Verizon’s iPhone 4 Summary
Verizon Wireless announced last night (12am SGT) that they will be selling the iPhone 4 as well in the US. The difference from AT&T and perhaps the rest of the world iPhone 4 is that it will be a CDMA version as opposed to a GSM version.
In terms of physical design, it is more or less the same with only three slight differences with the metal band surrounding the iPhone 4. See top, left and right view comparison.
Because of the extra gap on the left side and the removal of the gap on the top side as compared to the GSM’s iPhone 4, the buttons alignment is off by a few millimeters. I wonder how well will it fit into tight fitting iPhone 4 cases. BTW, Apple will be updating it’s own bumper to fit Verizon’s iPhone 4.
In terms of software, Verizon’s iPhone 4 is running 4.2.5 and currently the GSM’s version is on 4.2.1. I am guessing all iPhone 4 owners will get an update to 4.2.5 on 10th February 2010 as that is the date Verizon’s iPhone 4 will be launching.
Verizon’s iPhone 4 has an interesting Hotspot feature under the Settings that allows up to 5 Wi-Fi devices to use the iPhone 4 as a hotspot making it a mobile 3G modem, which is exactly the same as what my Huawei MiFi E585 does.
There is a rumour stating that the hotspot feature will come to iOS 4.3 for GSM’s iPhones but it is still dependent on whether the carrier supports it. Come on SingTel!
I hope that feature will be available for all iPhone 3GS/4 users, since it doesn’t make much sense to give it to Verizon iPhone 4 owners only. But then again, sometimes when Apple does things, it totally makes no sense.
One thing that we GSM users take for granted is simultaneous Call and Data usage, but unfortunately you can’t do that for the CDMA version of iPhone 4. It is either Call or Data and not both at the same time.
Also there will be a CDMA’s version of iPad coming to Verizon as well.
Official: Verizon’s iPhone 4
Engadget: Verizon iPhone first hands-on!
PS: Links showing the comparison and hotspot features are from Engadget.