Verizon iPhone 4: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Brian Klug on February 13, 2011 9:32 AM ESTSimultaneous Calls, Texts, Data
So if you've heard anything about the Verizon iPhone 4 versus the AT&T iPhone 4, you've heard about simultaneous voice and data. Truth is that on UMTS voice and data are multiplexed, and you can do them at the same time. On 1xEVDO you can either transact voice, or data, but not both at the same time. If you try to do it on the Verizon iPhone 4, you get a screen like this:
It isn't really just voice that interrupts data, however. Text messaging (SMS) does it as well. If you're surfing along and an SMS comes in, data pauses for about three or so seconds while the phone goes down to 1x, gets the SMS, then reacquires EVDO. A lot of people don't know that SMS is still over voice on the CDMA camp. If you're doing lots of texting and surfing at the same time, this can get annoying fast. If you're being bombarded with lots and lots of SMSes, you can't transact any data until all of them are done showing up. You can see behavior for yourself in our overview video as well.
There's also another set of nuances between the CDMA iPhone 4 and UMTS iPhone 4. Conference call features are different, and there are a lot of small things. Whereas the UMTS iPhone 4 can support up to five simultaneous lines, the CDMA version only supports two.
There were also toggles for call forwarding, call waiting, and caller ID toggles on the UMTS version. These are notably absent on the CDMA version, instead you'll need to enter appropriate * codes for those (*72 and *73 for forwarding, *70 for call waiting, *67 for caller ID). That's not an Apple thing but rather a network limitation.
An even larger (but oft overlooked) difference are the SMS differences between the CDMA carriers and UMTS. The CDMA SMS specification has no support for messages with characters outside of ASCII. Send or receive one with "Emoji" or other non-ASCII characters from a CDMA iPhone 4, and you'll get no alert, it just disappears.
One of the huge selling points of GSM for me personally has been long SMS support. If you routinely send texts that are over 160 characters, UMTS/GSM generally wins because most carriers implement long SMS support properly. Verizon had had its own message concatenation back in the day, but I've yet to see it really used on a smartphone of theirs. It was one of the first things I tested against a friend of mine who also has a Verizon iPhone 4. Turns out that between Verizon customers, SMS concatenation does work, and long multi-texts are combined into one. That's hugely awesome if you SMS as much as I do.
However, concatenation doesn't always work between carriers. That's not a carrier specific thing, but just crappy SMS interchanges between carriers being a problem.
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walmartshopper - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
"With the phone facing up, the first cellular antenna consists of the new strip at the very top. The second is the strip running from the bottom left, across the bottom, and up the right side of the phone. The far left side with volume buttons and the vibrate switch is part of the WiFi and Bluetooth antenna."In the picture below that, the phone is face down, so shouldn't the colored labels be reversed?
ol1bit - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
I know in the city it "might" not make a difference, but here in Phoenix, AZ (no hills, etc). My AT&T work phone drops out just driving from Goodyear to downtown on the morning commute (I-10). My Verizon droid does not.Next up: offroading
Doesn't matter where I have been, my AT&T phone lost signal pretty much as soon as I hit the dirt. My friends Verizon phones worked 90% of the time.
So I waited and waited for a powerful Smart phone on Verizon and I got my Droid. No more no-signal! I was on a power line dirt road 30 mile from Prescott with terrain mapping on and seeing the little more that cow trails on one of my 3 day quad trips, it was a big help!! My work AT&T phone dead for the entire 3 days!
So the difference may not be much in the city, but where Verizon really shines is outside of the city. It was simply amazing that I had data so far out and not even voice with my At&T phone.
7Enigma - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
I kept finding myself trying to figure out which phone in your review was the Verizon and which the AT&T. For those of us not up on the lingo of UMTS and CDMA it is a bit confusing. I would have preferred if you had just changed these to say Verizon and AT&T so I could read it more fluidly without constantly having to sit and think which carrier you are talking about.Great review though!
Thanks
chupacabramike - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Guh I can't believe people are still defending at&t service. Look at any customer satisfaction stat..any of them and you will see Verizon soars while at&t sinks. Being able to actually use your phone as a phone priceless. Thank you Apple and Verizon for finally giving us a choice.pshen7 - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Can't wait for the Verizon iPhone! I'm tired of the dropped calls from ATT. My contract is up too so switching should be easy. I'm sure millions feel the same way like I do.Peter, founder of http://koowie.com : Search.Post.Connect.
Laughing Coyote - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
FYI, the AT&T iPhone 4 doesn't come with a SIM ejector tool either. Though it apparently does in some other countries.http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html
skyflyrr - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Working in the RF wireless field I must commend you on the first accurate tear down and labeling of components of the Verizon iPhone 4.Reviews of Reviews - Friday, February 18, 2011 - link
For a not-quite-so-thorough review of this review, check out www.reviewsofreviews.comfadam - Sunday, February 20, 2011 - link
On the second page, it seems that the paragraph describing the location of the antennas does not match the photo. The text references the iPhone being "face up" while the photo shows the phone face down. The highlighting of the antennas would need to be mirrored in the picture in order to match the text. Really enjoyed the writeup.asandok2 - Monday, February 21, 2011 - link
Thanks for the reply! I thought that would be the case! I found a thread on macforums from last year where a guy speculates that the backplate has something to do with the antenna system too.http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=95718...
Any idea if there is truth to his theory?? Is that part of the cellular antenna too?? Thanks in advance!