Guess what? The iPhone 3G is pretty much as Steve Jobs described it.

The first reviews are out, with Walt Mossberg, Edward Baig and our own David Pogue all finding much to like. Mainly, they like all the things they liked last year about the original iPhone, plus the key new features: faster browsing speed and a GPS navigation system.

They don’t like the things we knew Apple left out: video, photo messages and so on. And they note the limitations: spotty high speed data coverage on AT&T, limited use of the GPS for turn-by-turn navigation, and a slight price increase hidden in the combination of a lower upfront cost with higher monthly fees.

There is a bit of new information. All the reviewers found that the phone’s sound quality — still rather important despite all the other features — is much improved.

Mr. Mossberg tested the phone’s battery life and found it inferior to the first version. He found that the phone had four and a half hours of talk time, less than the five hours Apple promised, and far less than the seven and a half hours his first-generation iPhone delivered using the same test. More significantly, Mr. Mossberg found that his iPhone 3G ran out of power before the end of one day’s use.

Even this is not so much of a surprise. A year ago when asked why Apple didn’t use the faster 3G network on the first iPhone, Mr. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said the hit to battery life would be too much. (Mr. Jobs, of course, is the envy of every politician for his painless ability to flipflop with impunity.)

The real story with the iPhone is what we don’t know yet: What all the new software that will become available for it will be. Maybe these will add up to little more than the mobile equivalent of Facebook’s sheep-throwing geegaws. I don’t think so, however. My instinct is that Apple has created a platform that will lead to a lot of creativity that will result in useful and interesting applications.

A personal note here for those of you following my own spending on technology: I’ve decided to buy a 16 gig iPhone to replace my nondescript Samsung dumbphone issued by the Times. (I’m already on AT&T by some accident of history, so that switch isn’t a problem.)

I’ve decided to put my money where my posts are, betting that in fact this is the computer and media access device I want in my pocket. I’ll let you know if I regret the choice.