The Verizon iPhone is a better phone
Today is the existing subscribers can start ordering the Verizon iPhone and mine will be arriving one week from today. That said, there are always a few people who have the pull to get theirs early, including Daring Fireball’s John Gruber who’s already posted a review.
Biggest complaint about the iPhone from day one has been call quality and reliability. That said, if using the iPhone as a phone — what a concept — is something you care about, then you really need to make the switch to Verizon.
John Gruber has had a Verizon iPhone for about a week and his early impressions are just about what you’d expect — call quality is way better and data performance is somewhat off versus AT&T.
“In six days of use, I find call quality noticeably superior on the Verizon iPhone 4,” wrote the Daring Fireball scribe. “This was more obvious in San Francisco than it was here in Philadelphia, but it’s noticeable here, too.”
For long-suffering iPhone users in the city by the bay, this is probably all the impetus they need to make the switch. However, it’s still unknown how well Verizon will hold up under the coming onslaught of new iPhone users, which is expected to be heavy.
Can you hear me now?
Also, Gruber noted that call quality — how your voice sounds — is also better on Verizon, which is another common complaint about AT&T’s much maligned iPhone service.
“For example, both of my parents — neither of whom are technically savvy or use cell phones regularly — agreed that I sounded much better while using the Verizon iPhone 4 than I did on my AT&T iPhone 4,” added Gruber. “There’s an audio mushiness on AT&T.”
He does say that Verizon’s data performance is slower than AT&T’s, which shines vis-a-vis uploads (i.e. twice as fast) and delivers perceptibly faster downloads, as well.
That said, I’ve already ordered an iPhone from Verizon, which may yet lead to regret once the iPhone 5 arrives. Nevertheless, Erie, Pennsylvania is a Verizon town and I have at least another 15 years left to pay on the mortgage…
What’s your take?
