iPhone 4S: Which is the best carrier?

Apple's iPhone 4S will be available for Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T.

(Credit:
Apple)

The recently announced iPhone 4S will be available not just for AT&T and Verizon, but also for Sprint. This means that for the first time, an iPhone will be available on three of the four major U.S. carriers.

The iPhone 4S has a few notable improvements over the iPhone 4, like a faster dual-core A5 chip and an 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p HD video capture. If you're a Sprint customer, you might be happy that you have an iPhone at all, 4S or not.

As far as we know, the iPhone 4S will have the same hardware across all three carriers because of a dual-mode CDMA/GSM chipset that gives it global cellular coverage. But just because it's got the same innards doesn't mean you'll get the same experience across the board. Carrier coverage fluctuates from region to region--AT&T might have poor performance in San Francisco, but great signal strength elsewhere. Data plans are different for each carrier, too, as are customer service and the terms of your early-termination fees. Be sure to consider all these points, in addition to ours below, as you make your decis... [Read more]