Verizon and AT&T clearly have a leg up on their slightly smaller competition. As Verizon was the first to adopt LTE, it also has the widest variety of LTE phones.
And it all started with the HTC Thunderbolt, Verizon's first 4G LTE smartphone
AT&T might be in second place for LTE phones, but it's a very distant second place. It's aggressively rolling out LTE phones, but there's still just not that much being offered.
Fortunately, AT&T's has a vast variety of non-LTE exclusives and partnerships, like the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket (a redesigned, LTE version of our pick for the best phone in the US). And the exclusives just keep coming - take Nokia, which recently announced a partnership to exclusively release the Lumia 900 on AT&T.
We've been pining for this phone since we had our first Lumia 900 hands on with it at CES.
Sprint has plenty of WiMAX-ified exclusives, but unfortunately many of these phones aren't much to write home about (though they do come at refreshingly low prices). In fact, Sprint's best phone is probably the iPhone 4S, which doesn't even include Sprint's current 4G standard.
For Android fans, there's the obnoxiously-named Samsung Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch (another alternative to the Samsung Galaxy SII). Windows Phone fans will have to settle with the HTC Arrive - their only Windows option.
The iPhone 4S: available on Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint
T-Mobile is the only carrier without the iPhone on its roster - which (love it or hate it) will obviously be a deal-breaker for some. They have several exclusives, like the Nokia Lumia 710 (a bigger deal before this week's announcement of the AT&T-exclusive Lumia 900).
Verdict
Which carrier has the best selection is a bit of a toss-up, depending on what you're looking for. If you're looking for LTE phones, Verizon's a no-brainer. But, if you fashion yourself a traveller, you'll probably want a GSM phone, and AT&T has plenty of top-line exclusives.
