Verizon iPhone gets early thumbs up from Consumer Reports
updated 01:20 pm EST, Tue February 8, 2011
Says reception issue unlikely to show in testing
Consumer Reports is so far positive on the CDMA-based Verizon iPhone, a video interview reveals. The influential publication has been critical of the GSM iPhone offered elsewhere, saying that despite a high rating, reception issues prevent it from making a recommendation. Because the Verizon iPhone has been forced to use a different antenna design, CR senior editor Mike Gikas suggests that it shouldn't suffer from the same problems as its sibling.
Gikas also claims that the phone should have better voice quality, owing to the use of CDMA. A major worry though is whether or not Verizon's network will be able to hold up under the data traffic of several million iPhone users, particularly a core contingent of heavy users. Verizon is expected to throttle heavy use in order to ensure network quality; the approach differs from AT&T, which discourages iPhone owners from using data by imposing fixed caps with significant overage fees.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2009
Why do we care what CR thinks?
CR gives the Verizon iPhone a good rating because they hate AT&T. How can you give a phone any rating before it's actually in use by more than the very first users? Yea, the voice quality "should" be better but what if it isn't? The Verizon iPhone still can't get on a call and use anything else so why doesn't that lack of an important feature drop it's perceived value down?
I gave up reading CR years ago when they started to rank specific manufacturers above others without any real justification. Both iPhones will sell by the train load so who cares what CR has to say.