A few years ago, I “upgraded” my phone to a new model that has 4G capabilities which made a little of a difference but nothing to write home about in most situations. Now I hear that Apple is dropping 4G from their branding because it simply isn’t available in many places that they are pushing their products. The question I probe today is it really worth any extra money or a more expensive phone?

Pros:

• Better Streaming of Videos/Music.
• Faster downloading applications.

Cons:

• Doesn’t work outside of metro areas… some times not well in them. I find that if 4G is available I can usually connect to WIFI in the area for much better speeds.
• Very little benefit on tasks like checking email or loading webpages.
• Makes phone plans cost more.
• Signal seems more sketchy and less refined than 3G.

To be fair most phones that now include 4G simply have better hardware, which allows them to operate better screens and more smoothly than cellular phones with basic 3g. This is good, but makes it very difficult to compare 3G/4G in many every day tasks. If you could get more updated hardware without ultimately paying extra for 4g I would jump on that bandwagon if it amounted to any appreciable savings.

Does your phone have 4G data? Do you find that it is a definite step up or if you didn’t have it, would you even notice?