After years, yes, years of anticipation, Verizon has finally announced the iPhone 4, landing on your doorstep February 10 for $199 (and up) on contract. It has all the usual good stuff you’ve come to expect and love, like an exceptionally impressive 5 megapixel camera capable of HD video recording, an intensely sharp 3.5-inch 960 x 640 touchscreen, forward-facing camera for video chatting, and the usual stuff like Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, gyroscope, and proximity sensor. The style is sleek, with hard, polished glass on front and back, but the hardware isn’t without its problems – on AT&T, the antennae had some issues, but we’re hoping to see none of it on Verizon. It runs iOS 4, which includes stuff like folders, multitasking, Game Center, and the widest selection of apps available on a smartphone.
Given that people have been talking about an Apple handset on Verizon for eons now, thanks in no small part by a rumour mill fueled by even the flimsiest of murmurs, our crew have some thoughts on the announcement today.
Maybe it’s that I’m not much of an iPhone guy, or that I’m in Canada, where CDMA versus GSM has been a nonexistant debate for over a year now, but today’s Verizon iPhone 4 announcement has left me shrugging. If I was so full of self-loathing that I was willing to make myself put up with an infuriatingly terrible carrier for five years straight for the privilege of the best damned fart apps the world had to offer, yeah, I might be excited that I finally have an alternative. On the other hand, if my service provider was only mediocre, and that second carrier was just as likely to become mediocre as a result of the heavy load it had to carry for that fartphone, then the situation’s not really changing that much, is it? Maybe that’s just me.
The long national nightmare if finally over with the Verizon iPhone 4 but I’m still not tempted to buy in. First of all, I’m desperately tied in to Google Voice and the iOS experience isn’t anything close to what I get on Android. Additionally, I’ve promised myself that the next phone I buy has to have a dual-core processor, front-facing camera and 4G access, so the Verizon iPhone whiffs on two of those.
Still, this is a great day for iPhone fans who want their phones to actually have solid data and voice connections.
This is definitely the step in the right direction. Now that the iPhone isn’t being tied down to one network, there will be some healthy competition as to which carrier customers should choose if they want an iPhone 4. I’m not quite ready to jump ship from AT&T until I hear about the iPhone 4’s limitations on the Verizon network. Also, it might be too little too late for Verizon subscribers as there are a lot of people who have had a taste of Android and absolutely have no interest in the iPhone 4.
Will:
I’ve been using an AT&T iPhone since it launched in 2007. I’ve had the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and now the iPhone 4. Suffice it to say, I really like the iPhone. As for the Verizon variant, I think it’s awesome that it has the Mobile Hotspot feature that lets you use the Verizon iPhone 4 to bring glorious WiFi connectivity to you and four friends. I should note that I hacked that feature onto AT&T iPhone 4 some time ago. And, in exchange for more reliable wireless service from Big Red, you sacrifice the ability to use voice and data at the same time (except when on WiFi), which is a bit of a deal-breaker for me. Overall though, the Verizon iPhone 4 is just as good, if not better, than the AT&T iPhone 4. This is going to be a boon for Apple.
Since I’m living in Europe this announcement means very little to me, but knowing how nice it is to be able to depend on your mobile phone because the network it’s connected to is one of the best in the world, I somewhat have a sense about how Verizon customers who have been waiting for the iPhone feel about this announcement. Everyone is a winner too since the people who leave AT&T for Verizon will result in less strain on AT&T’s network for existing iPhone customers. I’ve only had an iPhone since the end of September, this is my first iPhone mind you, and while I’m not in love with it like many of my colleagues, I do understand why it has achieved the success it has.
Super-excited to finally be able to use an iPhone on a 3G network. I had an iPhone 4 on AT&T and recently sold it as I live in area with little to no AT&T coverage. Though I had AT&T for a short-time, Verizon was always my main carrier as I can get 3G almost everywhere I travel. I have used Android on Verizon since the DROID launched in 2009 and have recently jumped to the DROID X. Though I enjoy Android, I am looking for something different and the iPhone fits my needs perfectly. I will be first in line to scoop up a Verizon iPhone 4 when it becomes available in February.
But enough about us, what about you? Are you pumped for the Verizon iPhone 4?