AT&T IPhone vs. Verizon Droid

[jemmouse]

Getting a new phone in the next few days and was going between these two phones. Never had a "Smartphone" before, so am also hoping I can figure it all out. Any Pros and Cons on either or both of these would be great....

 

[PeterPan09]

Check the 3G coverage in your area and in the areas that you will be using the phone before you buy anything. No matter how cool the phone is, if the area you're in doesn't have coverage it's a paperweight.

 

[Gabes_mommy]

I have an iPhone and I love it. My co-worker has the Droid and he loves it. I think the tie-breaker is what provider you want to go with. Which provider has a better reputation in your area?

 

[OK!]

Check the 3G coverage in your area and in the areas that you will be using the phone before you buy anything. No matter how cool the phone is, if the area you're in doesn't have coverage it's a paperweight.

This. That said, I have outstanding coverage in my area and have never loved a device more in my entire adult life than my iPhone. I'd used 2 different models of BlackBerry before and while it's great at what it does (and what it's designed for), the iPhone suits my needs so much better. It enabled me to consolidate devices (before, I was carrying a BB and an iPod Touch every day). Some fanboys claim that their iPhones have all but replaced their home computers and while I definitely won't stretch to that, I will say that the iPhone offers one of the best smartphone browsing experiences out there.

I don't know much of anything about the Droid, so I can't offer help on that one.

ETA: OP, just saw you're in Chicago. I haven't used my iPhone extensively up there, but when I was there for a concert in September (at the Metro), I had 5 bars all throughout the area and southward.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Also, it's not just the area you live, but also the areas you travel or may travel through/to.

AT&T has a very small geographical area with 3G, Verizon's is much, much larger. AT&T has slightly faster 3G speeds, but this is very market driven and varies city to city, while their EDGE service is painfully slow (what you'll get outside a 3G market).

Voice wise you shouldn't have an issue with either service.

Some benefits of the Droid:
-Replaceable battery
-More open source/less restricted

Some benefits of the Iphone:
-Controlled environment may mean less issues
-Large developed App Store

 

[jemmouse]

The coverage in both my areas is fine. We do travel to Florida yearly and are in Michigan almost every other weekend, so that might be where I need to find out. If anyone has either phone how is the coverage in Florida at Disney? My inlaws have a place in Pine Island, Florida, and we do go there every year, and for that island my T Mobil presently works yet my sister in laws Tmobil doesn't so go figure that one. The monthly rate would be the same for both, my husbands work has contracts with both companies so I get a small percentage off and so they match.So really it is just down to which one I like better. I do take pictures on occassion with the phone so that is probably one thing I need to get info on.

 

[PeterPan09]

The coverage in both my areas is fine. We do travel to Florida yearly and are in Michigan almost every other weekend, so that might be where I need to find out. If anyone has either phone how is the coverage in Florida at Disney? My inlaws have a place in Pine Island, Florida, and we do go there every year, and for that island my T Mobil presently works yet my sister in laws Tmobil doesn't so go figure that one. The monthly rate would be the same for both, my husbands work has contracts with both companies so I get a small percentage off and so they match.So really it is just down to which one I like better. I do take pictures on occassion with the phone so that is probably one thing I need to get info on.

Iphones seem to work pretty well in the Orlando/Disney area, I've seen TONS of them around.

My first cell phone was with ATT, and the service was so bad that I went to Verizon and never looked back. The day Verizon gets an iPhone, I will be standing in line to have one, but I don't know that I'd switch providers to get one.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

It enabled me to consolidate devices (before, I was carrying a BB and an iPod Touch every day).

I never understood this, why carry two devices, you can play music on a BB, they have a card slot and a 8GB microSD can hold TONS of music (and even with the price of the card and BB, probably less then a base iPhone). Besides that, I prefer to stream music via Pandora and listen to it via my Bluetooth Headphones (which up until recently - if it exists yet, isn't possible with a iPhone because they don't support A2DP).