HOWZAT

O2 says that 80 per per cent of the UK population now lives within reach of its 3G network, but geographically speaking, the network covers a much smaller proportion of the country. This means that if you're travelling, you'll have to make do with a 2.5G connection.

The Times found that on the whole in London, 3G coverage was good, and that even YouTube – a very data-rich service - worked effectively.

From time to time, the reception dips, at which point it can take as long as 20 seconds to load a page, and when the phone was roaming in France, it found no 3G network whatsoever. (You should be wary about roaming, anyway – at £3 per megabyte of data, browsing becomes a proper luxury.)

The two-megapixel camera is meagre by most standards and won’t replace your digital standalone, but it's perfectly good for impromptu snaps. The photos feature also allows you to "side-load" other photos onto the phone from your PC via a cable – handy if you want to share details of a trip in person.

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Songs, too, are side-loaded from your PC into the phone’s in-built iPod. Instead of using a scroll-wheel, you swipe up and down your music collection vertically using an alphabetical menu.

Those with larger music collections might find the memory inhibiting. Even the more capacious 16GB version accommodates only 4,000 songs - and that's not allowing for any videos or photos you might want to store.

Battery life, too, will be a problem for some - the 3G network chews through power. Apple says the battery life is five hours for internet use, and five hours for phone calls.

The Times found that at the end of a day using the iPod on the commute both to and from work, browsing the web off and on during the day, and making a handful of phone calls (30 mins to an hour) - the battery was pretty much spent. There’s no replaceable battery, either – plugging it in is the only way to get new power.

Getting your hands on a new iPhone will involve shelling out up front, unless you pay £45 or more per month for your O2 contract. The 8GB and 16GB versions cost £99 and £159 respectively for O2 customers on £30 or £35-per-month contracts.

Consider, though, that an 8GB iPod nano costs £129, and that with every contract you’re getting unlimited web browsing, and the iPhone 3G becomes a very compelling proposition – admittedly only for O2 customers.

There’s one other secret weapon: Apple’s App Store – an online catalogue just like iTunes, but instead of songs it offers programs you can download to soup up your iPhone.

There will be customised versions of sites like Facebook and Amazon, as well as games and other features. Many will be free, some will involve a small, one-off fee.

If the Mk I iPhone changed the rules of the game, then Mk II has Apple careering around the new playing field while the rivals are still in the changing rooms. The network can be patchy and the battery drains fast, but little chinks like that do little to reduce the scale of the challenge now facing BlackBerry and Nokia.

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