Now there's a too-big iPhone, a too-small iPhone, and a just-right iPhone: the iPhone 6. The newest iPhone's biggest feature is that it's bigger, and yes, that's a big deal. Although most apps aren't yet coded to take advantage of the iPhone 6's additional real estate, the new phone puts Apple's beloved operating system and gorgeous third-party apps into a body that no longer looks and feels cramped. That's enough to earn the iPhone 6 an Editor's Choice award on AT&T.

Here's the deal: The AT&T iPhone 6 is actually the exact same unit as the Verizon iPhone 6 (and, for that matter, the T-Mobile iPhone 6.) There are really only two iPhone 6 models: one for Sprint, and one for everyone else. So for most of the details on the iPhone 6, read the Verizon Wireless iPhone 6 review.

But there are some differences worth highlighting here: network banding, pricing, and the competitive landscape.

Editors' Note: This slideshow is from when the phone had a Verizon SIM card in it, but it's the same phone.

AT&T's Pricing

AT&T's pricing is very similar to Verizon's, and it offers several different ways to buy your iPhone. You can pay $199-$399 up front and sign a two-year contract, based on whether you want the 16GB, 64GB, or 128GB models.

You can also sign up for AT&T's confusing Next plans, which charge nothing up front, but tack $27.09 to $42.50 monthly onto your bill in exchange for letting you hand back the phone in either 12 or 18 months and receive a new model. While these plans are generally more expensive in the long term than selling your phone on eBay, they're a boon for people who never get around to selling or handing down their phones.

If you buy an on-contract or AT&T Next phone, it will be locked to AT&T. If you get it unlocked from AT&T, you can move it to T-Mobile or (with some trickery) Verizon. If you want a factory-unlocked iPhone, buy it straight from Apple, and it'll work just fine on AT&T. Unlocked iPhones cost $649-$849.

Network and Voice Calling

AT&T currently has the most primitive voice-calling setup of any of the major carriers; in most of the country, it lacks both HD Voice and voice-over-LTE. As a result, call quality on the iPhone 6 was just okay, as I saw on the Verizon model. It's not up to the enhanced clarity and noise cancellation of the Samsung Galaxy S5 or BlackBerry Passport ($186.00 at Amazon) .

That may change soon, though. AT&T is trying out both HD-quality calling and VoLTE in a few parts of the Midwest, and the iPhone 6 is supported. The carrier also intends to launch voice-over-Wi-Fi in 2015, and the iPhone will likely be supported there, too. So you'll see call quality steadily improve on your iPhone 6 with time.

If you've been experiencing slow AT&T speeds with previous iPhones, a new iPhone will help—down the road. The iPhone 6 supports carrier aggregation, a strategy AT&T will use next year to start knitting together disparate chunks of spectrum into a broader, single highway. Older iPhones, even the 5s, didn't have this ability.

The new iPhone also supports Band 29, a new chunk of 700MHz spectrum AT&T purchased which is designed to speed up downloads nationwide. The LG G3  and Samsung Galaxy S5 Active  also support Band 29. No previous iPhone had Band 29. This won't have an immediate affect on your speeds, alas; AT&T has been coy about when it'll deploy the new spectrum, and it won't be until the beginning of 2015 at the earliest. But it's there, and it'll help when AT&T turns on the new airwaves.

Comparisons and Conclusions
There are two questions here: Should you pick an iPhone on AT&T, and should you pick AT&T for your iPhone?

The iPhone 6 is a premium experience focused on simplicity, and if that's your bag, you're going to love this phone. The closest Android competitor on AT&T is the 2014 Moto X ($179.99 at Amazon) , and it's a really tough call between the two of them. I'm happy to let both co-exist as Editors' Choices: I prefer Google Now to Siri and Android's widgets to iOS's app grid, but the iPhone's camera just crushes the Moto X's, and the iPhone's design is even more luscious. The Samsung Galaxy S5, meanwhile, has a brighter screen and sturdier frame, but falls behind those two phones on elegance.

As for choosing AT&T as your carrier, take a look at our Fastest Mobile Networks results. AT&T came in the middle of the pack this year; it doesn't have Verizon's fast XLTE speeds, or Sprint and T-Mobile's low prices. What it does have is better LTE coverage than the two lower-cost carriers, especially in rural and suburban areas—upstate New York and New England, for instance, have much better AT&T than T-Mobile or Sprint coverage. Remember, if you buy an unlocked phone up front, you can try out several carriers until you find the right mix of coverage and service for you.

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Further Reading

• Report: Midrange ‘OnePlus Z’ to Ship With 5G Connectivity
• US 5G Phone Share Rises to 20 Percent Thanks to Galaxy S20
• COVID-19 Causes Smartphone Market to Suffer Biggest Annual Decline Ever
• Report: Xiaomi Phones Scooping Up Tons of Web Browsing Data, Even in Incognito Mode
• Blue Wireless Shutting Down After Selling Spectrum to Verizon