Just hours after the launch of the Verizon iPhone 4 on Verizon, the media is blasting out opinions, reviews, first impressions and tests. What are the features of the Verizon iPhone 4 vs AT&T iPhone 4 that will make users switch networks?
We reviewed what they are stating and showing. Some reviewers showed faster speeds on Verizon while others showed a slightly slower speed. One reviewer was able to reduce the signal bar by one signal by gripping the Verizon iPhone 4 on all four corners. Another reviewer couldn't get attenuation. The Verizon iPhone 4 will not support global roaming, will operate FaceTime over Wi-Fi. The Verizon iPhone 4 will not connect to voice and data at the same time.
Bonnie Cha at CNET, in side-by-side tests pulling up the New York Times website, determined that the Verizon iPhone 4 was the clear winner. She reported that a phone call she made to San Francisco had excellent call quality, suggesting that Verizon may offer better voice quality. She tried to make an attenuation "death grip" by holding the phone and blocking antenna signals and didn't see any signal reduction by holding the Verizon iPhone 4. Kent German, also at CNET, did not like that the Verizon iPhone 4 will not have global roaming. The Verizon iPhone 4 will not crowd out other smartphones because "there are just too many other fantastic smartphones on the market for that to ever happen.'
Mark Spoonauer at Laptop found the Verizon iPhone 4 was faster for downloading and uploading than the AT&T iPhone. He noted that Verizon's data network in New York is not as taxed with data users as AT&T's network and that Verizon CDMA does not allow voice and data at the same time.
When Spoonauer used the Verizon iPhone 4 as used a Wi-Fi hotspot, the AT&T iPhone connected via the Wi-Fi over the Verizon iPhone had a faster connection than AT&T 3G. The Wi-Fi hotspot connection on the AT&T iPhone was 1.73Mbps down and 340Kbps up while the 3G connection on the AT&T iPhone was 780Kbps down and 50Kbps up.
Sascha Segan at PCWorld, in his hands-on report, found response times to be fine and had trouble surfing to a speed test site. He "managed
to knock one bar off of the phone's signal indicator by tightly
gripping the phone with both hands, covering all four antenna marks."
The real differences between the Verizon iPhone 4 and AT&T iPhone 4 will
only show over time.
IntoMobile reported that there will
be hot competitors to new Verizon iPhone because there were dual core
and 4G LTE smartphones announced at CES, such as the Samsung 4G LTE Smartphone, HTC ThunderBolt, LG Revolution, Droid Bionic and Motorola Atrix 4G. Marc pointed out that the FaceTime will work between an AT&T and Verizon iPhone users on Wi-Fi.
The
Los Angeles Times reported that Consumer Reports rated the Verizon
smartphone customer satisfaction higher than AT&T satisfaction.
However, the iPhone may put stress on Verizon's network. BGR noted that where the Verizon iPhone falls short is that the Verizon network is slow and it lacks voice/data simultaneous use, global roaming, and 4G.