Lisa Everydayphotos asks:
Hey! I’m about to make a big decision and upgrade from my shitty flip phone to a smart phone. My question is this:
Do I get an iphone or is at&t service in the Mission as bad as everyone says? I’m hoping to harness the wisdom of highly opinionated Missionites and hear whether at&t is really as absolutely awful as they say. Worth just staying with my current plan and just getting the Droid I keep hearing about.
Any chance I can spark some heated debate here?
First of all, don’t knock the flip phones. Ever hear of a little blog called honeyjets? Those photos are all RAZR, baby. Secondly, this will get ugly. The last time Kat mentioned buying an iPhone in passing, it got a shitstorm response that totally overshadowed her actual post.
Full disclosure: I am an obsessive iPhone user. I just got 3 stars on every level in the first world of Angry Birds. That takes at least 250 hours of use. But, I also happen work in a job that lets me test every major smartphone that hits the market, so I definitely have somewhat informed opinions on this matter… none of which I will use here.
I think the iPhone is way more fun to use, and it’s operating system is just more smooth and polished. I don’t make too many voice calls, so I can’t honestly speak accurately to how reliable AT&T is in the Mission. I have never had any major problems, but 80% of my calls last five months in the Mission were, “Where are you sitting? Oh I see you.” I’ve noticed a few problems in other neighborhoods, the Haight mostly. Battery life stinks. It doesn’t bail on me mid-day, but I have to charge it every night. The apps, maps, and web browser are the best. The camera and video on the iPhone 4, to my eyes, are about as good as it gets.
Android phones can do pretty much everything you care about, but it’s a bit more clunky. If you’re not coming from an iPhone you probably wont notice at all. There’s not as many quality apps available. All of this is going nowhere but up and they will catch up in all those categories soon. One other problem is that updates to Android OS are carrier-specific, so if your phone doesn’t sell well from their perspective, it wont be kept up to date with all the cool new stuff from Google. That can be a bummer. Perks are you don’t need iTunes to use it, tight Gmail/Gcal/Geverything integration, way better customization, and of course, carrier options (VERIZON).
If you care a lot about voice calls and being able to bang out text messages on a hardware keyboard, get the Droid 2 on Verizon. You will be happier. If you want the best multimedia/internet experience and will settle for mediocre voice performance (AT&T), it’s still hard to beat the iPhone 4.
Wow, I just re-read the question and realized I didn’t really answer it at all. Good luck.
Readers: what do you think? Here, I’ll save you some time. Check one:
[ ] NERD RAAGE! I DISAGREE WITH EVERYTHING
[ ] YOU’RE ALL YUPPIES, I USE A ROTARY
[Photo by TerryJohnston]
Most of my friends live in the Mission and I spend a lot of time there, and the service really is THAT BAD. My phone almost never rings when I’m out and about (just goes straight to voicemail) and I usually can’t access the internet. This was the case with my prior iPhone 3 as well as my current 4.
AT&T is extraordinarily bad in the Mission. I am paying an early termination fee this month to get out of my contract after switching from iPhone to Android. Dropped calls, hours of no service whatsoever, really frustrating. Also, AT&T will cost you about $90 a month. You can get the same service from any other carrier for at least $30 less.
Not true. Verizon is just as expensive as ATT. Yes, T-Mobile and Sprint are cheaper.
crappy AT&T coverage at 18th and Dolores
Valencia St. in the low 20′s has very bad service. The most annoying thing is having a dropped call with 3 bars of signal and not having moved. I think the cell tower believes that no call should last for more than 15 minutes.
Best bet: wait a few months and see if a Verizon version becomes available
Thanks, opinionated people! Keep it coming! I feel way better about not shelling out for an iPhone right now.
Also, I’ve come to realize: I may be the only person on the planet with t-mobile.
Quite a few folks in SF have T-Mobile. Right now they have the fastest internet speeds of any carrier (even beating out Sprint’s “4G” service.
If I were you I’d stick with T-Mobile and buy the G2 (if you want a keyboard) or the Samsung Vibrant (thinner, no keyboard).
I have T-Mobile! Still using the G1, which I still love. I absolutely have to have the fold-out keyboard, as I can’t stand using the touchscreen one. People are always saying, “but it’s so heavy!” But that’s not really a selling point for me. T-Mobile also has pretty good reception, even in the Mission.
Crappy service in the Mission is a legit issue that AT&T owned up to months ago. My lady received months of refunds on her bill after they admitted to having 3 “severely degraded” towers in SF that affect the Mission directly. Her old apartment was considered a “dead zone”……Sycamore @ Valencia. We moved to the Western Addition and the problem disappeared. In 8 years, I’ve never had any issue with my Verizon service anywhere in the City.
i wish i was not in a contract with ATT. they basically provide no service in the Mission (where i live) as well as several other parts of the city. if you try and do anything about it they point to a clause in their contract which states that they can’t let you break a contract even if they aren’t providing you service. every so often they put out a press release stating that they will fix the situation, but they never do. if i were free of a contract and in the market for a smart phone, i’d probably go with the Droid.
don’t get an iphone. i have an iphone and live in soma where the reception is horrible. it’s bad in the mission too. yes, it is att’s fault. but my friends who have unlocked iphones on t-mobile (and like their phones) say that the iphones are a bit slower compared to their old phones. get an android phone. i’m a mac guy and generally praise apple, but the iphone sucks.
Walking from 14th street to 19th street on Guerrero on Monday I had a call get dropped three times. This is utterly typical. The iPhone right at 14th and Guerrero basically doesn’t work at all, and all of Guerrero is especially bad. The rest of the Mission isn’t much better. And experience proves AT&T will lie until the end of days about improving service – don’t believe a word they say. Word is Verizon gets the iPhone early next year and, because the actual iPhone is pretty rad, I’d wait until you can be free of the AT&T beast before making the buy.
i once had a crush on a girl and sometimes when i would send her texts about hanging out, she would never get back to me. if i saw her the next day and asked about it, she’d say, “oh, i never got the text. you know, these iphones.”
maybe she just wasn’t that into me.
Yes. Yes it is that bad.
Well, I was in the Mac store downtown doing my friend a favor when I had to call her regarding service options. Standing at the genious bar with no reception I asked first, “Do you all have droid phone?” then “Do you have a land line.” After the landline call I asked again, “Seriously what do I do to get better coverage, it has been two months!” Finally, as if giving up a industry secret they said “Turn off the 3G.” Smiling I handed my phone over and they went into settings/general/network and let me just say the last 3 weeks have been the best ever with my iphone
Pretty rational explanation overall. One comment I have issue with is the claim that the iPhone has the best maps. Have to disagree there – Android phones have the most updated version of Google Maps with free navigation built in. Apple can’t beat that.
I also personally feel Android offers a better browsing experience (flash 10.1, many browsers to choose from, faster and more reliable internet speeds, etc).
FYI Lisa, not all Android phones are “Droids”. While Verizon has done an excellent job of marketing their Droid line (Droid, Droid 2, Droid Incredible, Droid X)of Android phones, the vast majority of Android phones (including ALL Android phones not on Verizon) are not “Droids”. *Tech nerd rant over*
It’s REALLY bad. Get a Droid. Wish I had one instead of this crappy AT&T-powered iPhone.
I bought my iphone on a whim while visiting Kat and NickyP. Worked great in LA, not so great here. Or maybe the magic has just worn off. Regardless, it does not work well at valencia and liberty.
I get calls dropped on the iphone in front of my house, in the garage, and in the front rooms of my house. It is maddening. I live on Utah and 24th. I also was unable to get coverage on 24th St. in front of Phil’s the other day. Yes, Mission coverage sucks. And don’t even think about trying to make a call at an event like Bay to Breakers or Maker Faire. Iphone ceases to work entirely in a crowd.
I had horrible reception with AT&T. Now I have a Motorola Cliq with Android through T-Mobile, and I love it. And it’s only about $8 a month more for unlimited everything than it was for AT&T for my old flip phone with no internet.
It is horrible – does not work near my house or work. It’s S.F.s fault however, not AT+T…same problem in NYC. Ask the SFGOV why. I dont have an iPhone – just a regular ATT job
I hate to admit it but I have an iPhone and YES AT&T is that bad. Here’s the good news. So many people call and complain about the service in our hood that
I ACTUALLY GET THE FUCKERS TO GIVE ME A SIZABLE DISCOUNT EVERY MONTH!!!!
Thats right, I call and say I get dropped calls, cant even use the dang phone in the house, (16th & Albion area)and I feel trapped in the contract that was sold to me with the promise of better service on the 3G network. The only drawback is I gottsta call every month about it and sometimes it takes a while.
I’m around 14th and Mission and it’s horrible. Horrible. That being said, I just resigned my contract to get an iPhone 4…which I can only use in one room of my house. I drop calls 1-2 times per 15 min or so when I’m just walking around. My phone often does not ring in the apartment, and I’ll receive texts hours after they were sent. We even bought the microcell and that does shit.
On top of that, AT&T has the worst customer service I’ve EVER encountered. Between upgrading 2 phones, switching from their DSL to U-Verse (they no longer offered normal DSL in our neighborhood), and buying a Microcell I’ve spent 40+ hours on the phone with them. No shit ya’ll.
all these comments – and I didn’t see one about all the worker deaths in the iphone factory – there are more important things that connection to think about!
than…
Lighten up. More people have died by jumping off the golden gate bridge. Does that mean we shouldn’t discuss the golden gate bridge?
Closer to 24th street is fine, closer to 16th street is awful. I call it the Dolores Park Dead Zone.
I live at SVN@20th St and get great reception on my iPhone. In fact, I never had any dropped calls anywhere in the Mission. So I find it hard to believe all the negative feedback. I’ve had the 1st gen iPhone, the 3GS, and now the iPhone 4. No problems with any of them.
I used to have a company issued Blackberry with Verizon and also had good reception within the Mission. They switched us over to Sprint and now I get zero coverage within the Mission.
I get basically no service at 16th and Valencia and the surrounding area. The service in the Bart tunnel cuts off between Civic Center and 16th, then again between 16th and 24th.
very usepul information. it’s so useful for me.
Thank you for sharing with us the information…