Get an iPhone now or wait for Verizon??

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Here are few questions I have since the wife and I want to get iPhones.

1.) Should we wait for the Verizon version...we have Verizon now so no hassle in switching (not under contract) but not sold out on Verizon either.

2.) Iphone 4 vs 3GS? Is Facetime, retina display, and more memory the only difference between the two?

3.) Is AT&T moveing to 4G anytime soon?

Thanks for your advice!
Eric
 

Raz0rEdge

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1) There has been NO concrete information on when/if the iPhone is coming to Verizon. Your wait might be forever
2) Definitely iPhone 4, since it's a newer hardware with more capabilities and the newer versions of iOS will continue to use it as a baseline. If you do buy the 3GS now, it's already a year+ old and will soon be obsoleted by iOS like my 3G is rapidly becoming
3) No clue..

Regards
 
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you might as well wait. if you go to ATT now and Verizon launches the iPhone in the early part of 2011, the you will be stuck with ATT until your contract is up, or pay the early termination fee, then buy the phone all over again on Verizon.

Yes ATT is installing 4G now (LTE) just like everyone else, just not as fast as Verizon. Right now not even Sprint who launched the first US 4G network, can support many customers on 4G. Verizon claims to have 4G available in 30 cities by the end of the year 2010. ATT has not released how many cities it will have 4G coverage by end of 2010, it might be end of 1st quarter 2011 before ATT announces anyting
 
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Here is my take on it. The fact is the iphone is a huge thing for AT&T. Because the contract is running out someone started a rumor that Apple was buying CDMA technology which would be a Verizon version. I've read that this has been denounced. I'm not sure. Either way I don't buy it fully. For one AT&T is going to pay WHATEVER it takes to keep Apple with them. They do not want it going to Verizon. I mean it could happen. I just don't see it happening. There is no announcement and I think that's because the lawyers are writing up contracts and they are figuring it all out. But when it comes down to it I highly doubt the iphone is going anywhere.

I have both Verizon and AT&T. I have a Droid Incredible on Verizon and an Iphone4 on AT&T. Depending on where you live will be how well they work. But I know not just where I live, anywhere I travel, even the smallest most rural areas I ALWAYS have 3G service on Verizon. It seems to only happen in bigger cities on AT&T. Luckily I now live in a bigger city. But anytime I go out of the city to anywhere else, no 3G. I have to use Verizon until i'm on a wifi network. I don't know if this matters to you or not.

Verizon still has unlimited internet also. Meaning I can plug it in my car stereo and stream internet radio or what have you as long as I want. I can watch HD youtube videos over the 3G network. AT&T will not let me do that. I can only watch HD when on wifi. That's to keep the data down.

The 2 GB limit is okay for me though with AT&T because I don't go over that anyway. So, that's not really an issue.

I love both phones and if I had to choose it would be hard. I would have to chose my Droid because of the fact that I have 3G everywhere and full flash on the browser. But that being said, I LOVE my iphone. It's one of my favorite gadgets and I'm glad I own it. It's a very nice phone. Very simple too. Very fast. And the screen, amazing.

Definitely go for the iphone 4 and not the 3GS. The screen ALONE is worth it. I went with the 200 dollars 16GB version because that's all I need. If I need more I don't mind clearing out some stuff to add other stuff. I've never used nowhere near the 16GB card that's in my droid either.

I'd check to see if 3G is in your area and if it is and you're okay with it not being 3G when you travel as much as Verizon is then go for it. I know some will argue, again, it depends on where you live. BUT I'm speaking in general terms here. I think in general it's just that way. Verizon has 3G everywhere I go. AT&T does not. But of course there are places where Verizon don't even work in the country. And those people might be screaming at the computer, "I get full AT&T service and Verizon service nowhere!" So again, generally speaking. Not just for me but for most of America this is the case.

But AT&T has surprised me with the iphone 4 because I had AT&T in the past and got crap service and with the iphone 4 even when I'm not in a 3G area I at least get good service other wise. I always keep the wifi on when I'm at my destination anyway.

AT&T is moving to 4G as well as all of the major companies. It's a slow process but a process that has already begun.

You get to try it out for 30 days for free. If you don't like it, you get your money back and no cancelation fee. If I were you I would not cancel Verizon until you try it out for 30 days. If you want your number ported you can still do it after the 30 days and they will port your Verizon number.

Keep us updated on your decision. When I got my iphone 4 I thought about saving money and canceling Verizon but after using it for a while I just wasn't willing to cancel Verizon. All in all Verizon just seems to be better in my experience. The iphone is my business phone btw. And I'd say for the most part I'm satisfied.
 
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I live in Kansas City and talking with friends and family they have no complaints about their AT&T service, and I would say the same about Verizon. I don't travel for work or during free time so I can't say that not having 3G in certain places wouldn't be an issue for me. We do have wifi at the house and at both of our work places, so that can be used as a back up. Honestly, I pay around 85 (with a company discount) a month for my Verizon service now and all that includes is voice...no data or messaging, so I feel that I pay a lot for nothing. Currently it's just my wife and I on our plan since we have little kiddos, so 2GB a month would be plenty for us.

I have looked at Verizon's line up of smart phones and the Droid X would be the one that interest me the most, but being a fan of Apples hardware it's hard to pass on an iPhone. However, that brings up another question of can an iPhone use a shared calendar, email, photos, etc without utilizing a .Me acct? I've read Android phones fully support Google products which allows all those features. I realize they each have their own pro's and con's and I would have to weigh those out personally. If I do decide to get an iPhone I'm defiantly leaning more toward the iPhone 4, since I could easily fill up 8gb quickly. Plus them more I think about the more I say if I'm going to spend that kind of money on phones.....what's another $100 for updated hardware.

Do you really sit and watch YouTube videos on your phone? Maybe this sounds weird to me since all I have now is a piece of crap phone, and once something else is in my hand I will have a different opinion on that. Again, we don't even text now so this will be an eye opening experience from all side of the smart phone spectrum. Yes, we do get made fun of by our family and friends for not having these features on our wireless plan too.
 
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Do you really sit and watch YouTube videos on your phone? Maybe this sounds weird to me since all I have now is a piece of crap phone, and once something else is in my hand I will have a different opinion on that. Again, we don't even text now so this will be an eye opening experience from all side of the smart phone spectrum. Yes, we do get made fun of by our family and friends for not having these features on our wireless plan too.

Do I have a need to surf youtube or play a heap of games or other such things on the run? No. That does not make these iphone features bad. Just mean they are not for me. And suddenly having them available won't make me go "wow I'll surf youtube all day". I'd probably watch it once or twice then forget about it.

My point is just having the phone will not revolutionise your life. You'll need to find a purpose. Like why should I buy the iphone. And just cause I can is not really an answer. I'd really like an iphone. But would I ever use all it's features? Would I be able to justify the cost? Probably not.

This is directed at the above poster mostly. Most people want the iphone. But most people don't need the iphone. And for the iphone price heck I'd want to be needing it like I need food and my best friend.

******************

And to the original poster. Verizon's iphone deal if it ever comes mine be better than AT&T. It might be worse too. But if you do not wait. You will have the phone now. But you will not have the choice to choose the better deal.
 
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I would strongly recommend you to buy the iPhone 4 instead of the 3Gs, regardless if you go to AT&T or Verizon. FaceTime and Retina Display are not the only new features, the new iPhone's camera has way more quality, its battery has been improved and the msot important, it has much more capacity with its A4 processor which will enable you to support all new iOS firmwares with no lagg or debugs.
 
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I live in Kansas City and talking with friends and family they have no complaints about their AT&T service, and I would say the same about Verizon. I don't travel for work or during free time so I can't say that not having 3G in certain places wouldn't be an issue for me. We do have wifi at the house and at both of our work places, so that can be used as a back up. Honestly, I pay around 85 (with a company discount) a month for my Verizon service now and all that includes is voice...no data or messaging, so I feel that I pay a lot for nothing. Currently it's just my wife and I on our plan since we have little kiddos, so 2GB a month would be plenty for us.

I have looked at Verizon's line up of smart phones and the Droid X would be the one that interest me the most, but being a fan of Apples hardware it's hard to pass on an iPhone. However, that brings up another question of can an iPhone use a shared calendar, email, photos, etc without utilizing a .Me acct? I've read Android phones fully support Google products which allows all those features. I realize they each have their own pro's and con's and I would have to weigh those out personally. If I do decide to get an iPhone I'm defiantly leaning more toward the iPhone 4, since I could easily fill up 8gb quickly. Plus them more I think about the more I say if I'm going to spend that kind of money on phones.....what's another $100 for updated hardware.

Do you really sit and watch YouTube videos on your phone? Maybe this sounds weird to me since all I have now is a piece of crap phone, and once something else is in my hand I will have a different opinion on that. Again, we don't even text now so this will be an eye opening experience from all side of the smart phone spectrum. Yes, we do get made fun of by our family and friends for not having these features on our wireless plan too.

The iphone has full support like android does for gmail. It has other mail services also. The only mail that is pushed on android is gmail. It also available for push on the iphone.

Yes I do watch youtube videos on my phone. In a lot of situations. For one while I'm driving I will plug it into my stereo and I might listen to clips of a radio show I like on youtube or go to a song on youtube and listen. There are a lot of situations where I'm showing people a video on youtube with my phone. There are a lot of situations where I will be somewhere and will watch youtube when I'm not around a computer. I subscribe and keep up with a lot of vlogs and other things on youtube. So yes, it is a very important part of it for me. Most of the time I have to watch on my android because again, Verizon has the 3G everywhere I go. Also it lets me watch them in high quality without being on wifi.

The droid X I like but the screen size is big. I have the HTC droid incredible which has almost the same spec's as the droid x. The speed is the same they both have 1ghz processors and lots of memory. But I did have to buy extended batteries for my HTC but for me I have to pretty much have those with any android device. Because it is not like the iphone. Applications don't close. They close when the operating system feels it needs to. Task killers don't really work on the new 2.2 android os either.

Full flash on the android is a big deal. Not just for watching any youtube video that's available on a PC but seeing all the content on a website. Playing any game you could on the computer. Not having any limitation when it comes to the browser. It's literally like having the same thing you have on your computer in your pocket. Where as the iphone isn't quite there yet.

Still, like I said, I'm not biased this is just a few things I use the android over the iphone with. The android has better predictive text also and it knows what you're going to say and I make less mistakes. It comes stock with voice to text and voice to search. The navigation and how well the browser works with maps is beyond the iphone.

Still, the iphone 4 is great. And I'm just talking about things I do with my android that I don't with my iphone. I still love my iphone 4. When it comes to video and mp3's I use my iphone. When it comes to taking a picture I use my iphone. My android has a higher mega-pixel camera but I prefer the way the iphone pictures look. My iphone also plugs in via USB to the stereo system in my truck. It charges the iphone at the same time that it will allow me to play the mp3's on my iphone. And I can scroll through them and select what album I want all on my car stereo and not on the iphone.

The iphone screen is simply amazing. That alone is a big deal to me and every time I look at it I'm stunned. I have the HD version of Iron Man 2 on my iphone and it looks amazing.

There are more free apps that you will probably use on the android market place. Although there is a good selection of free ones on the itunes app store too. I have paid for a few apps on my iphone 4. I've never found one I had a reason to pay for on android. But android is open source so you have to scroll through a lot you don't want to to find something you do want. On the iphone it's not like that. Right now apps are about the same. The iphone technically has more apps but as far as any app you're gonna want and need it's probably on both platforms. With the exception of very few you'll find.

I paid 9.99 for the prizmo app on the iphone 4. If you don't know what that is then google it. It's an amazing feature to have on the iphone.

Personalization, not so much on the iphone where as it is on the android. The android focuses on using widgets more than the iphone also. The android has a more true multi tasking experience but I haven't seen this to be much different and I like that on my iphone I can actually close an app.

One thing that bugs me bad about the iphone, if watching a video and I get a text message the video is paused and I am alerted in the middle of the screen. If I am writing an email or text message the big blue box shows up in the middle of the screen telling me I have a text and what it says. On Android this is kept at the very top in a notification bar. It doesn't pause anything and doesn't bother you. You can still see what it says by looking at that bar. But if you have a lot of people texting you at once this can be really annoying on the iphone. Which is one of the main reasons I still use my Verizon phone as my personal phone. If I'm doing something on my iphone I don't want something interrupting it all the time. If they would change this it would be huge to me. Seems like a small thing but it's not.

The iphone looks and feels better than any phone I've had. It's built well. Like anything apple makes. It has glass on both sides. I keep a screen protector on so the screen won't scratch. I buy the ones that you cannot see so it doesn't affect how the screen looks and you can't really feel them either. I don't have one on the back so the back has a few very small dings. I don't use a case because it takes away the looks I like of the iphone and the overall feel and makes it thicker. Plus I use an iphone 4 dock which I can't use with a case. I do have a pouch like case for putting it on my book bag or putting it in my pocket but nothing that stays on.

Over all it's just a few little things that you will have to decide on. If I had to pick one, as much as I LOVE my iphone I would have no choice but to pick the android because it's on verizon and it simply does everything. But it would be hard to let the iphone go. Very hard!

Basically, google took the iphone and copied it and tried to make it better with android. And apple falls victim to this over and over. Just like with the ipad. The Android and blackberry pads coming out will do flash and other things the ipad won't do. They always limit themselves. Some of it is a good thing and keeps it safer but things like flash are an essential part of browsing the web and it needs to be put in there. Especially on the ipad where people are browsing regular PC websites mostly.

I have had widgets and apps fail multiple times and had to uninstall and re download them on android. It hasn't happened yet on the iphone. Sort of like a mac vs pc. But I have had to restart my iphone to get it to connect with my radio and some other things.

Again, about the dock, they are 30 bucks but that is my favorite accessory. You can see to type something from it. It has a good audio out port if you wanted to listen to your music or music from an app that has music or music from the internet. It's easy to put it on there and charge with one hand after use.

Some of these things you didn't ask about but seeing as the iphone is a prospect as your future phone I wanted to mention some of the things I do with it. I think you'll be satisfied but I just can't really compare AT&T's service to Verizon's. Even in places that have full bars on both Verizon just seems to always have the advantage. But you might find it to not be a huge issue.

And oh yeah, you'll have roll over minutes! And I agree the 2GB data limit is enough. It's enough for me. But for some people I've read about on forums it's not. Perhaps people without a computer or internet at home that are only using their phones it wouldn't be. I only used 30MB and I get 2000 MB a month and the other person I have on the plan only used 50. Because we keep the wifi on when in the house. I'm sure I would have used a lot more if I didn't have the Verizon phone though.
 

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