Some early US and European reviewers, and customers, complain that Apple’s new handset gets literally too hot to handle.

While complaints about smartphones overheating usually centre on a unit plugged into an AC socket for recharging,  with its battery running hot, with the iPhone 3G S, it seems to happen anytime, anywhere.

Stories about smaller launch-day crowds at US retail stores have proved misleading.

For its launch this weekend just past, the new iPhone 3G S sold 1 million units - the same level as its predecessor, the iPhone 3G, despite entering a much more challenging market.

The original iPhone sold 200,000 units on its launch weekend, three years ago this month.

Apple also announced its new iPhone OS 3.0 software had clocked six million downloads.

In a curious footnote, chief executive Steve Jobs gets a one liner in Apple’s press release:

Apple’s new iPhone is not due in New Zealand until next month. But in the US it’s due Friday. Here’s NBR’s 30-second wrap up of the first reviews.

We already know the iPhone 3G S (the “S” stands for speed):
- offers full support for 7.2Mbit/s 3G
- gains supports video
- boosts still camera rez from 2 megapixels to 3.2 megapixels and
- upgrades onboard memory options to 16GB and 32GB
- has a much faster processor than its predecessor

There is no “hey wow” feature, but Apple’s handset fills many of its predecessor’s feature gaps, and ramps up the speed - to the prime advantage of Telecom XT users.

Overall, the iPhone 3G S - the third version of Apple's handset - is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary upgrade.

Its headline feature is the 3G S's ability to take full advantage of a 7.2Mbit/s W-CDMA HSPA 3G connection, making it Apple’s fastest handset yet.