- Verizon iPhone comes with a Qualcomm “Gobi” MDM6600 wireless chip, which supports both GSM and CDMA. The Qualcomm MDM6600 chip supports HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps as well as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. A/Rev. B.
- The location and design of the RF components such as EMI (electromagnetic interference) shields, connector locations including board layout has been changed compared to the GSM iPhone 4.
- Apple has redesigned the vibrator and has moved it to the bottom left corner instead of top right section of the phone.
It’s not clear why Apple did not launch a single model supporting both GSM and CDMA networks. iFixit’s CEO Kyle Wiens speculates:
It may be that it was easier to design antennas for a CDMA-only phone—this phone supports two cellular frequency bands, while Apple supports five bands in the GSM version. But this is a sign that Apple may be considering unifying the CDMA and GSM iPhones in the future.
Apple did not launch a single model