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iPhone: great gadget, sucks as a phone?

B

BrokenE

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
117
0
Houston
Anyone else think the same? I think this is more an AT&T issue than the phone itself.

I had AT&T for a long time. I would get poor reception and get a lot of dropped calls even when I was showing a strong signal. I always thought it was my poor choice in phones, until I switched to Verizon. I was surprised at how much better my reception was all the time, significantly less dropped calls. Then the iphone came out, switched back to AT&T, and guess what, same old poor reception.
 
My only real complaint is that sometimes the call volume is too low. Maybe I'm just getting old, but sometimes it is hard to hear the person on the other end of the line.
 
I love my iphone, but Im about to relegate it to use with my tmo prepaid sim card and get a bb for my hardcore phone tasks. Its just getting to be too glitchy.
 
kobefan234 said:
Go back to verizon and get a LG Dare!
Click to expand...

Hey, i recognize that sarcasm, you must be that CEO for AT&T. Sorry for saying your company sucks, but wait, YOU SUCK TOO. :D Just kidding Kobe. URGR8.

The point is that I wish Apple would have given us some choice. AT&T has to be the worst carrier. During hurricane Ike, my friend could make no calls on his iPhone, but his girl friend was calling anyone, anytime on TMobil.
 
I think it, obviously, depends on the area you live in. Perhaps you really would be better off getting the BB Storm or LG Dare from VZW and getting the iPod Touch..I mean then you have the great gadget and still an.."all right" phone..
 
I have used at&t/cingular/AT&T for years and have found them to have the most consistent coverage. I have many friends on the other 4/5 networks, and I can often make calls when they can't get a signal, and this isn't in just one area, I travel all across the US, and this is the most common situation when we stop, exceptions being a couple of places in Wyoming and Nebraska, but outside of those place, everything works fine.

This is also true for a wide range of at&t networked phones, the iPhone, RAZR, RAZR MAXX, V180, Blackjack.

TEG
 
Well, my reception in Dallas is much better than when I was on Verizon. In SoCal though it is a little worse but not as bad as it used to be a few years ago. Camp Pendleton has a few dead spots but overall I'm pretty happy with it. I really wish ATT would throw voice dialing on this thing though as driving and dialing is a bit of a pain in OC traffic.
 
I may be a FANBOY but it won't stop me from expressing my dissatisfaction with AT&T.
 
It all depends on where you live. Where I live in downtown Denver, Verison sucks, Quest sucks, Sprint sucks, but AT&T is always clear, and rock solid in my 60's metal/concrete condo building. Say all you want about AT&T, for me, it just works.
 
ucfgrad93 said:
My only real complaint is that sometimes the call volume is too low. Maybe I'm just getting old, but sometimes it is hard to hear the person on the other end of the line.
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You aren't. I have a very hard time hearing my iPhone outside and my hearing is exceptional. I usually use my BT headset simply because of this.

Also, coverage really does depend on the area you're in. Travel around the country and you'll find that out fast. No one cell company has great coverage everywhere ... and if there is one let me know!
 
I had an Ipod touch before I took ill with 3gitus. I have since had the opinion that the iphone is an ipod first and a phone second.

That being said, I have found myself pleasantly surprised with the way this phone puts up with my abuse. Sure there are some hiccups here and there but what can one expect in an imperfect world.

My mom's 3g seems to drop calls all the time. It's happened with me on consecutively and I have called elsewhere afterward to make sure it isn't my phone due to macRumors-paranoia. The only explanation that sits well with me is that the build week of hers being 28 or something and mine being 36 has something to do with it.

Or you might just have no 3g service in your area. But with the iphone being such a resource I would definitely exhaust all possible options before throwing in the towel.
 
ucfgrad93 said:
My only real complaint is that sometimes the call volume is too low. Maybe I'm just getting old, but sometimes it is hard to hear the person on the other end of the line.
Click to expand...

It can sometimes be hard for me as well, but I think sometimes they're in a S#%@ty coverage area or they aren't talking loud enough. For the most part, it's as good (if not better) than any other phone.

If you can, use the headphones. They can get up to deafening level if you turn the volume all the way up and hearing stuff is way easier when it's in two ears instead of one. You may have that deal where your hearing is easily distracted by background noise. Call it ADD of the ears. Those $30 headphones make it MUCH better.
 
ucfgrad93 said:
My only real complaint is that sometimes the call volume is too low.
Click to expand...
(and +2)

I found this too... until I downloaded a volume boosting patch of Cydia. I don't know if you are jailbroken or are in the group that seem to have some bizzare complex against it, but you should definately look into it.


Doobs
 
Phone.app works pretty damn well for me. The occasional dropped call, but that definitely isn't exclusive to the iPhone. All cellphones I've used have dropped a few calls.

And, not only do I think the iPhone is a great phone, I've had nothing but a stellar experience with AT&T. As a former hater, I've been very impressed with their customer service. They definitely won me over. And truly, I never thought I would say that!
 
I get great reception with AT&T and the call volume is great for me! I never felt like I had a problem hearing on my Treo until I had to go back to it after I sold my first iPhone. I hated using the Treo (phone wise) after using the iPhone! My 3G iPhone is just as good as my first one in the call volume and reliability on AT&T.
 
I'm on Rogers, and I get great reception and great call quality. Never dropped a call. This is with 3G turned off, though.
 
Yeah, it's pretty poor. I make about 20 phone calls per day and I get a dropped call in about 5 or 6 of them. That's about a 25% failure ratio which is just terrible.

And these are in areas where I'm getting 5 bars of 3G and I have great web-data connection speeds. It's not an issue of there not being enough signal.
 
geekmommy4 said:
I get great reception with AT&T and the call volume is great for me! I never felt like I had a problem hearing on my Treo until I had to go back to it after I sold my first iPhone. I hated using the Treo (phone wise) after using the iPhone! My 3G iPhone is just as good as my first one in the call volume and reliability on AT&T.
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Same here in a St Louis suburb - great reception, clarity, and volume. MUCH better than my old Treo 650 on Sprint - my wife actually had to turn her cell phone's volume down when I called her. I always used to struggle to hear with the Treo in any slightly noisy environment, but can hear the iPhone just fine. I'm very happy with the phone capabilities of this device...
 
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