For quite a while now, Walt Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal has been testing the two iPhones, one on each network of course. Keywords: each network. The phones themselves are essentially identical, except for the fact that they have different radios inside to accommodate the two carriers’ differing network technologies. Verizon is CDMA and AT&T is GSM. Most of us know the difference.

During his tests, Walt Mossberg found that the Verizon iPhone has much better voice calls, but he says there’s a trade off in data speed. We’ll get to that part. He continues to say “I’m here to say: Yes, there are some major benefits to having your iPhone on Verizon, but, as with all good things, there are also trade-offs.”

Over a period of nine days, Mossberg found that he only had three dropped calls on Verizon, but guess what, they were each with an AT&T iPhone customer who didn’t have good service. He doesn’t blame Verizon for this one. He says the calls were crystal clear, including speakerphone and blue-tooth calls. With the AT&T model, in the same areas, he had several dropped calls.

Keep in mind though that during his first day of testing, neither devices functioned as they should have. He at first had several Verizon calls that dropped out for a few seconds before recovering and terrible battery life. The AT&T iphone did the same thing following the initial setup forcing him to reboot. After he did this to each of them, he was free from the instant, often dropped calls on newly activated devices and both had great battery lives. We wonder why this happened? What do you think?

So you’re asking, what about the trade-off Mossberg spoke of? The biggest one he mentions is data speed. That’s what every smartphone user looks for, well most of them. He performed several speed tests with the two devices, primarily in the Washington area and a part of a day at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Keep reading, it gets good.

Mossberg found that, despite a few Verizon victories here and there, AT&T’s network averaged 46% faster at download speeds and 24% faster at upload speeds. He says, “This speed difference was noticeable while doing tasks like downloading large numbers of emails, or waiting for complicated Web pages to load. AT&T’s speeds varied more while Verizon’s were more consistent, but overall, AT&T was more satisfying at cellular data.”

We aren’t here bashing either carrier, just stating the facts from a well trusted journalist from Wall Street. What we can say that’s extremely useful to AT&T customers right now, that Verizon doesn’t offer, is surfing the web and making a voice call at the same time. However, Verizon has plans to have certain models with that capability. It still is something AT&T can say they have that Verizon doesn’t.

Verizon isn’t the best everywhere you go and neither is AT&T. In the D.C. area, Mossberg had issues with the Verizon model switching from 3G to 2G mode. It had no affect on voice quality but did slow down the data.

Mossberg says, “Bottom line: In my tests, the new Verizon version of the iPhone did much better at voice calling than the AT&T version, and offers some attractive benefits, like unlimited data and a wireless hot-spot capability. But if you really care about data speed, or travel overseas, and AT&T service is tolerable in your area, you may want to stick with AT&T.”

Now what we want to know, will the iPhone 5 be completely different or just slightly updated? What changes do you think should happen and what do you think will happen? Let us know your thoughts on this article in the comments box below.

Source: WSJ

UPDATE:

Several customers of Verizon Wireless reported difficult times while trying to order their iPhone’s last night? Were you one of them? Apparently the website to order online went down around 4AM. We can see that at least 6,000 orders were successfully processed so they had to have fixed it quickly. At least, the order numbers went as high as 6,000. Do you think that’s how many they sold?

The iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless retails for $199 for 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model with a new or qualified upgrade with two-year agreement.

Did you have a successful order or were you driven away by the difficulty? Let us know if you are one of these customers. We want to know what happened and the details. Discuss in the comment section below.

END OF UPDATE:

Source: VZW

Reminders are coming up all over the place so why not here too? Tomorrow is the big day for Verizon to allow customers to pre-order their devices, starting at 3AM EST. Apple has also recently confirmed they are taking pre-orders for the device as well.

Here are the details on Verizon’s requirements for ordering the device:
Only existing Verizon Wireless subscribers are eligible for pre-orders, meaning current customers only. If you are wanting to purchase a new line of service with Verizon and their iPhone, you will have to wait until the phone becomes available to the general public on February 10th.

Apple’s details are simple, pre-orders are on a first come, first served basis and are available to current Verizon Wireless subscribers only.

Take a look at Apple’s latest press release below:

CUPERTINO, California—February 2, 2011—Apple® today announced an exclusive opportunity for Verizon Wireless’ 94 million customers to pre-order iPhone® 4 online beginning on Thursday, February 3 through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) and at www.verizonwireless.com/iphone. Due to high demand, customer orders will be fulfilled on a first come, first served basis.

Beginning on Wednesday, February 9, all qualified customers will be able to order an iPhone 4 on Verizon through the Apple Store (www.apple.com) for delivery or reserve for in-store pick up beginning February 10.

Beginning at 7 a.m. local time on Thursday, February 10, iPhone 4 on Verizon will be available to all qualified customers at Apple’s retail stores. iPhone 4 will also be available at more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless Communication Stores nationwide.

iPhone 4 is the most innovative phone in the world, featuring Apple’s stunning Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone resulting in super crisp text, images and video, and FaceTime®, which makes video calling a reality. iPhone 4 also features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip and a beautiful glass and stainless steel design like no other mobile phone. Verizon Wireless customers will also enjoy new Personal Hotspot capabilities allowing them to use iPhone 4 to connect up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Pricing & Availability
iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network will be available for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model with a new two year agreement. iPhone 4 will be available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 4 will also be available at more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless Communication Stores nationwide, online at www.verizonwireless.com/iphone, select retail partners, and by calling 1-800-2 JOIN IN.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Source: BGR