Verizon 4s Speed vs Verizon LTE

Winstonp said:

Quick question: I currently use a Droid Razr 4G, but I am considering swapping to the iPhone 4s (verizon). Am I going to be upset with the speed difference of 3G? I do get 4G in my apartment, at work, and at school.

The main reason I want the 4S is for the camera lol.
I occasionally listen to youtube videos on my car stereo, and do check e-mail during the day on it, but do want the option of being able to watch streaming video once or twice a month.


Thanks.

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Oh yes you will see a difference.

I'm not very sure about Verizon's 4G speeds, but to my knowledge, AT&T's HSPA+ speeds are very decent on the 4S.

Wouldn't say there's going to be a big difference though. What's your current speeds for the Droid Razr?

Winstonp said:

It depends. In my apartment, the 4G is weak, so I mainly use wifi for internet. At school/work my internet will be full bars on 4G, which is pretty fast.

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Wouldn't deviate much from this if you change to a 4S I guess. The 4S have very decent antennas, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Winstonp said:

Thanks for you reply.

I know I've seen videos of the speed test app showing like 10x difference in speeds b/w 3G and LTE-do you (or anyone else here) know if that's actually what the user experiences??

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User experience will be the same. Web pages can only load that fast to a certain extent.

In other words, whether your connection is 10mbps or 60mbps, there're won't be a difference when loading a webpage or streaming a video. Apps may download faster though.

As a result, I wouldn't need crazy fast LTE speeds like those you saw. Unless it's for a personal hotspot, then LTE will be useful.

Hope this helps!

yes you will be able to tell

Here is my experience with the iphone 4 and 5 on verizon. At my house, 3G speeds were quite often less than 1Mbs download, while LTE has been consistently near 10Mbs or higher and that's usually with 2 bars strength, or around -105 dbz. In areas with much better signal, the difference is even larger. LTE in good areas frenquently produce speeds around 25 Mbs, while 3G speeds were barely over 1Mbs. You will notice huge differences in loading pages, etc. Night and day. You will regret it.

Beeplance said:

I'm not very sure about Verizon's 4G speeds, but to my knowledge, AT&T's HSPA+ speeds are very decent on the 4S.

Wouldn't say there's going to be a big difference though. What's your current speeds for the Droid Razr?

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I'm pleased with my AT&T 4S HSPA+ speed. It's not laggy in the least; and while not LTE by any stretch, whether I'm tethering the connection or just using the phone, the "4G" connection is great. No complaints

The speed difference between my Verizon 4s and Verizon lte iPad is enormous. I really am not a fan of Verizon 3G.

Yes.
It's noticeably slower.
CDMA 3G is slow.

If you are a verizon customer you will be able to tell BIG TIME!

I just switched to the Iphone 5 after having several 4g android phones. I have the 4s for a couple weeks as well.

Video buffering, page loads, music streaming, podcast downloads, etc. are crazy fast on 4g. Going back to 3g is not something I would ever consider.

Suck it up and get the iPhone 5 if you can swing it. Battery life is amazing compared to the 4s and having 4g is gold.

As mentioned there is a huge difference on Verizon. Im talking less than 1mbps vs 20-30mbps. GO with the iPhone 5

It will be like trading in your Mercedes s65 for a Mercedes c63...both great cars but one is the big boy...Get yourself an iPhone 5...

I just had the 4S for a year, and now have the 5. It's not even a contest. I use wifi at home as well but LTE at work. Verizon 3G is incredibly slow... I rarely got more than 1mbps. Even in the middle of a large city. I could barely stream trailers or netflix at all, and never in high quality. I would switch to Android before going back to 3G on Verizon... honestly. Even though I've LOVED my iPhones and hated both Androids I had, Verizon 3G is that big of a deal breaker for me.

We have a 5 and 4S

I have a 5 and my wife has a 4S. You will notice a difference. Best I've ever seen on the 4S down was close to 2.0 Mbps (on 3G in rural NH with a strong signal). Typically we see .3Mbps - 1.2 Mbps in Boston area. I've been seeing anywhere from 1.5Mbps - 35+Mbps with LTE on my iPhone 5...typical is 2-12 or so Mbps down. Verizon 3G is fine for the most part, but is way slower than VZW LTE.

A lot of people responding who are on AT&T don't really understand. My 4S to my 5 was a decent jump from HSPA+ to LTE, but in practice, it's not a huge difference. (I regularly got 5-11 Mbps on HSPA+...I now regularly get 15-30 Mbps on LTE).

The big difference is Verizon's CDMA 3G is MUCH slower than AT&T's HSPA+. Speeds top out at about 2 Mbps. I think the fastest CDMA 3G can even technically go is 3, so you will never see faster than that. It will be a noticeable difference.

Jman13 said:

A lot of people responding who are on AT&T don't really understand. My 4S to my 5 was a decent jump from HSPA+ to LTE, but in practice, it's not a huge difference. (I regularly got 5-11 Mbps on HSPA+...I now regularly get 15-30 Mbps on LTE).

The big difference is Verizon's CDMA 3G is MUCH slower than AT&T's HSPA+. Speeds top out at about 2 Mbps. I think the fastest CDMA 3G can even technically go is 3, so you will never see faster than that. It will be a noticeable difference.

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Winstonp said:

It depends. In my apartment, the 4G is weak, so I mainly use wifi for internet. At school/work my internet will be full bars on 4G, which is pretty fast.

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Yeah I knew about Verizon's CDMA 3G speeds are pathetic compared to LTE. But he himself said full bars on 4G is pretty fast... Not sure about it..

4G is LTE....not the stupid '4G' = HSPA+ on AT&T. Remember that when your AT&T iPhone displays '4G'...it's on 3G. Fast 3G, but still 3G. It's just a marketing ploy by AT&T to change the icon.

i have a 5 that i use on hspa+ all the time, i only turn lte on when im on the bus. i don't notice any difference when browsing webpages or watching youtube. but im with telus so idk if verizon is different.

Winstonp said:

How could all of these iPhone users bare dealing with 3G for so long if it's that bad?

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Couple of possibilities:
1. It's not "that bad"
2. Data speed isn't everyone's top priority

Why don't you turn LTE off on your current phone and run a speed test on 3G to gauge what kind of speeds you'll be getting in your area.

For me, the difference between Verizon 3G and LTE is huge. I have never cracked more than 1 mbps up/down on Verizon 3G, whereas the iPhone 5 gets anywhere between 10-30 mbps LTE on average.