How Do I Tell What Kind Of Iphone I Have

Sprint iPhone 4S

That, above, is a Dash iPhone 4S. Physically, IT's the exact same iPhone 4S you can be on Verizon. Or AT&adenylic acid;T. Or Rogers, O2, KDDI, Vodacom, or any some other attack aircraft carrier that sells the iPhone 4S anywhere in the world. Orchard apple tree makes one iPhone 4S (okay, technically six, when you include the storage variations and colors). Only this one runs on Sprint. At that place's no user-facing software divergence - it's an iPhone 4S at heart and out.

So here we are, three months after the biggest network burden freight train in history smacked into Sprint's network. CEO Dan Hesse was beggary for it. Literally, he really wanted the iPhone. After the long sales dashing hopes that was the Palm Pre (rest in peace, shiny webOS pebble) and the failure of the Android-hopped-up HTC Evo 4G to really take the market by storm, Dash found themselves actually needing the iPhone, and in public proclaiming such.

With three months of more-and-more users shift to the iPhone on Sprint (including myself, I know at any rate seven webOS, BlackBerry, and Android users on Dash that picked up a Sprint iPhone), it's time to check over in and attend fitting how well the pin cast off network is holding up. And the answer is… quiet well.

I've been on Dash since 2004, and in cardinal years I've owned quintuplet-and-a-half phones on U.S.A's constantly third-place cellular carrier. The last call up-and-a-half before the iPhone (a Palm Pre and a hacked-together Sprint Pre 2 (there's the half phone)) were on Sprint's EVDO Rev. A 3G network, the unvarying electronic network used past the iPhone 4S. And the go through has been mostly the same as far atomic number 3 that meshing is concerned.

Coverage

The iPhone on Sprint does even as well as any other Sprint smartphone as far as coverage is concerned - I tush't allege I've noticed it picking up a signal any better in fringe-coverage areas than my trust old Pre did, nor has it performed more poorly. Pretty much right-handed connected the mark wherever my Pre failed the iPhone fails as well. That aforesaid, those failures were pretty rare. Sprint's done a praiseworthily job of expanding its mesh footprint, and nine times out of ten, if Sprint isn't lendable, you can roam onto Verizon 3G without hiccough. Every bit a caveat: I live in Ohio, and the Midwestern United States is "Sprint Country" - the Ohio/Indiana/Illinois/Michigan area is one of Sprint's strongest (along with Dash home express Kansas).

Sprint 3G coverage

Call quality

Telephone call quality is adequate, in that callers will be able to understand what you're saying and you'll be able to understand them. It's not for broadcasting concertos to a remote audience, and as CDMA calls are routed over Sprint's 1xRTT (2G) network, it never will be.

International roaming

Well, there's one hiccup - the Sprint iPhone is bearer-locked internationally. Sort out of. You can purchase an expensive international information pack and Micro SIM through Sprint for your international travels, or if your Dash client table service rep is smel particularly skillful, they sack unlock the iPhone's SIM slot so you can fair buy a prepaid card for your trip overseas.

Data speed

Quicken-advisable, the iPhone does seem to manage the Sprint network better than my previous Sprint smartphones, albeit marginally sol. Does the iPhone get a stronger signal than other Sprint smartphones operating theatre is it just better at optimizing what it pumps through the datapipes? Hard to say, just the user go through is that it does its thing faster. The speeds are roughly comparable to Verizon's 3G service (though roaming onto Verizon isn't that fast). Download speeds over 3G rarely cracked over 1.5mpbs, which is right some average for a Dash smartphone. Yes, that's rather pathetic compared to the HSPA+ service available on GSM carriers, which itself performs as-well-arsenic if not better than Dash's ill-fated WiMAX network. There's a argue Sprint's going full steam ahead with LTE.

Bloatware free

The Dash iPhone doesn't hold an bound over AT&adenosine monophosphate;T Beaver State Verizon when it comes to speed or net coverage, severally, and thanks to Apple's no bloatware policy, information technology doesn't bring any of Dash's gratis services like Sprint Boob tube, Sprint Piloting, Dash Music, Beaver State Sprint Anything Else. That's a good thing, in that the phone isn't fuddled down with unwanted and undeletable apps wish so many Humanoid devices, merely it's also a bad matter in that these apps are not lendable in the App Store either. Will Sprint make them available for Sprint iPhone users? Only time will tell, but it's been terzetto months already and they're not there.

Unlimited data

Dash has one signature vantage over AT&T and Verizon. It's something that the other carriers, with all their reporting and speeds can't match. Or rather, something they won't match. It's unlimited information. Non "unlimited but in truth 5GB", non "unlimited but throttled." Just plain outright. With your Dash iPhone you can download as often atomic number 3 you want. Intimately, As long as you're doing it on the phone - like the other carriers, tethering requires an addition; $30-a-calendar month tethering/hotspot plan and is limited to 5GB in a calendar month. To be honest, 99% of users would fight to break 2GB of use in a calendar month, not to mention 5GB.

Sprint's advertising for the iPhone has centralized almost exclusively on this unlimited aspect, because really that and the plan pricing are Dash's only true selling points. Every carrier at this period offers some form of unlimited mobile-to-mobile vocation (a boast prototypal implemented by Sprint), and with the exception of business and grandparents, all but of your vocation is going to be done to landlines. So who is the Sprint iPhone for? Sprint and Sprint customers. Even as customers didn't flee as a group to Verizon or AT&T for the iPhone, they aren't going to switch to Sprint for the iPhone.

Should you steal your iPhone 4S connected Dash?

Information technology all comes down to our perpetual apprize for smartphone buyers: pick your carrier first. Coverage where you live/work/play and how so much you're ready to pay for that service, by far the most expensive part of purchasing a phone on contract, should be the first decisions you pee-pee. It doesn't matter if the iPhone operating theater whatever other phone you're superficial for isn't on the second-best carrier for your situation if you tush't use it. With the iPhone now on Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon, that makes the decision even easier.

With AT&A;T you pay back spotty but improving coverage just fantastic speeds so long as you gravel close to urban centers.
With Verizon you get a mostly reliable network with fantastic coverage and so-so speeds that you'll disburse the nose for and still receive to deal with Overlarge Red's meddling ways.
With Sprint you draw good reportage, underdog status, acceptably speeds, unlimited usance, and cheaper prices.

Conclusion

There you let it - the iPhone 4S on Dash. Sprint's smartphone selection hasn't been great recently, with the Samsung Galaxy S 2, Verse form 4G Touch (yes, the advert has a comma) serving as the nighest competition to the iPhone 4S. We might be a routine biased here, but it's safe to say the iPhone 4S is the unsurpassed smartphone on Sprint. It's certainly leaving to be a gross sales world-beater for the Land Park, Kanasa-based network. The iPhone 4S on Sprint is for people who want to be on Sprint. And as I want to get on Dash, it's the iPhone for me.