Just as the iPhone OS 3.0 was unleashed onto the world, the reviews of the 3G S started emerging on sites like Engadget, Gizmodo and the like. We at Smoking Apples can only stare at the pictures, since the iPhone will hit India somewhere in August. Till then, here’s the story the rest of them are telling.

Engadget was the first one out with a review, and while their review is an overall positive, it’s not praising ‘the S’ to the skies. Impressed with the speed and quality of recorded video. They’ve even got a raw video file of the 3G S which demonstrates what the final video looks like. And it’s stunning!

“Okay—you got us. Video recording on the iPhone 3G S is really quite impressive, and there are two reasons why. For starters, the phone handles pretty fantastic looking VGA video at 30 FPS, which makes for not just passable mobile video, but usable mobile video.” – Joshua Topolsky, Engadget.

Gizmodo’s review is a much better read actually, since they bring a little more fun and flair into their writing. They’re totally stoked about the speed, mentioning it more than too many times. The rest of the features like Compass, Video Recording, and the rest of the party.

“But as a whole, the iPhone 3GS is the best all-around smartphone available. If you’re looking for a refined, augmented version of what you already know, a phone that, not for nothing, runs all the tens of thousands of apps on the App Store, choose the iPhone 3GS.” – Jason Chen, Gizmodo.

David Pogue at the New York Times gives his usual wordy review of the iPhone 3G S. Again, damn impressed with speed, and advices any and all to avoid buying the $100 cheaper iPhone 3G. “If you’re used to the old iPhone, the speed boost hits you between the eyes, especially when you’re opening programs, playing games and loading Web pages.”

“The new iPhone doesn’t just catch up to its rivals — it vaults a year ahead of them.” says Pogue

No Apple product doesn’t go under the Uncle Walt scanner, and the iPhone 3G S is no different. Mossberg however isn’t that impressed with the new iPhone, considering it evolutionary, and that the juice is mainly in the software 3.0. He goes on to review the iPhone 3.0 OS as well, one that he’s very impressed with.

While we’re on 3.0, Dan Moren at Macworld has done a fairly comprehensive review of the 3.0 software, should you want to know more about it. As for the nitty gritty, you can check out this article titled “How to use the best 40 features of the iPhone 3.0 OS“.

As a final word, even though I haven’t even taken a whiff of the new space saving box of the iPhone 3G S, I’d say if you’re going for it, take the S plunge. The extra $100 will go a long way in terms of speed, features, as well as another 8GB of storage space. It’s a no brainer.