Everything this commercial says is "mostly" true -- same as Verizon's.

The simple reality is that there are trade-offs:

1) AT&T has the fastest 3G network -- this is only true in theory and in certain markets. Real world tests often put AT&T barely above Verizon, and with much less coverage. Would you rather have 800kbps nearly everywhere, or 950kbps only in cities? Everyone's needs are different, but me, I'd rather have coverage in all the places where I live, work, and play.

2) Talk and surf at the same time -- very true, and there's no denying that Verizon (and Sprint) won't be able to offer this until LTE rollouts are well underway. No contest here. (That said, even as evil as they are, you don't see Verizon pimping 1xRTT like AT&T is pimping EDGE...)

3) Most popular smartphones -- this kind of subjective, as Verizon has many very popular smartphones as well, notable Blackberries. And how do you define smartphone? Can the iPhone tether out of the box yet? ;-) Again, everyone has different needs. Tethering is huge for me, and frankly the only thing that has kept me from at least trying the iPhone for 30 days (that, and MMS, copy/paste, video recording, autofocus, and many other things with which Apple was shamefully late).

4) 100,000 apps -- OK people, stop quoting app numbers. It just doesn't make sense, especially when 95% of those apps are borderline useless. Same goes for Android: I'm never going to have 10,000 apps on my phone, and the majority of them are pointless anyway, so why advertise it to me? Fail on all sides.

Thanks Tbone. I guess I'll be waiting for this phone to come to one of the Big 3. :-(

A question for the more technical folks:

Does T-Mobile use all the same spectrums as AT&T? More specifically, could I buy this on T-Mobile, cancel and put it on AT&T with no signal issues due to the phone's radio?

When you do the review, can you please restrain yourselves from paraphrasing "it's not the iPhone" in every paragraph?

Comparisons are one thing in a review, but blatant biases are not useful.

The only intelligent part of what you just said was "All four major carriers have good and bad areas in coverage," which is quite true.

In my area AT&T trumps T-Mobile pretty solidly on voice, and hands down on 3G -- I speak from experience, as I tried it for a few weeks when the G1 came out.

And for nationwide coverage, something important to those who travel often, AT&T and Verizon beat T-Mobile pretty thoroughly on voice, and astronomically on 3G (especially Verizon; it may be a little slower and pricier, but it's almost everywhere). No sensible individual can dispute this.

T-Mobile is cheaper for a reason. If it works for your needs, I'm happy for you, I really am. But it doesn't work for my needs.

@carcomptoy

Why are pretentious pricks so quick to defend the leader?

Apparently what you describe is as much of an iPhone thing than an AT&T thing, per some folks in the UK:
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/11/03/brit-blog-names-iphone-worlds-worst/?section=money_topstories

(Note: I've been on AT&T for years in the DC suburbs; a little spotty, but overall not bad at all for voice. 3G is another issue.)

And I speak the truth, T-Mobile's 3G coverage is pathetic. And I cite their recent voice outage simply because it's timely, it's high-profile, and it only serves to make customers of other carriers even more skeptical of the weakest of the Big 4.

Also, I'm not a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth fanboy zealot about my devices. While I'm sure many iPhone users might be happy to uproot their lives and move to where they have good 3G coverage on whatever carrier their new Apple-logo-bearing significant other is on, us sensible folks weigh the pros and cons of devices /and/ carriers before making a choice. :-)

Um...I don't personally consider T-Mobile US a "major" carrier, at least not when it comes to 3G coverage. And lately they can't even seem to keep their voice network going. :-/
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/11/03/t-mobile-usa-down-all-over-the-place/

AT&T or Verizon please....

I still want a "Pro" version with a keyboard...but that might not be an absolute dealbreaker.

Regardless, top priority for me is that it gets released by a U.S. carrier in less than 6 months -- the Touch Pro 2 took WAY too long.

I prefer this interpretation (from a previous post's comments):

http://images.birdy.nu/images/lightningballmer.jpg

Um...why is there no mention of call quality in this review of a PHONE?

Does engadget not have any friends they can call???