On the road with the Verizon iPhone 4S
4S iPhone on Verizon offered a good balance between call quality and transmission speed while traveling in California.
Q: What is important, poor quality and transmission speed? I let my bias first: The Web runs on 3G is really important to me. On any device. Whether it's a MacBook connected to a hot spot MiFi, a 3G iPhone 2 or iPhone. That said, it is important enough to justify the expense of poor quality?
This week I have spent much of my time keeping an eye on network performance of my new Verizon iPhone 4S during the trip between the suburbs northeast of Los Angeles (Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks), Los Angeles (Beverly Hills, Burbank), and Silicon Valley (eg, Sunnyvale, Woodside). But that does not mean I do not want a strong voice connection when I press a long conversation.
Here are some brief impressions of the Verizon iPhone 4S.
Experience versus benchmarks: I benchmarked using Speedtest.net, my 4S everywhere. I'm not cite any case difficult to test because they do not differ enough from place to place on Verizon.
Actually, I reiterate the sentiments expressed here in a recent write up on CNET 4S data rates. Verizon is whether something remarkably consistent. (The message said that Verizon was the "most consistent" and gives many hard numbers in San Francisco 4S iPhone on Verizon, AT & T and Sprint.)
During my travels, the download speeds are normally no longer than 1 or 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps). And the upload speeds are usually half or less. Remember this was just my experience and speed may vary at locations only a few hundred meters from each other, sometimes at different times of day.
How this information quickly translated into real-world experience for me? Web connection is almost always felt snappy for large news sites, video streaming and social networking sites.
And Verizon considered "slow" compared with AT & T, especially considering the latest HSPA + crossover, which is roughly somewhere between 3G and 4G (LTE) speeds.
The lesson? Speed tests are useful, but not the bottom line. This thread on MacRumors I think my experience is representative. While AT & T benchmarks consistently much better than Verizon does not always translate into a superior experience.
Dead Zones: Dead zones, I found, is generally less than Verizon for AT & T. In areas where I am often in a suburb of Los Angeles (mostly northeast of Los Angeles), connecting to both my AT & T iPhone 3G (which I upgraded) and my first-generation 3G iPhone AT & T fell six meters in certain places. Granted, these were only very select locations, but my work in this 4S Verizon AT & T cemeteries.
Call quality: Needless to say, this is of utmost importance to many people. A mobile phone with high data rates, but crappy sound quality can be a deal breaker. Verizon did its reputation for superior sound quality on my travels in relation to my former AT & T (iPhone 3G) experience - which had been very frustrating at times. I often (and I mean many) had to call AT & T end because it was either lost, or voice quality was poor. (I have solved this problem in my office by installing a fixed line.)
And when I call on my AT & T iPhone 3G to humans, for example, an AT & T iPhone 4 conversations were sometimes impossible. Person on the other side: "Check it out ... HP Ultra upcoming book ... and will ... ... ... thick doors." Me: "What What What Hey, call my landline" It's a bit dramatized, but not much.
Simultaneous voice and data: It is something that Verizon does not have a 3G. I had it on my AT & T iPhone 3G and it is missed. But it's not something I spent a lot, sometimes it was of crucial importance. For example,. If I had a long conference call and needed to use the Web (And yes, you can round it to a Verizon 4S using Skype).
Note that if you have a Wi-Fi connectivity, simultaneous voice and data as possible Verizon iPhone.
Battery life: I know there was a lot of noise this week about the battery life on 4S. I found the battery life will be worse for my 3G, but not I-want-me-back-3G worse. Depending on how I use 4S, it shaves about an hour of battery life. It is a very unscientific statement, but it is what I see based on the use of, say, a week time.
Let me be clear on one thing however. So far I have not run out of juice during the day (which seems to be the most serious complaints about battery life 4S). But it's always a good idea to shut down programs running in the background (by tapping the iPhone is hard button twice), and make sure "Location Services" in running institutions, including the more obvious tweaks, such as brightness screen.
Verdict: Very good, some bad. Voice is great and very satisfying Web experience. In short, there is not really complain about anything. But the idea that I can not voice and data simultaneously, constantly needling me. Not all the rave reviews that mention how AT & T, Verizon 4S data speeds blowing from the water. Hmmm ... I'm still in my 30-day return window. Voice data is trump? Would I really see - in day-to-day, real-world use - a big leap in data rates as I switched back to AT & T? I'm not so sure, but I ask myself these questions.
Q: What is important, poor quality and transmission speed? I let my bias first: The Web runs on 3G is really important to me. On any device. Whether it's a MacBook connected to a hot spot MiFi, a 3G iPhone 2 or iPhone. That said, it is important enough to justify the expense of poor quality?
This week I have spent much of my time keeping an eye on network performance of my new Verizon iPhone 4S during the trip between the suburbs northeast of Los Angeles (Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks), Los Angeles (Beverly Hills, Burbank), and Silicon Valley (eg, Sunnyvale, Woodside). But that does not mean I do not want a strong voice connection when I press a long conversation.
Here are some brief impressions of the Verizon iPhone 4S.
Experience versus benchmarks: I benchmarked using Speedtest.net, my 4S everywhere. I'm not cite any case difficult to test because they do not differ enough from place to place on Verizon.
Actually, I reiterate the sentiments expressed here in a recent write up on CNET 4S data rates. Verizon is whether something remarkably consistent. (The message said that Verizon was the "most consistent" and gives many hard numbers in San Francisco 4S iPhone on Verizon, AT & T and Sprint.)
During my travels, the download speeds are normally no longer than 1 or 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps). And the upload speeds are usually half or less. Remember this was just my experience and speed may vary at locations only a few hundred meters from each other, sometimes at different times of day.
How this information quickly translated into real-world experience for me? Web connection is almost always felt snappy for large news sites, video streaming and social networking sites.
And Verizon considered "slow" compared with AT & T, especially considering the latest HSPA + crossover, which is roughly somewhere between 3G and 4G (LTE) speeds.
The lesson? Speed tests are useful, but not the bottom line. This thread on MacRumors I think my experience is representative. While AT & T benchmarks consistently much better than Verizon does not always translate into a superior experience.
Dead Zones: Dead zones, I found, is generally less than Verizon for AT & T. In areas where I am often in a suburb of Los Angeles (mostly northeast of Los Angeles), connecting to both my AT & T iPhone 3G (which I upgraded) and my first-generation 3G iPhone AT & T fell six meters in certain places. Granted, these were only very select locations, but my work in this 4S Verizon AT & T cemeteries.
Call quality: Needless to say, this is of utmost importance to many people. A mobile phone with high data rates, but crappy sound quality can be a deal breaker. Verizon did its reputation for superior sound quality on my travels in relation to my former AT & T (iPhone 3G) experience - which had been very frustrating at times. I often (and I mean many) had to call AT & T end because it was either lost, or voice quality was poor. (I have solved this problem in my office by installing a fixed line.)
And when I call on my AT & T iPhone 3G to humans, for example, an AT & T iPhone 4 conversations were sometimes impossible. Person on the other side: "Check it out ... HP Ultra upcoming book ... and will ... ... ... thick doors." Me: "What What What Hey, call my landline" It's a bit dramatized, but not much.
Simultaneous voice and data: It is something that Verizon does not have a 3G. I had it on my AT & T iPhone 3G and it is missed. But it's not something I spent a lot, sometimes it was of crucial importance. For example,. If I had a long conference call and needed to use the Web (And yes, you can round it to a Verizon 4S using Skype).
Note that if you have a Wi-Fi connectivity, simultaneous voice and data as possible Verizon iPhone.
Battery life: I know there was a lot of noise this week about the battery life on 4S. I found the battery life will be worse for my 3G, but not I-want-me-back-3G worse. Depending on how I use 4S, it shaves about an hour of battery life. It is a very unscientific statement, but it is what I see based on the use of, say, a week time.
Let me be clear on one thing however. So far I have not run out of juice during the day (which seems to be the most serious complaints about battery life 4S). But it's always a good idea to shut down programs running in the background (by tapping the iPhone is hard button twice), and make sure "Location Services" in running institutions, including the more obvious tweaks, such as brightness screen.
Verdict: Very good, some bad. Voice is great and very satisfying Web experience. In short, there is not really complain about anything. But the idea that I can not voice and data simultaneously, constantly needling me. Not all the rave reviews that mention how AT & T, Verizon 4S data speeds blowing from the water. Hmmm ... I'm still in my 30-day return window. Voice data is trump? Would I really see - in day-to-day, real-world use - a big leap in data rates as I switched back to AT & T? I'm not so sure, but I ask myself these questions.
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