I bought the iPhone 3GS shortly after it was announced, and I've been using the same iPhone for the past 3 years. It has definitely been very durable -- I'm not very careful with my items - I've dropped my iPhone into a bucket of water (and quickly searched the Internet to find the miracle solution of using a packet of rice to 'dehydrate' the phone), and I've also dropped my phone on the floor countless of times, resulting in broken iPhone cases but still an intact phone.

THE SMART PHONE
The iPhone 3GS is my very first and only smartphone, and as with all other Apple converters, I would have to say that it's probably going to be the only brand of smartphone that I'll ever use until something way more innovative comes out. I absolutely adore the range of applications (thanks to all the iPhone app developers) from games to utilities to entertainment, and the AppStore is pretty much unbeatable. The ease of use of the iPhone 3GS is stunning - as crude as it sounds, this smart phone is made for the dumb. Everything you do on the phone is pretty much second nature to someone who has at least have had some exposure to recent technology. Scrolling sideways, pressing the right buttons, turning the phone... You really don't need the manual to work your way around the smart phone - you either figure it out by yourself or someone will teach you anyway (there are way too many iPhone users)!

PACKAGING
It comes in a small cuboid box, with the iPhone inside as well as an accompanying charger, earphones and a little black envelope that contains a manual and a little pin. The little pin is probably the most confusing thing of the entire packaging - you're meant to use it to open up the SIMcard slot so that you can actually insert your simcard. I shan't go into how to set up your phone - instructions can be easily phone in the manual or online.

MOST USEFUL FUNCTIONS
For the beginner iPhone user, let me just briefly introduce you to two functions/apps that I think are the most underrated:

1) Whatsapp/Viber/free Internet messaging/call service
As long as you've got an internet connection with your phone, hesitate not to make use of these messaging services that don't cost you a penny! Depending on where you come from, you may use Whatsapp/Kakaotalk/etc etc., which allows you to send messages/photos/videos even for free! Sorry I don't know if these apps currently cost but they were once free - so there you go! As for Viber, it's quite like Skype just that you can only do phone to phone calls. Some of these apps are also available for non-iPhone users ie Blackberry users so they're definitely very handy.

2) iBooks
I never thought much about the iBooks until I realised that I could actually save PDF files onto my iBook library and load them when offline. It is awfully handy when you're travelling and you've got all those PDF maps or train schedules that you can just save on your phone without having to worry that you can't access them just because you're offline! And of course, you can download books to read offline... food for the soul!

Of course there's a hoard of other apps including Facebook, Instagram, games, news apps etc that are awesome too - discovering them yourself via the Appstore will be the best D:

iPhone 3GS - THEN AND NOW
When the phone first came out, it was absolutely awesome and fun. Back then other good Smartphones were yet to be established (ie those running on the android platform), so the iPhone was really the star of the day. Right now, I still applaud the iPhone for its ease of use, but I have to admit that there are some very handy features in other phones (such as the offline mapping function on the Android) that is highly appealing.

Furthermore, now with the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 3GS does, in my opinion, pale in comparison. Not because of the better screen, or because of SIRI (not a very useful function in my opinion) - but simply because the rather old phone doesn't seem to function as compatibly with the newer OS, as much as the newer OS does have cool functions like iMessage etc. It can be quite irritably slow at times, and with some applications - it could hang as well. I've also got quite a number of Apps which refuse to update, and I think it's just because I'm still on an older model of the iPhone... The only thing that I might prefer about the 3GS over the 4 is its shape - it's just more stylish to have curved ends rather than to be like a block.

STILL WORTH GETTING?
With the iPhone 5 due to emerge soon, probably not. I highly doubt that a forward moving company like Apple would actually care whether or not the newest updates work very well with the older versions, and if you're getting a smart phone because you actually NEED one for work/life purposes, then something that doesn't function too well with the new software clearly isn't very useful.