page_title: IPhone 3GS
section_title: Hardware
hierarchical_section_title: IPhone 3GS / Features / Hardware
caption_attribution_description: The back of the iPhone 3G (left) and iPhone 3G S. the latter has shiny text. Both iPhones shown are white 16 GB.
context_page_description: The iPhone 3GS is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the third generation iPhone and the successor to the iPhone 3G. It was unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the WWDC 2009 which took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
  This iPhone is named "3GS" where "S" stood for Speed. Improvements include performance, a 3-megapixel camera with higher resolution and video ability, voice control, and support for 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA downloading. It was released in the United States, Canada, and six European countries on June 19, 2009, in Australia and Japan on June 26, and internationally in July and August 2009.
  The iPhone 3GS runs Apple's iOS operating system. It was succeeded as Apple's flagship smartphone in 2010 by the iPhone 4. On June 24, 2010 an 8GB model was released, discontinuing the 16 and 32GB models. However, the 3GS continued in production until September 2012 when the iPhone 5 was announced.
context_section_description: The LCD display on the device was designed by Apple and made by LG. It features a capacitive touchscreen with a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (ppi) on a 3.5 in (8.9 cm) 480-by-320 display. Improvements over its predecessor's screen include 24-bit color emulation (18-bit color display plus dithering) for a more color rich display and oleophobic coating to help reduce fingerprints on the display. The capacitive touchscreen is designed for a bare finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing.
  The iPhone 3GS features an improved 3-megapixel camera manufactured by OmniVision. In addition to the higher pixel count, it also features auto-focus, auto white balance and auto macro and is capable of capturing VGA video.
  The iPhone 3GS's camera app features a slider which allows users to switch between capturing photos and recording videos, a tap-to-focus feature which allows users to tap on an area of the camera image to auto-focus on, 5x digital zoom (iOS 4 or later), autofocus and auto exposure lock when holding an area down (iOS 5 or later), and gridlines for composition (iOS 5 or later).
  The iPhone 3GS is powered by the Samsung APL0298C05 chip, which was designed and manufactured by Samsung. This is the first iPhone with a system-on-a-chip. This system-on-a-chip is composed of an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU core underclocked to 600 MHz (from 833 MHz), integrated with a PowerVR SGX 535 GPU.
  It has 256 MB of package on package (PoP) DRAM, twice the amount of the 3G, allowing for increased performance and multi-tasking.
  Apple claims the iPhone 3GS is 2x faster than its predecessor, showing demonstrations of various apps loading in half the time its predecessor does.
  As on previous models, all data is stored in flash memory and not in the SIM and it does not offer any options to expand storage. Initially, it was only available in 16 and 32 GB though an 8 GB model was later released, with Apple discontinuing the 16 and 32 GB models, forcing those needing more storage to select an iPhone 4, or buy an older model 3GS.
  The iPhone 3GS is powered by an internal 3.7 V 1220 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery and is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles. A battery life indicator in percentage was also exclusive to the iPhone 3GS.
  Apple claims that the 3GS can last for up to ten hours of video, nine hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi, twelve hours of 2G talk time, or five on 3G, 30 hours of music, or 300 hours of standby.
  A magnetometer is also built-in the iPhone 3GS, which is used to measure the strength and/or direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the device. Sometimes certain devices or radio signals can interfere with the magnetometer requiring users to either move away from the interference or re-calibrate by moving the device in a figure 8 motion. The iPhone 3GS also features a Compass app that was unique at the time of release, showing a compass that points in the direction of the magnetic field.
  In addition to the iPhone 3G's Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA radio and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio, the 3GS also adds support for 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA allowing faster downlink speeds though upload speeds remain the same as Apple had not implemented the HSUPA protocol. Other updates include the addition of a built-in Nike+iPod sensor which eliminates the need for an external sensor and allows native Nike+iPod support. The Bluetooth server on the iPhone 3GS has also been slightly improved adding support for Bluetooth 2.1 specifications.
  Voice Control was introduced as an exclusive feature of the iPhone 3GS and allows for the controlling of the phone and music features of the phone by voice. There are two ways to activate Voice Control: hold the Home button while in the home screen for a few seconds; or, change the effect of what double-clicking the home button does so it will activate Voice Control (only on iOS 3.x; on iOS 4 or later, double-clicking the Home button opens the multitasking bar).
  VoiceOver, Color Inversion, and Text Zoom were introduced as exclusive features to
caption: The reverse of the iPhone 3G (left) is almost identical to that of the 3GS, except for the latter's reflective silver text which now matches the silver Apple logo, replacing the 3G's grey text.
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