What kind of iPhone do I "REALLY" have?

[gs_optd]

Hello everyone. I just recently picked up a 16GB iPhone 3GS for free from a friend of mine. This is my very first iPhone and so far, I like it. Here's the situation: One day, I was trying to get the Bank of America app and I get a pop-up message saying that I need iOS 4.3 - I have 4.2.1. Come to find out that by model number on the back of my iPhone, Model No.: A1241, it's actually an iPhone 3G. I was a bit disappointed, but hey - the phone is free. But under Settings->General->About and iTunes, this phone is the 3GS. This phone is from Indonesia, so I'm guessing this is considered an international phone and is factory unlocked. I see no signs of any custom firmware or jailbreaking. It's able to access the iTunes Store with no problems and take a T-Mobile SIM card just fine.

I was planning on jailbreaking it myself, but I've come to a fork in the road between software and hardware. A lot of the apps in the App Store are more geared towards the newer phones and I can't seem to find another way around it besides jailbreaking it. I would like to upgrade to maybe iOS 5 or iOS 6, depending on what's more efficient for my phone. I'm just confused about what kind of phone I have as I do not want to jailbreak it with the wrong software that's meant for a different phone. So if anyone has ever come across this problem before, any feedback would be greatly appreciated it. Thanks!

 

[willerz2]

Connect your device into your computer, and open up RedSn0w. On the main screen where it has the "Jailbreak" and "Extra" button, under those 2 buttons there should be a line that identifies your iPhone. If not, you can just click on Extras -> Identify and it'll give you as much information as it can possibly retrieve off of your phone. If your iPhone is indeed a 3G, then we can't help you since the 4.2.1 is indeed the latest firmware for the iPhone 3G. If the iPhone is a 3GS however, then we can help you update to a different iOS with dependencies.

Also, if you use any other kind of identification, sometimes the ID would be something like this

(example of my old iPhone 3GS)
Jon's iPhone2,1_XXXX : That means my iPhone is a 3GS based on the 2,1 after iPhone.

If it's this one, with a 1,2, then it's a 3G
Jon's iPhone1,2_XXXX

 

[gs_optd]

When I open up the program, the first screen says Connected: iPhone 3GS (4.2.1, 05.15.04). I click Extras->Even More->Identify, and I get this list of info for my phone. I can't seem to find that certain identification you mentioned. The closest thing I found was this: ProductType: iPhone1,2. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I see a lot of other info that maybe be able to identify my phone. I did a quick google search of my ModelNumber (MB496) and HardwareModel (N82AP) numbers and they both come up as the iPhone 3G.

I'm guessing maybe the person I got it from must have renamed it to iPhone 3GS upon restoring the phone to factory settings(?). I don't know but I think it's safe to say that I do actually have the 3G and not the 3GS. In any case, I appreciate your response willerz2.

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[willerz2]

Try this. Open up iTunes, shift+restore and point it to an iPhone 3GS iOS IPSW or point it to an iPhone 3G iOS IPSW and see which one gets rejected. If it is indeed a 3G, then iTunes should pop up a window that says this build is not eligible for this device or something along the lines.

 

[gs_optd]

Apologies for the late reply - work has been hectic. But I did this and the 3G IPSW was accepted versus the 3GS IPSW which actually actually got rejected. So I guess this confirms it - I have an iPhone 3G. At least now I can be pointed in the right direction as to Jailbreaking it now. Thanks for your help willerz2!