Apple iPhone 5 (AT&T)

AT&T was Apple's first love. Thanks to the now-famous five-year exclusivity agreement, AT&T built up a huge population of fans who may now be interested in trading up to the iPhone 5 ($199/16GB, $299/32GB, $399/64GB with contract; $649-$849 without contract). While all the iPhone 5 models work the same in many ways, the carrier does make a difference, so we're testing them individually. AT&T's iPhone 5 offers the same Editors' Choice-winning hardware and software as the Verizon model does, but with a few twists. AT&T allows simultaneous voice and data, which makes the iPhone a much better car GPS when paired with a third-party app like Navigon. Depending on where you live, AT&T's iPhone may offer even faster Web page and game downloads than Verizon's model does. But AT&T's unit isn't unlocked for foreign use, and won't roam on LTE networks outside the U.S. and Canada.

iPhone 5 Basics and Call Quality
For the basics, read our in-depth . In short, the iPhone 5 is a beautifully built, fast and powerful smartphone with an unparalleled range of third-party apps. While many of its features are on par with other top smartphones, the terrific apps, games, and App Store experience are what really make this phone an Editors' Choice winner.

Various controversies have cropped up since the iPhone 5 was released, but none of them change our overall opinion of the phone. For a summary, see our full , and then our reports on the , how the otherwise excellent camera can show and Apple's apology for . Only the last problem gives me pause; we suggest downloading a third-party mapping app if you intend to use this phone as a GPS. Fortunately, .

We got a white model for AT&T, and so we got to compare it with the black unit we received for Verizon. I'd recommend the white model. In a week's worth of testing, our black unit chipped slightly between the volume buttons, leaving a little silver divot. Scratches are considerably less visible on the white handset.

 

Like the Verizon model, the AT&T iPhone is a very good voice phone. I actually got better call quality than on the Verizon model, with very sharp, very round voice tones and very good transmission quality. And the speakerphone was satisfyingly loud. A small amount of background noise came through on transmissions, but not enough to cause problems. The phone had similar RF signal performance to the AT&T .

AT&T Performance
The AT&T iPhone has faster overall Internet performance than the Verizon model, when AT&T's network behaves. That's the key issue. All iPhone 5 models run on two networks each: a 3G system, and a 4G LTE system. When we tested AT&T's 3G on this iPhone, I got consistently faster results than when I tried Verizon's 3G on an iPhone 5.  

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None of these caveats apply to AT&T's excellent, super-speedy 4G LTE network—except that AT&T's LTE just isn't available nationwide yet. If you're trading up from an AT&T 3G phone and LTE is available in your city, you're in for a treat. AT&T's network showed download speeds from 7Mbps to 25.5Mbps when I tested it using three different speed test apps on an iPhone 5. In our Fastest Mobile Networks tests, we also found AT&T's LTE network to be much more reliable than its 3G network.

What does this mean for standard apps like Web browsing? Our AT&T iPhone loaded a basket of Web pages in 21.4 seconds on LTE, and 71.5 seconds on 3G. Compare that to our Verizon test, which was 31 seconds on LTE and 127 seconds on 3G. AT&T's phone and network are faster, when they're working properly.

Some other AT&T iPhone 5 trivia: The phone takes about ten seconds longer than the Verizon model does to "trade up" from 3G to LTE when you end a call. And unlike on other AT&T LTE phones, you can turn off LTE with a simple switch if a weak LTE signal is killing your battery life. With a strong signal, though, the iPhone has very good battery life; I got 8 hours, 40 minutes of talk time in an area with solid 3G and LTE signals.

AT&T's iPhone roams on Canadian LTE networks, but it can't hit LTE in the rest of the world. That isn't too much of a hardship, though, if the countries you're going to have HSPA+ 42 networks, you'll get speedy connections that won't quite measure up to LTE, but they'll be fast enough for most people.

This model of the iPhone can also do simultaneous voice and data, unlike the Verizon and Sprint devices. When you're on a call, the iPhone drops back to AT&T's 3G network, and I got download speeds of 1-2Mbps while on a call—not super-speedy, but fine for downloading navigational data, for instance. This ability makes the AT&T iPhone 5 a much better choice than Verizon's for use as an in-car GPS.

Comparisons and Conclusion
There are two ways to slice this Apple: against other top AT&T phones, and against iPhones on other carriers.

The easiest call is against other carriers' iPhones. If any of these things are true, AT&T is probably the best iPhone carrier for you.

• Your city has AT&T LTE, or your city doesn't have Verizon or Sprint LTE
• Your city doesn't have reliability problems on AT&T
• Service plan price isn't a problem for you
• You want to use your iPhone heavily as an in-car GPS, and need to make calls while downloading map data

If you have LTE in your city, you should upgrade from an earlier iPhone immediately; the LTE network offers better speed, capacity, and most importantly, reliability. Without LTE, though, the upgrade question becomes harder. The iPhone 5 is much faster than the iPhone 4, and many iPhone 4 owners will be eligible for discounted models, so I'd say get it. But if you have a 4S that isn't up for an upgrade yet, it's hard to argue that the 5 is worth $649 without that LTE boost.

Against other top AT&T phones, it really comes down to size. Our other favorite AT&T phones, the Samsung Galaxy S III and  , are much larger than the iPhone. This can be a good thing—for instance, when you're using GPS apps, you want a big map. But it also makes the phones a lot harder to maneuver with a single hand.

Otherwise, the war between the Android and Apple platforms is mostly a religious war that only tech zealots care about, but there are a few differentiators. The Android phones are more configurable, have a superior built-in maps app, and better Gmail support. Apple's phones have far better customer support, they're simpler to use and have better third-party apps (especially games.) There. You decide.

The upcoming and Windows phones are wild cards in this game. As we've never been able to actually use them beyond simple demos, and Microsoft has said publicly that it hasn't revealed all the features of Windows Phone 8, it's impossible to assess those against the iPhone at this time. While Windows Phone 8 looks easy to use and may especially appeal to heavy Facebook users, it could have hidden flaws. We just don't know.

In any case, the Apple iPhone 5 on AT&T remains one of our Editors' Choice smartphones, and it's the first iPhone since the 4 to get that award on the AT&T network. Support for AT&T's speedy LTE network, along with the powerful A6 processor and big screen, make this an iPhone that zips along whether you're playing games or surfing the Web. If you have AT&T LTE in your city, it's well worth the upgrade.

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