purchase a new phone every two years. I've figured that's an exceptional time frame in between purchases. But with the economy the way it has been, I'm not sure if I should drop the $199 for the 16GB version (granted that's twice the size of my current one, and a third of the price I payed for it). I've had to take a look at the options and see if it's worth it.

There's a video camera built in (finally), and the still camera is now 3 megapixels, with zoom and auto focus. The auto focus does seem cool with the user able to tap the part of the screen they want in focus. And their's editing software for the video. So these were a plus.

There's voice control available on this model (I repeat, finally), which not only would allow me to call contacts with me saying their name, but also pick an artist to play me a song through itues. Very cool. Another plus.

The battery life is longer, but I've never had much of an issue with my battery dying on me, so I don't really care much about it. Sure it's great, but I wouldn't spend more money solely for a longer lasting battery.

There's also a built in compass, which will automatically set maps to point in the direction I'm standing. But I find it easy enough to turn the phone on its side to match my direction, so I don't see much of a need for this (plus there was probably already an app made for this).

There were other smaller new features to the phone, but those were the highlighted ones on Apples website:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare-iphones/

The more I thought about the phone, the more I figure I'll pick it up. The new features just seem worth it. At least hopefully. If not, I still payed more for the original Razor when it came out, and that turned out to be a piece of junk.