T-Mobile Verizon or ?

[James Crivellone]

Yea but what about the iPhones battery life on cdma?

Anyone with an iphone can attest that the battery life sucks already.

Anyone with Verizon (any cdma carrier for that matter) can attest that their battery life sucks too.

Extended battery on my DroidX is excellent... Hell my IPhone 3GS on AT&T sucked without a battery pack on it

[z31maniac]

Yeah, the battery life on my EVO 4g is pretty weak, if you're actually using it.

But that is also down to people needing to have a "slim" device to brag about it's slimness. If people would buy phones that are just a touch heavier and thicker, the phone manufacturers could put a proper battery in the damn things.

[StereoInstaller1]

word. CDMA blows.

CDMA > EVERTHING else for voice calls.

GSM = Garbled Shitty Message

[rwh11385]

Why does CDMA blow?

1. Not being able to swap SIMs (this is a huge thing for me)
2. Not being able to use prepaid providers overseas
3. Only really good coverage in US and few other countries, GSM standard in Europe and a 4 band GSM will let you call mostly anywhere you'd ever want to go.
4. Europe / Japan usually have more cutting edge phone tech since US is mostly carrier driven versus elsewhere where phones companies compete more directly since some unlocking is common place and contracts aren't as big (prepaid) - and these cool phones won't work on CDMA
5. Having to choose between data and voice

you could always just pick up a cheap GSM phone for abroad, but I like being able to just pick up and go. plus my friend was MIA to the world because he spilled coffee on his phone and had to wait to change shit over. PITA. I got my tent soaked camping and just needed to remove battery and switch to one of my multiple phones lying around. A trip turned bad and didn't have a charger and needed to get hotel info from co-worker and with CDMA would have been screwed but with GSM just swapped to another phone and good to go. GSM gives you a whole lot more freedom as the user

[James Crivellone]

1. Not being able to swap SIMs (this is a huge thing for me)
2. Not being able to use prepaid providers overseas
3. Only really good coverage in US and few other countries, GSM standard in Europe and a 4 band GSM will let you call mostly anywhere you'd ever want to go.
4. Europe / Japan usually have more cutting edge phone tech since US is mostly carrier driven versus elsewhere where phones companies compete more directly since some unlocking is common place and contracts aren't as big (prepaid) - and these cool phones won't work on CDMA
5. Having to choose between data and voice

you could always just pick up a cheap GSM phone for abroad, but I like being able to just pick up and go. plus my friend was MIA to the world because he spilled coffee on his phone and had to wait to change shit over. PITA. I got my tent soaked camping and just needed to remove battery and switch to one of my multiple phones lying around. A trip turned bad and didn't have a charger and needed to get hotel info from co-worker and with CDMA would have been screwed but with GSM just swapped to another phone and good to go. GSM gives you a whole lot more freedom as the user

You can do the same thing with CDMA phones when it comes to swapping, just carry a spare and do a quick ESN change over the phone, I've done it in less then a minute before (assuming you call straight into provisioning)

LTE will finally solve the data/voice at the same time issue, but to be honest when I had it with AT&T I never really cared, although that was probably because I had my phone locked to Edge so I could take a call that lasted more then 120 seconds

Everything else can be solved (as you said) by a cheap GSM phone

[z31maniac]

1. I guess if you're always switching phones, which most people don't do.
5. Never needed to be on the internet and talk to someone at the same time.

And all the others relate to being overseas.


So, basically CDMA/GSM, doesn't matter for 99.9% of the population

[Ryan Stewart]

If youre wanting to save some money Sprint referral plans are great but their phone selection is slim. Both the girlfriend and I are on a shared unlimited plan with two Evos for $141 a month after taxes and such.

word. CDMA blows.

People are soon going to realize how slow Verizon's network is after the iPhones are released. Pre-orders broke the sales record in two hours this morning.

Even ATT's 3G bandwidth is higher than Verizon's LTE.

Data use with the glut of android users on VZWs network is damn near what the iphoners have been using because there are a shit ton of them and they actually use more data per phone.

And the way CDMA is setup the data wont impact the calling network and its easier to roll up, if needed and is vastly superior to GSM in changing towers, its far less likely to drop a call because of it.

[rwh11385]

You can do the same thing with CDMA phones when it comes to swapping, just carry a spare and do a quick ESN change over the phone, I've done it in less then a minute before (assuming you call straight into provisioning)

Does your former phone need to be functional?

1. I guess if you're always switching phones, which most people don't do.
5. Never needed to be on the internet and talk to someone at the same time.

And all the others relate to being overseas.


So, basically CDMA/GSM, doesn't matter for 99.9% of the population

I guess if you never leave the US, never text back a friend while on the phone with your girl, never bought an unlocked phone people don't get here, and never had the comfort of using a SIM card, then I guess you wouldn't see the benefit, no.

[z31maniac]

Like I said, 99.9% of the population.

[Ryan Stewart]

Does your former phone need to be functional?

No, and I dont think you even have to call anymore. I can login to my account on the website and activate/deactivate phones at will just by punching in their serial number.

As for SIM/VS CDMA. Well there are actually CDMA Sims, my blackberry had one. Useless to me though as phones are typically locked and i wouldnt dream of keeping any contacts or anything on the sim (gmail sync is far superior for that). And for traveling abroad; yes, I could activate my SIM to travel abroad. Of course that is is you want to get anally violated by your carrier. The cheaper option is to just pick up a prepaid when in your destination market and put your US phone in wifi-only mode. Use the prepaid for locals calls and Skype/Gvoice for calling home.

[rwh11385]

No, and I dont think you even have to call anymore. I can login to my account on the website and activate/deactivate phones at will just by punching in their serial number.

As for SIM/VS CDMA. Well there are actually CDMA Sims, my blackberry had one. Useless to me though as phones are typically locked and i wouldnt dream of keeping any contacts or anything on the sim (gmail sync is far superior for that). And for traveling abroad; yes, I could activate my SIM to travel abroad. Of course that is is you want to get anally violated by your carrier. The cheaper option is to just pick up a prepaid when in your destination market and put your US phone in wifi-only mode. Use the prepaid for locals calls and Skype/Gvoice for calling home.

That's good. Most people I know are completely screwed until they get to verizon store, but I guess that's why they still make a lot of money off of 99.9% of the population who also needs them to transfer data/contacts over too.

Yea there's some makers who put in ID registry units which does have the benefit there but not mainsteam yet. Also companies just say F it and have CDMA/GSM phones - which effectively creates the end of the argument as you have access to both. (As long as they can be unlocked and a prepaid SIM slipped in.)

There was something about locking off the other radio within the US to make the FCC happy, but if phone manufacturers install both and they can be unlocked, then it might open things up and potential to put more options for consumers and less re-making of phones for different carriers... Be loyal to a phone manufacturer (incentive to innovate) and more flexible on carrier (incentive to deliver quality), rather than back a few years ago and some carrier choices were dominated by phone selection.

[etxxz]

verizon launch the iphone 4 today..

[scabzzzz]

Does your former phone need to be functional?



I guess if you never leave the US, never text back a friend while on the phone with your girl, never bought an unlocked phone people don't get here, and never had the comfort of using a SIM card, then I guess you wouldn't see the benefit, no.

Those are not exactly selling points Heeter. All of your points you're making with this are mostly opinion :)

[rwh11385]

Those are not exactly selling points Heeter. All of your points you're making with this are mostly opinion :)

How so?

It's a fact that Europe has GSM as its standard.
It's historic that Asia, then Europe had the newer phones, with Verizon being last as companies had to convert to CDMA from GSM that the entire rest of the world uses.
It was a fact that CDMA phones could not quickly swap subscriber information, although maybe not some are able to.
It is a fact that it is very simple to unlock and use a prepaid SIM in a GSM phone abroad.
It is a fact that before LTE can supposedly can do it, one could not text and talk at the same time on a CDMA phone.

Buddy's opinion is that none of those things apply to him, but they are still selling points to some, especially those like Ken and I which value said items. It's not an opinion that these facts are unique to GSM, or at least were in some cases.

[danny4nasty]

Yea but what about the iPhones battery life on cdma?

Anyone with an iphone can attest that the battery life sucks already.

Anyone with Verizon (any cdma carrier for that matter) can attest that their battery life sucks too.

I fixed the battery life on my iphone with this Mophie case. I get a lil over 2 days with my iphone with it after the battery reaches about 30% I flip the switch on the bottom of the case and it charges the phone. Also it makes the tiny iphone fit better in my big hands and with this case I'm able to charge the iphone with the mini usb port on it. Which every other smart phone has these days.