There’s two main criteria to keep in mind: speed and availability. It doesn’t matter how fast a company’s 4G service is if it’s not available in your area. Price is also a consideration.

Verizon is the over-all winner. Its 4G LTE service isn’t the fastest, but it’s near the top.  And it’s been around long enough to be very widely available, covering major cities and most good-size towns around the U.S. It continues to grow as the carrier keeps adding smaller towns.

AT&T comes in second.  Tests have shown that its LTE service is a bit faster than Verizon’s, but it’s still so new that most Americans have no access to it yet. Still, AT&T is working to add new cities at a fast pace. Traditionally, though, this carrier has focused its efforts on larger metropolitan areas, ignoring smaller towns.

AT&T and Verizon are approximately equal in price, but cost a bit more than their smaller rivals.

Despite being the smaller of the Big 4 U.S. carriers, T-Mobile does surprisingly well. Its 4G HSPA+42 network is relatively widely available and quite speedy — in real-world tests it’s about half the speed of AT&T’s LTE, but much faster than any 3G network. Also, this carrier offers 4G for less than AT&T and Verizon.  Still, this company mainly concentrates on larger cities, with little rural access.

Sprint is in the process of switching from 4G WiMAX to 4G LTE, and is therefore struggling a bit.  Its WiMAX network has stopped expanding but LTE service isn’t available yet. What Sprint has going for it is its truly unlimited data plan which can save heavy wireless users a lot of money.

This company finds itself in a tough spot. Two years ago it became the first carrier in the U.S. with a 4G network, but it picked the WiMAX standard for this. Unfortunately for Sprint, just about every other carrier in the world chose the LTE standard for 4G, and some phone makers (including Apple) are unwilling to make WiMAX-based devices.

As many times as we’ve all heard “The early bird gets the worm”, being first doesn’t always mean coming out ahead. It’s the second mouse to reach the trap that gets the cheese, after all.

As a result, Sprint is going to have to spend several billion dollars adding support for LTE to its network. This will start to be available in a handful of cities in the next month or so. But as mentioned before, this company isn’t waiting to introduce LTE-enabled handsets. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper 4G LTE are the first, and more are expected to follow, such as the HTC EVO 4G LTE.

At launch, these don’t have 4G — they will be 3G only until this carrier gets its LTE network up and running.

Related Articles on Brighthand

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus, LG Viper 4G LTE Launch from Sprint
• HTC EVO 4G LTE Android Smartphone Hands On Preview

If you’re a Verizon or Sprint subscriber, the answer is easy: this device does not support either of these carriers’ 4G standards, LTE or WiMAX. The situation for AT&T’s version isn’t so cut-and-dried, however. 

Apple itself does not say that the iPhone 4S is 4G, or that it supports AT&T’s HSPA+ service. If you look at Apple’s specs page for the iPhone 4S, the 3G standards HSDPA and HSUPA are clearly listed, but there’s no mention of 4G HSPA+.

AT&T’s website, on the other hand, does claim that this smartphone supports HSPA+, and reportedly is trying to get Apple to add a 4G icon to the status bar in the next iOS update, which will be displayed at the top of the screen when the phone has an HSPA+ connection.

My guess is the difference in opinion comes down to Apple wanting to save the term “4G” for its next model, which is widely expected to offer LTE – a wireless data standard that is much faster than HSPA+. AT&T does consider HSPA+ to be 4G, and would be thrilled to be able to claim to have the only 4G-enabled iPhone.

Phil Schiller, head of marketing for Apple, summed up his company’s thoughts on this issue best: “We’re not going to get into the debate about what’s 4G and what isn’t. We’ll leave that for others to talk about.”

In AT&T’s defense, studies have generally shown that AT&T’s iPhone 4S has better download performance than either Verizon’s or Sprint’s versions, which use 3G EV-DO Rev. A.

HSPA+ vs. LTE
If you want to put things in perspective, real-world figures for the HSPA+ service on the latest iPhone put it in the 2-3 Mbps range. Still, that’s faster than the older iPhone 4.

Because there’s no LTE-enabled iPhone yet there’s no way to definitively say how fast this device will be, but other LTE-enabled smartphones are getting 5-12 Mbps. Much faster, anyway you slice it.

Related Articles on Brighthand

• Apple iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II: Which Is the Greatest?
• iPhone 4S Gets Consumers Reports’ Seal of Approval

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This is an impartial look at all the features of these two very popular models, from screen size and camera resolution to entertainment and productivity apps. They are compared head-to-head, giving shoppers the information they need to decide between them.

Hopefully this will be useful for just about everyone in the market for a new smartphone. In the U.S., the iPhone is offered by AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, while Samsung’s flagship device can be found at AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.  These two are broadly available around the world.

You can find this comparison at:
Apple iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II: Which Is the Greatest?
 
This is just the latest in a log series of device vs. device comparisons published by Brighthand. Some recent examples:

• Motorola Droid RAZR vs. Motorola Droid 3: Is the Keyboard Worth It?
• Samsung Galaxy S II vs. Samsung Epic 4G Touch: Sprint and T-Mobile Go Head-to-Head
• Motorola Droid Bionic vs Motorola Droid X2: Which Droid Is Better?

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There are models from all of the Big Four U.S. carriers, and for half a dozen of so device makers. Anyone shopping for a handset these days has to ask themselves, should I go 4G? Or is 3G still good enough?

There is no easy answer, as there are trade-offs no matter which decision you make. But have no fear — Brighthand is here to help. 

We have prepared an analysis of the different varieties of 4G, and the pros and cons of using a smartphone that has one of these super-fast wireless connections.  To make things even easier, we included a list of some of the best 4G-enabled devices available today.

So drop by Brighthand today to learn more about 4G, and whether it is right for you!

Should You Get a 4G Smartphone?

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The app is keeping a log of the phone’s activities and sending this information to wireless carriers. The companies who use it say this info is only being used to debug problems with the phone: dropped calls, battery failures, etc. Many users, however, resent that details like all the websites they visit was being collected without their knowledge, and with no way to opt out.

The company directly behind this app, also called Carrier IQ, has jumped to its defense, promising that what they do is completely innocuous. Nevertheless, lawsuits and a Congressional investigation are already under weigh.

Carrier IQ has been found on a wide range of devices — Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry. It has been estimated that it could be on as many a 140 million phones.

This issue is still playing out, so be sure to drop by Brighthand to keep an eye on the latest developments.  This story has been reported in the main-stream press, but not in the kind of detail we can bring you.

Related Articles:

• T-Mobile, Others Answer Carrier IQ Spyware Allegations
• Easily Discover If Your Android Smartphone Has Carrier IQ

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Siri is possibly the best new feature in the iPhone 4S. It is a powerful and functional voice-recognition and control system… when it works. Last week it went offline for several hours, and Apple has yet to explain why. Siri is still a beta, and some of wrinkles have clearly not been ironed out yet, but it’s somewhat disconcerting that the feature can apparently shut down so easily and completely.

But a larger issue is the device’s battery life. There is a bug in the operating system for the iPhone 4S that doesn’t seem to affect everyone, but both I and Louie Tran, who reviewed the device for Brighthand, can’t go more than a few hours without needing a re-charge. Apple has promised a fix that’s likely to come in the form of an iOS 5.0.1. update, but in the mean time there are a few modifications you can make to the settings on your smartphone that an extend its battery life.

Check out this article for the details:

How to Increase the Battery Life of Apple’s iPhone 4S

Related Articles on Brighthand:

• Apple iPhone 4S Review: The Best Gets Better
• Download Lowdown: 10 Must-Have App Types for Your iPhone 

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Sprint clearly agrees with me that it’s worth repeating. It has released a series of commercials with this theme, but in the TiVo world we live I know there are loads of people who never see any commercials, so here’s the latest:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/jphXLfKO2yg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Rivals: “Unlimited” Doesn’t mean Unlimited
AT&T stopped offering its unlimited plan to new customers last year. Just last week, Verizon did the same. Long-time Verizon subscribers who already had such a plan can keep it, but it’s not really unlimited. There’s a soft cap on how much data users can transfer each month. The top 5% of data users on the network can have their bandwidth slowed. T-Mobile does something similar.

T-Mobile and Verizon argue that you’re not cut off after you hit their soft caps, but can continue to transfer data, albeit at a considerably slower rate, so their plans are still unlimited. But this sounds like sophistry to me.

Sprint, on the other hand, has no soft cap. You can transfer all the data you want. Surf the Web to your heart’s content, download all the Netflix movies you want, sign up for Spotify, get a Vulkano, go nuts.

OK, there are a few restrictions: you can’t host a website over a Sprint wireless connection, or hook it to a webcam so that video is streamed 24 hours a day. But these seem reasonable to me.

It seems crystal clear: if you’re a hard-core smartphone user who doesn’t want to be tied to a Wi-Fi network, then Sprint is the way to go.

Related Articles on Brighthand

• Consumer Reports: Verizon’s New Tiered Data Plans Won’t Hurt Most Smartphone Users

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Of course regular TV was out of the question, but I had plenty of other options. I missed the Bones season finale, so I headed over to Fox.com on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 I’m trying out.  It was all I could wish for: the Android version of Flash Player 10.3 works beautifully, and the stereo speakers on the tablet were all I needed — though the audio was occasionally drowned out by especially violent claps of thunder.

I needed an Internet connection to do his, of course, which was provided by the hotspot app on the Android phone I’m using right now, the HTC EVO Shift 4G. I decided to leave WiMAX off, as I didn’t know how long I’d be without electricity, and 4G is hard on the battery.

After the Bones episode was over, I switched over to Facebook so I could see how my friends were weathering the storm. Even without WiMAX, I didn’t notice that page loads were slow.

After another half hour or so I started thinking about the battery life on the EVO Shift 4G. It was still above 50%, but I didn’t know whether I’d need the connection to be able to work the next day, and the hotspot app takes a lot of power. That’s when I switched over to the ebook I’m reading with the Kindle app on the tablet. That kept me occupied until I was ready for bed.

What’s the point of all this? I was in an situation that could have been really inconvienient, but thanks to having the right gear it wasn’t at all. It wasn’t much different if I’d been stuck in an airport, or a doctors waiting room. If you have the right smartphone/tablet you’re not going to be caught out.

Tablet vs. Laptop vs. Smartphone
I’m sure some of you are thinking “He could have done all that wit a laptop”. But I don’t think so. It’s true about the video — though watching TV without a keyboard in front is a better experience – and Facebook can be accessed with just about anything, but have you ever spent a couple of hours lying on the couch reading on a laptop? Years ago I read a book on a notebook computer, and it’s not experience I have any intention of ever repeating. Tablets and smartphones are so much lighter and more convenient to read on.

And there’s the issue of power. I spent close to two hours online and at least another two reading my ebook. At the end, my smartphone had about a half charge while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was ready for many more hours of use. My laptop would have been about dead by that point, leaving me up the creek if I was still without power in the morning.

If I hadn’t had the tablet, I could have done all of this with my smartphone, of course. I know because I’ve done it before. But tablets are better suited for video, so I used the best option I had for what I was doing.

p.s. Apologies to Vicki Lawrence.

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I really like the idea of two screens, as I’ve wanted a device that replaces the keyboard with a second display for a long time.  Dedicating a big chunk of a relatively small device to a single task — text input — makes little sense to me. A second touchscreen can function as a keyboard, plus it can do so much more.

My desktop has gotten me accustomed to running multiple apps simultaneously, so I like the idea of running two apps at once on the Echo’s separate 3.7-inch, WVGA screens. I want to be able to read a new email without interrupting the movie I’m watching, for example.

Some Drawbacks
I’ll confess, though, I’m a bit nervous about the exact design of the Echo, as it will have an unusual shape that will let it be used in a variety of configurations. The sliding hinge arrangement that makes this possible could be a source of problems — I wish Kyocera had gone with a simpler clamshell design with a twist-and-flip display, like the classic Sony PEG-UX50.

And there’s near universal concern about the Echo’s battery life, as its two displays are going to require an unusual amount of power. I’m not sure including a second battery with this device is going to be enough.

But we’ll know next month, as Sprint is going to launch the Kyocera Echo on April 17.

Here’s hoping that this model does well enough that other smartphone makers take up the dual-screen smartphone concept.

Related Articles on Brighthand:

• Dual-Screen Kyocera Echo Set To Launch in Mid-April
• Kyocera Echo Hands-On Preview

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