Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

AT&T’s iPhone 4S is Tops for Web Browsing, Verizon’s for Hanging Onto Calls

Although Apple ships the same iPhone 4S devices to Sprint, Verizon and AT&T, their performance and features differ once they are configured for each network.

On AT&T’s network, for example, the iPhone can talk and surf at the same time — a feature not supported on Verizon and Sprint’s CDMA networks. Other factors, like call quality and service levels, also differ by network.

As for which is best at what, a new study from Metrico Wireless confirms conventional wisdom.

On the data side, the iPhone 4S is fastest on AT&T, in part because Apple supports AT&T’s HSPA+ network, but does not include support for either Verizon’s 4G LTE network or Sprint’s WiMax-based 4G network.

When it comes to making (and then not dropping) calls, Metrico said that Verizon performed best, edging out Sprint and AT&T. Then again, Sprint is the only one still offering unlimited data. So it really comes down to what attributes one is looking for in their iPhone.

As for whether black iPhones are better than white ones, that will have to wait for another day.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

When AllThingsD began, we told readers we were aiming to present a fusion of new-media timeliness and energy with old-media standards for quality and ethics. And we hope you agree that we’ve done that.

— Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, in their farewell D post