I still use the oldest phone that Apple currently sells, the iPhone 3GS, but I’ve now upgraded to iOS 5 GM. To my surprise, the golden master runs much faster than previous beta versions of iOS 5.

Of course, speed is a relative thing — it’s possible that the phone is no faster than it was some months ago, and that I’m now just noticing the difference between last month’s beta version and this week’s golden master, but it certainly feels like the fastest 3GS I’ve ever used!

Sure, I won’t be getting Siri and the camera still takes ages to load up, but I’m suddenly finding myself rather content with my 2-year old phone.

One thing that’s been majorly improved is mobile Safari; it seems to run a whole lot faster these days. I’m actually using it again as my primary browser, at least when I’m on wifi.

Additionally, now that wireless syncing, cloud syncing and over-the-air updates are available, the phone has become effortless to manage.

What I’m trying to get at, is that this aging obsolete smartphone has just dramatically increased in value. This is totally unexpected considering the nature of the product and the fact that it is now two produce cycles behind the latest iPhone.

Apple is making me think twice about upgrading!

Apple Fail?!