Yesterday, after months of waiting patiently, I finally upgraded to the iPhone 3G. The phone call to o2 took around 5 minutes – simply asking what iPhone I wanted, what tariff I wished to go on and confirming my phone number and personal details. I called them around 2pm yesterday and it arrived this lunchtime, less than 24 hours later. Did I mention I love o2?

I chose the 8GB model and the £35 per month tariff with 600 minutes, 500 texts, all of which of course come with Unlimited Data and Wi-Fi. The handset cost £99.

Shortly after the Apple Event on Tuesday I listed my iPod touch on Amazon Marketplace and sold it within 30 minutes. Since I got the new replacement a couple of weeks back it’s been pretty much redundant. I played games only occasionally and have never really used the iPod touch to listen to music. It seemed the primary uses were e-mail, social networking apps, calendar and general web browsing. I was starting to want much more from my device, much more than the iPod touch could give me. 

I’ve read blog posts in the past about the iPhone 3G and quite often the author will say what everyone else seems to be saying: it’s amazing, it’s beautiful and wondering how they managed without it. If you were looking for me to say something different and unique then I can’t help you. The iPod touch, in my opinion, doesn’t even begin to come close to the iPhone…and I really didn’t expect that. Obviously not just talking about the features but the feel of it in your hand, the clarity of the screen, the everything.

When the iPhone was announced by o2 last year I was a little concerned about the tariff price, considering that I was on a £15 ‘all-you-can-eat’ tariff. I was firmly in the comfort zone. But, since the announcement of the 3G I have been much less concerned about the monthly cost considering that the handset itself is greatly reduced. £35 per month is fairly standard thesedays for a decent tariff on any phone and I consider the iPhone tariff to be exactly that. It has more than enough inclusive minutes and texts for me.

As yet I haven’t made a single phonecall but I have received a couple and it’s crystal clear, not the slightly tinny/echoey sound I used to get on my o2 XDA Mini S. I have sent out a few SMS, mostly just to gush about it as if I’m the only person in the world who has one. Now that I have the internet at my fingertips wherever I am, I just hope I don’t become one of these people walking around Sainsburys taking a photo of the Fish Finger aisle and posting it to Twitter to show where I am. But somehow I think I will ;)

The feature I was looking forward to the most, after the phone/text, is the camera. I don’t always take my camera out with me unless I’m going out specifically on a photo walk. It’s always during these camera-free times that I see something worth snapping. A beautiful sunset, perhaps. Since I’ll have my iPhone with me all the time when I’m out then I can capture any moment at any time. My XDA Mini S had a 1.3MP camera but was decidedly unhappy with storing more than a couple of full res photos – and they weren’t even all that, anyway.

So, just a few hours after unboxing the iPhone 3G I am totally smitten and have barely stopped looking at it. Now I realise just why my online contacts have been urging me, for so long, to buy one. All I can say is I am glad I finally did.