I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to new phones. The purchasing of a new phone is always an exciting moment for me. I think it’s fair to say that I get way too excited about the prospect of one. With an upgrade due at the beginning of August I’m already beginning to twitch ever so slightly at this thought.

And with a new IPhone hotly rumoured, I spent 2 hours watching Apple’s WWDC conference yesterday evening to see what tricks they would have up their sleeves. 2 whole hours. We had talk about new laptops (or Macbooks as they call them), new operating systems, yadda yadda yadda (I’m not an Apple Mac computer fan). And then we got to the bit I (and mostly everyone else was waiting for), talk of a new IPhone. With an upgrade inimant I’m keeping my options open, and one of those options is an IPhone.

Here’s some key points and my understanding of the new Apple IPhone 3GS. ‘S’ stands for ’speed’ don’t you know.

A 3 mega pixel camera – my Sony Ericsson of 3 years ago had a 3 mega pixel camera on it. My current phone has 5.

Voice control – if I say “call Emma” it will call Emma. If I say “call Emma” at 3 in the morning after a night out it will probably call my boss by accident.  A nice thought, but my Sony Ericsson of 5 years ago had this same feature. I remember impressing people with it in our common area at school. These voice controlled systems don’t like my half Scottish half Shetland accent anyway.

MMS picture messaging – 5 year old phone had that. The novelty wore off quickly.

Video recording – Most people have had this feature on their phones for a good few years now.  And lets all be honest, it’s not that good.

Tethering – Apple have coined an idea a phrase for a feature that at a premium allows you to connect your IPhone to your computer and use the Internet through your IPhone.  Did you know my phone of 5 years ago could do that?

There’s a ‘locate me‘ me option where if you lose your phone you can pinpoint it on a map on your computer screen. I like that idea, but presumably that would require the phone to have a GPS position which anyone who’s ever played with their GPS unit will know that it is not too accurate indoors. The computer wont tell me that my phone is underneath that pile of papers on my desk.

Essentially the IPhone is full of basic features wrapped up in great marketing by Apple. There are many phones out at the moment that whip the IPhone in terms of what they can do.

So with that in mind, do I want an IPhone? Yes… Yes I do.

Why? Well, the IPhone has something that I’ve yet to see any other phone compare with, it’s interface. The operating system it runs in seamless. If Nokia could create an interface as nice as that then they would be on to a winner. It’s this alone that makes a pretty basic phone into a must have object for anyone.  Mutton dressed as lamb I believe is the phrase.

Will I buy an IPhone? Probably not. For one reason only.

The price . A quick look at O2’s tariffs for the new IPhone shows on the 18 month £34.26 plan which gives you unlimited data, 600 minutes and 500 texts (which is probably the average plan for most normal users, it’s certainly the plan I’d go for) your looking at a cost of £184.96 for the 16GB version of the handset.  18 x £34.26 + £184.96 = £801.64. Holy smoke! Over 800 quid for a new phone.  And O2 have an exclusive deal with Apple to sell the IPhone in the UK.  So no competition. They can price it whatever way they want.

It wouldn’t be too bad if for that price I got a full 18 months out of it, but I wont. Because you cant unlock the IPhone. It comes as an O2 phone. It will always be an O2 phone. Unless you jailbreak it, which funnily enough invalidates the warranty.  We’re planning to go to Canada for a year next summer. I would want to use a Canadian SIM in it. You can’t.  Nokia phones on Vodafone come unlocked as standard, a Canadian sim would work.

So it looks like no IPhone for me this summer.  Other options. Well there is the HTC Magic. More commonly known as the Google phone. Syncs beautifully with Google Mail, Calenders etc. Runs the Google Android software too which is the closest yet to the IPhone OS. The camera is alright and it’s specs don’t look too bad, but there is no headphone socket. So that’s no straight away. I want something I can use as an MP3 player with my headphones I already own.

Nokia’s new flagship phone is launched in a couple of weeks, the Nokia N97. A pull out QWERTY keyboard, 5 mega pixel camera, decent specs, a HEADPHONE socket, FM receiver and transmitter. Looks promising however its operating system lacks the smoothness and style of the IPhone or the Google phone.  First reviews of the N97 all seem to suggest that it’s lacking something.

And finally there’s the Palm Pre. Dubbed by many as the real IPhone killer. Launched in the States this week. Launches in the UK in November. We can rule that one out straight away, like I said at the beginning of this geeky blog post, I love new phones and seriously I can’t wait 5 months for a new one.

Gah, it’s a tough life.