If you’re the proud owner of a Verizon iPhone, the following news will likely make you cringe. According to a new study from
Metrico, when it comes to download speeds over 3G, the Verizon iPhone 4 proved to be significantly slower than the at&t version, and even slower than other Verizon smartphones.
To test the phone, the company loaded over 10,000 web pages, performed over 2,000 3G data transfer tests (download and upload), and placed about 4,000 voice calls. The results were published yesterday, and paint a grim picture of the phone’s 3G performance.
Overall,
Metrico found that while the device offered typical latency times for a mobile phone, it performed below average in data download speeds when compared to other Verizon smartphones such as the HTC Incredible. When compared to the at&t iPhone, the device proved to be twice as slow.
Metrico also tried to download some content while in a car, to check the phone’s performance while on the move. Overall, both at&t and Verizon iPhones dropped some of their active data sessions, however, the at&t version managed to complete 10-percent more download sessions than its Verizon counterpart.
Despite its sub-par download performance, the Verizon iPhone fared well when it comes to upload speeds, as it performed better than the at&t version. As for the voice quality it offers, and the amount of calls it dropped, the Verizon iPhone 4 performed much better.
While we’re not surprised to hear that the Verizon iPhone offers lower speeds than the at&t version, as after all, most smartphones on at&t offer higher download speeds than their Verizon counterparts, the fact that it performed worse than most other Verizon smartphones is surprising.
Metrico did not provide any explanation to explain the test findings, however, the sub-par download speeds could be explained by the fact that the wireless technology used by Verizon, CDMA, is new to Apple – it may take a couple extra months for the Cupertino-based company to fine tune the device, now that hundred of thousands of Verizon users are using it on a daily basis.
