Verizon iPhone 4 vs AT&T iPhone 4

Introduction:

Now just because they’re both Apple products, it doesn’t mean that the two carriers calling ownership to the beloved handset are going to play nicely with one another. At first it seemed as though we were going to experience a neutral agreement between AT&T and Verizon now that the two are offering the iPhone 4, but once you look past the surface, you begin to notice certain items that are akin to each. With that in mind, it’s time to dive in and take a deeper look at these closely related devices and specifically target the areas where you’ll expect to spot the difference between them.

Design:

At the design standpoint, there isn’t much to say about the two since they’re nearly identical in just about every aspect. From their solid construction to their choice of premium materials, there’s nothing that won’t disappoint you since it’s one remarkable looking phone that can easily find itself as the center of attention in a crowded room full of trend setters. However, we find that the notches around the antenna of the Verizon iPhone 4 are slightly modified over AT&T’s version. Specifically, we find a total of four separators on the Verizon iPhone 4, which are found near the corners, as opposed to the three in use with AT&T’s model. Aside from that, one can easily mistake the two for being identical twins.



Continuing to galvanize us, the Retina Displays of both handsets are still amongst the tops in display technologies thanks to their polarizing luminance, natural color tones, high resolution, and great viewing angles. Furthermore, we adore the oleophobic coating on both glass surfaces which manages to easily repel the damaging effects of smudges and fingerprints to its pristine outer shell. And lastly, fingers move ever so swimmingly along their surfaces while being accurately registered by the devices at all the times.

Interface and Functionality:

Keeping in mind speed and responsiveness, the platform experience on the two iPhone 4 models are identical as everything chugs along at a blistering rate – which makes for a suitable experience for multi-taskers all around. However, web browsing is something that’s naturally akin to the iPhone since it popularized the experience for touchscreen devices. With that, we didn’t find the experience too different since they excelled in loading complex web sites, offer smooth kinetic scrolling, and use pinch gestures to zoom. Now even though the general users might find the performance to be the same, it’s noted that we obtained better speed results with the AT&T iPhone 4 over 3G. Not only did it constantly beat out the Verizon iPhone 4 in latency and download speeds, it blew things out of the water in the upload speed department. Sure you can hand it to the AT&T iPhone 4 for obtaining faster speeds in our test, but through the eyes of a general user who is using mobile Safari, the end experience is almost the same.






In the calling quality department, we have to hand it to the Verizon iPhone 4 since it didn’t have the annoying level of static and background noise evident with AT&T’s version. Even in areas where we noticed that the signal wasn’t the best with the Verizon iPhone 4, it still manages to produce clear conversations over the competition which had more bars of signal strength. Though, we do find the volume output achieved by the earpiece and speakerphone to be more than audible to the ear without drowning in much distortion.

Granted that not everyone will have a need for it, but the Verizon iPhone 4 has the ability to act as a mobile hotspot which can come in handy for certain situations. Unfortunately, the AT&T iPhone 4 currently lacks this model – and it’s uncertain yet at this point if we’ll see it. Still, the $20/month additional charge enables the Verizon iPhone 4 to share it data connection with up to 5 devices.



Although some initially thought that the Verizon iPhone 4 would iron out those annoying death grip issues that plagued some AT&T iPhone 4 owners, it’s still one pesky thing affecting the latest model. In our experience, the Verizon iPhone 4 seems to retain a stronger connection to the network since it only dropped 2 bars of signal from the initial 5. Conversely, we can get the AT&T iPhone 4 to go all the way to a single bar while applying the death grip. However, we didn’t notice much degradation in calling quality or web browsing performance between the two with the death grip applied.

Conclusion:

If there is something that the AT&T iPhone 4 can hark about, it has to be its ability to do voice and data simultaneously. Meaning, you can be on a phone call and browse the web all at the same time – which is something that you can’t do with the Verizon iPhone 4 solely through a cellular connection. However, you can still achieve this by connecting the Verizon iPhone 4 to a Wi-Fi hotspot, which of course, will enable to voice and data seamlessly at the same time. Definitely a nice touch either way, it doesn’t necessarily compare in beating the AT&T iPhone 4’s ability to do it within the umbrella of cellular coverage.

Global travelers will want to stick with the AT&T iPhone 4 since it’s a GSM device that enables it to work abroad – something that you can’t do with Verizon’s pride and joy. Instead, you’re limited to using the handset within the confines of the US with no hint of support once you set foot outside Verizon’s network. And since it’s a GSM handset, some will be enthralled by the AT&T iPhone 4’s use of a microSIM card which minimizes the process of switching phones. Simply, you take it out, place it into another device, and bam! That’s it! Whereas you’ll either need to go to your online account, call up customer service, or use *228 to switch to another Verizon iPhone 4 – just more steps of course.

So that pretty much sums up the key differences that you can expect to see with both handsets. As we mentioned, there are some specific key advantages offered by the two handsets, but underneath it all, they actually boast more commonalities than anything else. However, there are numerous factors to consider when making a decision, such as the network coverage around your area, to definitively come to a conclusion of which to side with. Either way, you can still expect to experience a handset that’s still at the top of its game – despite being a bit over 7 months old.

Verizon iPhone 4 vs AT&T iPhone 4 Video Comparison: