Verizon iPhone cons

We were talking much about the Verizon iPhone 4 earlier,but this is a dedicated article which will help you decide on whether getting a Verizon iPhone is right?

The following are major cons that Verizon iPhone has,

Lack of simultaneous voice and data

This seemingly obvious feature will not be possible on the Verizon network. As a long time iPhone user and current AT&T customer, I can tell you that while I would love to have a chance to have the coverage that Verizon offers, the ability to put a call on speaker and browse the internet or search Google maps or perform a variety of other internet-related activities, far outweighs the occasional dropped calls that I experience on AT&T. And yes, I did say “occasional”. It seems that AT&T has gone a long way in fixing the dropped call issues and with my iPhone 4, I’m more apt to hang up a call by accident with my cheek than experience a dropped call due to the network.

ETF (Early Termination Fee)

Of course, my wife has already told me that she wants to go back to Verizon–she was a long time customer before I forced her to take an iPhone. However, if you’re an existing AT&T customer and want to jump to Verizon, you’ll have to pay the ETF (early termination fee). According to AT&T’s page on the subject, that’s going to run you $325, minus $10 for each full month of your Service Commitment that you completed. I haven’t done the math yet, but I can tell you that it’s going to cost a lot for me to move my wife and I over to Verizon, since we both have iPhone 4’s. Translation: not gonna happen.

Bugs

What do you get with the first iPhone to ship designed to work on CDMA? Bugs! Are you ready to enjoy a bug or two? I’m pretty sure there will be some CDMA-specific bugs introduced. Either some bugs related to handing off between data and voice or battery drainage. Regardless, when you ship a new product it’s buggy, unfortunately.

Speed

I’ve talked about issues with CDMA a couple of times already. I gave it its own area under Speed because I wanted to highlight that while Verizon may have a better coverage area, the speed of its data network is slower than AT&T’s. The iPhone 4 zips along on AT&T’s network, because of both the speed of the network, and the processor and memory on the iPhone. If you mess with that magical equation you get a sub-par experience. I have a feeling that early reports of the iPhone 4 on Verizon will be of a sub-par experience, especially in areas where AT&T has solid coverage.