Consumer Reports offers scathing critique on Verizon iPhone 4

Apple Insider ^ | January 14, 2011 | Daniel Eran Dilger

[Swordmaker]

While awarding Apple's iPhone 4 its highest ratings across the board last summer, Consumer Reports is now warning users to wait, calling it "middle aged" and doubting whether Verizon will offer the unlimited data contracts it is said it would.

In a blog posting, Paul Reynolds and Mike Gikas write that the Verizon iPhone 4 is "promising, but likely to be short-lived," saying that "it may be quickly replaced by a newer, cooler version more quickly than is customary even for the die-young life expectancy of most smart phones."

Apple has historically rolled out a new iPhone model once each year, making the Verizon iPhone 4 a mid-year carrier expansion, not a new phone release. However, most observers expect Apple to release iPhone 5 as an update for GSM/UMTS carriers this summer, rather than aiming at replacing what will be the less than six-month old iPhone 4 on Verizon.

When Apple dramatically lowered the price of the original iPhone within months of its release, it gave customers a refund in the form of a store credit, something that's nearly unheard of in the fast moving world of technology products.

Other smartphone makers release new models every few months, with Motorola, for example, releasing the Droid X just months after its original Droid launched, then following up with the Droid Pro and Droid 2 models within another six months. Consumer Reports does not warn users not to buy Motorola's Droid phones because a new model will be released within six months, making its warnings about Verizon's iPhone 4 seem inconsistent.

To 4G, or not to 4G?

The blog posting also criticized Verizon's iPhone 4 offering as being 3G "at a time when carriers—Verizon among them—have launched faster 4G networks and phones that work on them." However, while Verizon began rolling out its new "4G" LTE data network in December, it doesn't offer widespread coverage and isn't yet usable for voice calls.

Additionally, the 4G phones Verizon showed at CES earlier this month aren't yet available and won't be "launched" until the middle of 2011. If Consumer Reports is worried about iPhone 4 being refreshed, it should also be warning all Verizon users to hold off buying phones because of the new batch of LTE models being offered within six months.

If it starts doing that, it can continue to warn users to never buy a new smartphone because Motorola, Samsung and HTC will continue to release new and improved models every few months.

Inventing issues for iPhone 4

Similarly, the posting complains that iPhone 4 on Verizon suffers from "CDMA's shortcomings," including an inability to use voice and data simultaneously and the lack of a global roaming option, without similarly warning that every phone on Verizon and Sprint has the same characteristics.

Also highlighted as a strike against iPhone 4 is its 3.5 inch screen, "in an era where the number of smart phones with 4 inch-plus screens has swelled." In reality, Verizon only offers two Android models with 4 inch or larger screens, the Droid X and Samsung Fascinate, although the Droid 2 is in the middle at 3.7 inches.

Verizon's Droid Pro is actually smaller at just 3.1 inches, with a much lower 480x320 resolution. And of course, all of the large-screen smartphones offer far lower pixel density than iPhone 4 because they offer lower resolutions on a bigger panel.

Among Verizon's mass market Android models, only one is slightly larger than iPhone 4: the HTC Droid Incredible, with a 3.7 inch screen. Other models all offer smaller screens ranging from 3 inches to 3.4 inches, and again offer lower pixel counts, some with only a quarter of the pixels of iPhone 4's Retina Display.

Question marks against iPhone 4

The group also said it expects "Verizon will use the phone's launch to make its promised switch from unlimited data plans to the tiered or metered plans now used by AT&T," prevening iPhone 4 users from signing up on its unlimited data contracts.

Verizon says in its iPhone 4 FAQ that "iPhone customers will need to choose from any of the current Nationwide plans. Customers will also be required to activate a data package, pricing will be announced at a later date," suggesting that the carrier is still in the process of determining whether it should charge iPhone 4 users more for the same service, or restrict them from buying unlimited contracts.

"That may not necessarily mean higher costs for data than with an unlimited plan," the group wrote. "The AT&T metered plans actually lowered bills for many users, according to our analysis."

It also worried whether Verizon would be able to handle the influx of new iPhone users, claiming that "some iPhone owners are data hogs, with consumption that's significantly above owners of many other smart phones." According to Verizon however, Android users actually use more data on average than iPhone users on AT&T.

Verizon iPhone for fanboys only

In language uncharacteristic of the normally objective-sounding Consumer Reports advice, even when concerning products like cars and cameras where buyers might have strong affiliations with a given brand, the posting described potential Verizon iPhone 4 adopters as "breathless" fanatics who were spendthrift and ignorant "addicts."

"You may want snap up this new offering if you've been waiting breathlessly for the iPhone to come to Verizon and don't much care about 4G speed, a bigger screen, or other features found on current cutting-edge phones," wrote Reynolds and Gikas. "Or if you're prepared to pay an early termination fee to trade in the Verizon iPhone 4 for its successor when it appears.

"The less iPhone-addicted consumer, on the other hand, may want to hold off for a newer version of the iPhone before even considering whether to buy one," the report concluded.

Consumer Reports Antennagate waffling

The magazine's increasingly apparent lack of objectivity in smartphones began when the group embroiled itself in the Antennagate "controversy" last July.

After first writing that significant signal attenuation issues could not be scientifically observed, were not unique to the new phone, and concluding that there's "no reason not to buy iPhone 4" despite the rumors about its antenna problems then being floated by Gizmodo, the group's opinion changed dramatically on the basis on non-scientific observations.

Two weeks later, the company's blog posted a retraction based on videos posted on YouTube and new observations made by its bloggers, who changed their stance to say that it "can't recommend" iPhone 4 until Apple addressed their concerns with a free fix.

We can't recommend our highest rated smartphone

At the same time, Consumer Reports was assigning iPhone 4 its highest rankings of all the phones it tested. Despite its official rankings obscured behind a pay wall, the group also noted that, while it refused to officially recommend the phone, "its score in our other tests placed it atop the latest ratings of smart phones that were released today."

John Paczkowski of the Wall Street Journal "Digital Daily" blog noted that the site's paid evaluation rated the display, navigation, web browsing, multimedia and battery life of iPhone 4 as "excellent," gave its phoning and messaging a "very good" ranking, and described voice quality as "good."

"Well this is ironic," Paczkowski wrote. "iPhone 4 is hands-down the best smartphone available today, but Consumer Reports advises against buying it."

Even after Apple released free bumpers for iPhone 4 users, Consumer Reports continued to refuse to officially recommend the phone, even as it did recommend models that also exhibited the same signal attenuation issues, including RIM's BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC's Android Droid Eris, Samsung's Windows Mobile Omnia II, Nokia's N97, and Motorola's Droid X, all of which Apple included on its Smartphone Antenna Performance page.

[Swordmaker]

Consumers Reports publishes a "Do Not Buy" Blog on the Verizon iPhone4 because there will be a better one coming out in six months . . . does not say the same for other phones—PING!

Please! No Flame Wars!
Discuss technical issues, software, and hardware.
Don't attack people!
PLEASE! Don't respond to the Anti-Apple Thread Trolls!
IGNORE THEM!!!

Apple iPhone4 Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[thecodont]

Thanks for the heads up! Good to wait until they get the bugs out.

[Yo-Yo]

I wouldn’t guarantee that the Verizon iPhone 4 will be “junkware” free.

That’s so unlike Verizon, who will cripple features on phones just so they all work the same, and make it more difficult to backup contacts, transfer sound or photo files, without using Verizon software and network.

[mnehring]

I’ve seen two major critiques pretty much copied and pasted on blogs all over the place. 1. With CDMA you can’t use voice and data together. That is technically true, however, there are ways you can use voice and data together- one, if you have a WiFi connection or two, you can use things like GPS nav while talking on the phone (at least with my Droid I can do that). I believe the regular multi-tasking on the iPhone 4 works no matter what network you hit, it is based on what is in the phone.

2. ‘Global phone’ capabilities. AT&T has been dumping some comments implying you can’t use this anywhere but the US. In most of the Americas, some of Europe, and Asia, CDMA works fine. I’ve used my phone in Mexico, Canada, Czech Republic, and Japan without issues. It also implies that a phone from AT&T is automatically global. It isn’t. They have their phone locked where you can’t just swap out SIM cards for local carriers unless you jailbreak your phone. Also, not all GSM networks are the same. So both types have issues with global roaming and both have ways to do it.

I plan to try an iPhone out as soon as my contract is up (still using BlackBerry for work..)

[Keith in Iowa]

The writer is in bed with an AT&T PR flak.

[null and void]

Golden Iggle got a job at Consumer Reports?

[mnehring]

I wouldn’t guarantee that the Verizon iPhone 4 will be “junkware” free.

My Droid came with three pieces of what considers 'junkware'. An app that I can access and manage my account, a link to their media store and a link to their app store. It took all but a couple of seconds to delete the latter two, the first is actually pretty useful. I think this is an overrated complaint.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>I wouldn’t guarantee that the Verizon iPhone 4 will be “junkware” free.

It will be. Because Apple requires it. Verizon can make things available via the App Store. there won’t be anything pre-loaded on the phone.

[VanDeKoik]

“Consumers Reports publishes a “Do Not Buy” Blog on the Verizon iPhone4 because there will be a better one coming out in six months . . . does not say the same for other phones”

Because this story is about the iPhone4, an existing phone from last year, just going to a new carrier when people know that Apple brings out one every year around spring?

Or did you seriously take that as CR saying that because “other” phones are all lousy and the next one will be lousy too so why bother?

[mnehring]

I think so.. I’ve seen these same accusations bantered about for a few weeks when the rumors about verison and the iphone started peaking- before anyone knew a single detail about the phone.

[Keith in Iowa]

All the negative stuff on the blogosphere & now these kind of articles stinks of AT&T trying to do whatever it can to retain subs - they are going to take it in the shorts - big-time.

[oh8eleven]

[Verizon] makes it more difficult to backup contacts, transfer sound or photo files, without using Verizon software and network.
I'm a dinosaur - using an LG VX8300 for three years now - and I do all the above via my PC with Bluetooth and BitPim.
Your results may vary.

[OCCASparky]

Works for me—my Verizon “new every 2” doesn’t come into play until August.

[grey_whiskers]

Mrs. Whiskers is due to get a new cell phone from Verizon. Personally, would you recommend a Droid X or an iPhone4?

(She will be using it at work in connection with e-marketing materials, and explicitly NOT for "Facebook" type stuff.)

We are in the Minneapolis metropolitan area and don't do much remote stuff except extended bike rides...

Thanks!

g_w

[Dr. Sivana]

The below is a repeat from a post I made in July:

I stopped taking them seriously around 1972, when they rated some car unacceptable because there was a twist in the shoulder belt when connected to the lap belt.

When there was a LOT of measurable difference in small electronics and appliances, and the features list was small enough to cover in a short article, CR might have made more sense. An Emerson table radio really was better than a Grundig or an Arvin.

In reality, many of today's electronics components are all coming from the same factory in China, regardless of the brand name slapped on it. More of the decision making is best made by which feature set you like rather than the actual stuff inside.

Now in the case of smartphones and computers, CR is way out of its league. They don't use computers the way a magazine prepress artist, a corporate database developer, or a developer does. They apply the same attitude that they did to those Arvin table top radios, with an extra dash of Political correctness shifting the scales.

The same could be said about their attitude towards cars. They rated the Honda NSX over the Corvette, even though the Corvette actually won the performance tests, because of the Honda's looks. Excuse me? I have to buy a magazine to find out which car's looks I prefer? (They also didn't figure out the Honda's propensity to chew up $500 tires.)

CR is an idea whose time has come and gone. Go to Smartphone sites to find out about smartphones, Tom's Hardware about computer builds and news, Edmunds and others for cars. And try to dig up the 1966 Consumer Reports Buyers Guide if you still want to know the ways in which a Zenith or Magnavox 23" Black and White console runs rings around the Admiral or Philco.

[alancarp]

Neither - stall until you can get a 4G phone... since the contract is 2 years, waiting a few more months is well worth the irritation you’ll have of for a long time otherwise.

[Tempest]

Samsung Galaxy S thank you. I actually like to use phones to make phone calls with sometimes...

[Myrddin]

Junkware? The author lost any credibility of objective
reporting with that gaffe. The 3g network does
make it a non-candidate for replacing my Droid.
The previously stellar 3g service enjoyed on my
Droid in San Diego is unreliable and falls back to 1x
much of the time since the December launch of
LTE.. Streaming audio is useless on 1x. A 3g iPhone
would be a victim of. the same poor network. I’m
waiting for an LTE based smartphone.

[umgud]

I like my Droid-X, so I’ll hang on to it and wait for them to bring out a Dick Tracy watch.