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

Finally, the rumors are over! Proof is here and thankfully we don’t have to wonder anymore. Apple and Verizon have confirmed today that the iPhone is coming to Big Red. Verizon CEO Lowell Mcadam was the one who confirmed that a CDMA (non-LTE) version of the iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon Wireless next month, expect it by February 10, 2011.

Remember when we wrote an article way back when saying that there were some of our Verizon Representatives “testing” the iPhone? Well that was true! In fact, Engadget even mentions they knew of this testing as well which started back in 2008. Now you ask why did they test it for so long? They don’t want the network to be unprepared. Simple as that. AT&T says that Verizon can’t handle it, we will see!

The phone will officially be launching on February 10th for the standard $200 price for the 16GB model on a two year agreement. Also available for $300 will be the 32GB version. It will be a Verizon 3G (EV-DO) only, no 4G data or GSM roaming. Also announced was that it’s only a CDMA device, not a world edition.

What’s interesting and what a lot of people argued was that this phone will be completely mocked up for Verizon only. Some said there will be so many changes made that it will not even be like an iPhone. Well, that’s wrong! According to the announcement today, the phone is basically unchanged, although Verizon’s CDMA network doesn’t support simultaneous voice and data as with the GSM version. Engadget states that it does have the new antenna design but that’s just because CMDA requires a different configuration of antennas.

Now you ask why aren’t we getting an LTE iPhone? Apple says they didn’t go LTE just yet because they need more time basically to have a great design. This is just a sign that the LTE iPhone for Verizon may be in the works now. They went on and released the CDMA now because so many people are desperate to have a Verizon iPhone now.

Were not sure if there is a fee for this, but Verizon and Apple also revealed that the new CDMA iPhone 4 will act as a mobile WiFi connection for up to five devices. It’ll come with an iOS-specific version of the Verizon 3G Mobile Hotspot allowing laptops and more to go wireless via your iPhone.

To sum it all up, basically we have an iPhone 4 almost identical to AT&T’s iPhone, only big red put it on the CDMA network with a few tweaks to make it work. Does that sound like what it is to you? It does to me? Who’s going to get one of these or will you wait for the LTE version they seem to be thinking about? I want to know what you think and what your plans are if you are making a move!

Source: Engadget