I got my 4S when it came out, and thought “Yay a world phone, if need be, it can now work in more countries”,
The thing was, I tried to think of what possible countries I could roam/connect in that I couldn’t possibility connect to before, it puzzled me because I found none.
Technically, since the iPhone 4S supports no new GSM bands (CDMA roaming doesn’t exist and is terrible), then technically it supports 0 new carriers?
This also puzzled me, Apple are claiming this “world phone” feature is a new feature, even as a selling point, yet it supports no new countries? I also made this table as a comparison, I did it briefly so their may be a few mistakes, but I see no additional countries on the 4S.
Now, I looked the iPhone 4, it supports
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (800 850 900 1800 1900 MHz) Quad-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (800 850 900 1900 2100 MHz)
Now the 4S supports,
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (800 850 900 1800 1900 MHz) Quad-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (800 850 900 1900 2100 MHz) (800 MHz unannounced) Dual-band CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A(800 1900 MHz)
Now sure its got a CDMA chip in there, but that only works in 1 country on 2 carriers, and it doesn’t roam at all. (Both carriers of which are moving to GSM-based networks), so is useless to most iPhone users.
Therefor it makes sense to also call the IPhone 4 a world phone, which means its not a new feature, and Apple shouldn’t be advertising it as such (and fanboys shouldn’t believe it either)
