iPad 3G vs iPad Wifi+MyWi: Speed Test Results

[HXGuy]

Just spent the last 40 minutes running speed tests on both an iPad 3G and a iPad Wifi via MyWi.

The results? Inconsistent. I would say at the end of the day, it is a tie between the two connection methods...though the MyWi setup did seem a bit more consistent compared to itself. The 3G iPad was kind of all over the place as you will see.

Web pages loaded just as inconsistently with the 3G loading considerably faster at time and then the MyWi loading faster at others.

A note on iPhone 3G that was being used for the tests. I am running MyWi without Rock. The battery drained approx. 50% (its a 3G so it doesn't show the %) in 40 minutes of testing and it got pretty hot...the hottest Ive ever felt an iPhone and Ive owned them since the first one on day 1. The phone was on the desk next to the iPad and not being used, the screen was off.

Both connected to the same home Wifi network gave pretty identical results.

Edit: Wanted to also mention that over 3G, the ABC App does not play video, it says to connect to a Wifi network. Using MyWi, the ABC App does work but the quality is crap. Netflix works on 3G but the quality is crap, same on the MyWi.


iPad 3G on the left : iPad + MyWi on the right

http://nitnelav.com/ipadspeed/3g2.jpghttp://nitnelav.com/ipadspeed/mywi1.jpg

http://nitnelav.com/ipadspeed/3g1.jpghttp://nitnelav.com/ipadspeed/mywi3.jpg

http://nitnelav.com/ipadspeed/3g3.jpghttp://nitnelav.com/ipadspeed/mywi2.jpg

[wombat888]

Thanks for the info. The battery drain and iPhone heat are all that I need to know personally, but others with different use patterns may not care as much about those things.

What is the mywi carrier and where are you located? (Edited to fix typo)

[HXGuy]

Its not MyFi...it's MyWi...the Jailbreak App, using it on a Jailbroken iPhone so it's over AT&Ts network. I'm in Phoenix, AZ.

[T4R06]

make sure your mywi is not running under the ROCK! try installing without rock and you will feel the difference on your iphone heating problems

[HXGuy]

make sure your mywi is not running under the ROCK! try installing without rock and you will feel the difference on your iphone heating problems

I do not have Rock installed.

[LSUtigers03]

make sure your mywi is not running under the ROCK! try installing without rock and you will feel the difference on your iphone heating problems

Why does it make a difference if you install it via Rock or Cydia? Isn't it the same app?

[tacoshell]

Questions:
iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS.

If it is iPhone 3G, what market? Trying to find out if it had been upgraded to the new 7.2 that the iPad 3G and iPhone 3GS support.

[HXGuy]

iPhone 3G in the Phoenix, AZ market.

[duky]

Oh boy I wouldn't want that thing burning a hole in my pocket! Or my poor lil iPhone being subjected to those heat levels for any large chunk of time

[tacoshell]

iPhone 3G in the Phoenix, AZ market.

Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami are supposed to be the first cities to get / have gotten the higher speeds. Other cities are not expected till the end of the year. So you should get the same speeds in general, but overall usage on a tower is constantly fluctuating so it will give mixed results like you saw.

[HXGuy]

Oh boy I wouldn't want that thing burning a hole in my pocket! Or my poor lil iPhone being subjected to those heat levels for any large chunk of time

I don't know about it burning a hole, it isn't that hot but it is very very warm, like I said, the warmest I've ever felt an iPhone.

I'm not an expert on electronics but I imagine it wouldn't be good for the life of the phone to have it hot like that if you run MyWi a lot. If you use it occasionally it should be ok I would think. Also, I dont know what would happen if you go to use the iPhone at the same time as it's tethered...say talking on the phone or using an iPhone app.

[TroyJam]

Oh boy I wouldn't want that thing burning a hole in my pocket! Or my poor lil iPhone being subjected to those heat levels for any large chunk of time

I'm posting this while tethered to my 3GS via MyWi (also in Phoenix) and my iPhone is cool to the touch after approx 30 min of browsing the web and watching a video on the ABC app.

[Advil]

I installed MyWi no rock, but it said I had to install "rock extensions" so I found it on cydia and installed it....does this matter? or should i remove it?

It's pretty decently fast on MyWi, I've yet to try it with atomic browser + adblock though. I bet that speeds things up even more!

[HXGuy]

I'm posting this while tethered to my 3GS via MyWi (also in Phoenix) and my iPhone is cool to the touch after approx 30 min of browsing the web and watching a video on the ABC app.

It may be because the speed tests were non stop, whereas when you browse the net, its not constantly downloading something.

By the way, I used a whopping 54MB of the 250MB for the testing. Damn that is a lot.

[tacoshell]

I'm posting this while tethered to my 3GS via MyWi (also in Phoenix) and my iPhone is cool to the touch after approx 30 min of browsing the web and watching a video on the ABC app.

My 3G does heat up, but the faster processor on the 3GS might not need to run as heavy. Can't wait for the new one in June.

[ReallyBigFeet]

I'm posting this while tethered to my 3GS via MyWi (also in Phoenix) and my iPhone is cool to the touch after approx 30 min of browsing the web and watching a video on the ABC app.

Thermal imaging pics or it didn't happen.

[Advil]

This isn't really the thread for it, but i uninstalled "rock extensions" and am currently on my iPad via mywi. It works fine and i think is actually faster than before. But that could be because I'm using Atomic with adblock.

[jjahshik32]

Wow 50% in 40 minutes! That's horrible battery life.

On my nexus one I got 6 hours and 30 minutes of continuous tethering to my iPad and it was consistently fast throughout the whole time. After the first 30 minutes of use I totally forgot that it was a tethered 3G connection and thought it was wifi lol.

Tmobiles 3G is awesomely fastttt! :)

[HXGuy]

Again though, were you actually downloading content for the 6+ hours?

[wombat888]

Was the Nexus One tethering via a cable or via bluetooth?

[Advil]

I'm currently streaming Pandora via MyWi on my iPad with the "Higher quality audio" setting switched on and not a single hiccup. Phone is slightly warm but nothing to be worried about I don't think.

Currently at 20 mb down, 1.2mb up and battery is down by 5%

[T4R06]

HXGuy- what is your mywi version? mine is 3.4.3

[skafia]

Here are my results.

iPhone 3GS MyWi (No Rock)

10MB file, I'm in SoCal.

http://img693.yfrog.com/img693/9325/8kz.jpg

Mine drains about 10% every 30 minutes.

[T4R06]

skafia - man, you have a very poor coverage. mine is just 3G and im getting double of your results

edit: tested again and im getting nearly 2mb

[Doju]

Wow 50% in 40 minutes! That's horrible battery life.

On my nexus one I got 6 hours and 30 minutes of continuous tethering to my iPad and it was consistently fast throughout the whole time. After the first 30 minutes of use I totally forgot that it was a tethered 3G connection and thought it was wifi lol.

Tmobiles 3G is awesomely fastttt! :)There is no way ANY phone could get 6 hours of 3G tethering. Especially 3G to WiFi tethering where it uses both antennas.

[jjahshik32]

Again though, were you actually downloading content for the 6+ hours?

I wasnt downloading anything heavy continuously but was just surfing the net continuously.

Yesterday night for some unknown reason my cable died (up this morning thank god) but I was using tethering from my nexus one via 3G. Anyway I was testing out my 3G speed for the heck of it and downloaded 4 streams of newsgroup download. Each stream was at a consistent 60-75 kb/s for the two hours that I was downloading while surfing the net was just as fast as not downloading anything.

For me for some reason, tmobiles 3G is much more consistently faster than the AT&Ts 3G that I had with the iPhone 3GS for the last 6 months.

On the arstechnica someone mentioned that the reason tmobiles 3G is faster is due to it having enabled hspa.

[jjahshik32]

Was the Nexus One tethering via a cable or via bluetooth?

Wirelessly as a hotspot.

[jjahshik32]

There is no way ANY phone could get 6 hours of 3G tethering. Especially 3G to WiFi tethering where it uses both antennas.

Well apparently I am. :) just make sure to kill all other background processes and just only run the app for tether in my case barnacle wifi tether app.

[skafia]

skafia - man, you have a very poor coverage. mine is just 3G and im getting double of your results

edit: tested again and im getting nearly 2mb

Good for you.

I just tested using a closer server and got about 1.2 mb a sec. Using speedtest.net's App which I think is highly inaccurate because the test files are so small. I think you should try a larger test file to be more realistic, Correct me if I'm wrong.

[T4R06]

Good for you.

call at&t and let them know your connection. of course dont tell you are tethering. its not acceptable. somebody from your location has a designated RF performance engineer. they are not working too hard.

by the way, i am a telecom engineer (RF/Microwave)

call and tell them that your internet data is not as good as advertised. they will visit the location. there is something wrong with the cellsite

[jjahshik32]

Here are my results.

iPhone 3GS MyWi (No Rock)

10MB file, I'm in SoCal.

http://img693.yfrog.com/img693/9325/8kz.jpg

Mine drains about 10% every 30 minutes.

Dallas tx? For some reason I think it's this guys wifi connection. Either that or his AT&Ts connection has a good burst in the beginning and goes slow afterwards with erratic speeds. Well for me tmobiles 3G is much more consistent and responds a whole lot faster than AT&T.

Maybe it's due to everyone sharing the AT&Ts 3G network since JUST about everyone has an iPhone now sharing the bandwidth. On campus every other person has an iPhone.

I remember when the first 2g iPhone was released with no software unlock I had to unlock my iPhone via geohots method with the hardware unlock where you'd have to take your iPhone apart and jump a very small trace board (took me 8 hours to do my first one).

At that time I was pretty much the ONLY one with an unlocked iPhone with tmobile showing on it lol. Felt special but not any more.

Now I've only seen 1 other person on campus with a nexus one and he's just as stoked as I am!

Everytime I see the 5-10 people next to me walking on campus with an iPhone I just chuckle inside saying been there done that but now moved onto the next best thing lol.

Perhaps the iPhone 4g will convince me back to the iPhone. But it's going to take ALOT to do so as out of the 50 phones I've been through the nexus one has taken the number one spot over the iPhone 3GS. :)

[CrAkD]

I did this test today with my wifi connected thru my 3gs and i got about 2.5mbps download. You can avoid the heat on the iphone by keeping it plugged in. When the phone is plugged in it doesnt even get warm. So i try to use it sparingly if im not by an outlet.

[Advil]

Ok here's my final results for pretty heavy but not ridiculous usage. Streamed pandora for 10 minutes, surfed the web, posted here once, sent an email with 3 screenshots, downloaded two speed test apps from the app store, ran a few tests.

Battery life dropped 13% (approx 30 min of use)
Phone is slightly warm but not hot by any means. Same warmth I always get after playing a game for a while or surfing the web on 3g for a while.
Ended up with like 60mb down total.

Speed tests were way odd tough. One app seemed much faster than the other, could just be the servers they used to test?

http://imgur.com/0B8kw.png
http://imgur.com/fr1FN.png
http://imgur.com/KZIAL.png

[skafia]

call at&t and let them know your connection. of course dont tell you are tethering. its not acceptable. somebody from your location has a designated RF performance engineer. they are not working too hard.

by the way, i am a telecom engineer (RF/Microwave)

call and tell them that your internet data is not as good as advertised. they will visit the location. there is something wrong with the cellsite

Thank you, what are they advertising the 3G at?

[teerexx52]

My wi fi speed at my house is about 7 times faster than my 3G

[jjahshik32]

Here are my results.

iPhone 3GS MyWi (No Rock)

10MB file, I'm in SoCal.

http://img693.yfrog.com/img693/9325/8kz.jpg

Mine drains about 10% every 30 minutes.

How are you guys taking the image of the tests from your iPad??

I just noticed which app your using from the iPad and downloaded it myself and just got 1521.86 Kbps.

I thought I'd get like 200 something Kbps but wow now that 500 Kbps seems slow on yours!

edit: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/4566661158_69c95b8826_o.png

The first time I did it I got a 919.47 Kbps.

[HXGuy]

Press the Home button and the Power button at the same time to take a screen image shot. It saves the photo in your Saved Photos folder in the Photos App.

[jjahshik32]

The crazier part is that on this speed test on the ipad for my 3g, its showing download 190.23 KB/s. But just last night I was getting 300 KB/s for download (and it was for 2 hours straight continuously)! That means my speed test should be generally faster in the real world usage of my nexus 3g tethered to my iPad. :)

I guess I was getting confused with Kbps and KB/s. LOL.

Looking at the Dallas Tx server, I guess I'm lucky that I live in Houston TX?

[skafia]

Wow, just got off the phone with ATT and the tech told me he had to update my IMEI number because I switched my iPhone with my wife without updating that number.

Well low and behold, my speeds have doubled to over 1MB a sec, which is slower than your speeds, but much faster for me! I'm ecstatic. Thanks guys.

[MacToddB]

iPhone 3G in the Phoenix, AZ market.

Perhaps AT&T is honoring the Arizona boycott? ;)

[MikePA]

I wasnt downloading anything heavy continuously but was just surfing the net continuously.
Then it's not an equivalent test of battery life.

[jjahshik32]

Then it's not an equivalent test of battery life.

Well I wasnt downloading any torrents or anything heavy continuously but I was surfing the net + watching youtube videos.

I'd say thats my daily usage patterns with an iPad so its a solid battery test. :D

No ones going to download torrents on the iPad or continuously.

Either way my 17" i7 macbook pro gets 11 hours of battery life with just wifi on and 1 notch of brightness (tested it on day 1 on campus and at home). If my nexus ones battery life is about to die after the first 6 hours, I can just usb charge it to my 17" mbp. :)

I'm more curious about the iPad's usb camera kit adapter, to see if I can hook up my nexus one when the battery is about to die to charge off the iPad's battery.

Either way, as I'm already paying $25 a month for Tmobile's 3g, I'm not about to drop another $30 a month on for the iPad. Have the best of two worlds, tethering. :)

It saves you money and efficiently use the 3g plan your already paying for and besides I dont need 3G EVERYWHERE I go. On my university's campus there is a wifi connection everywhere anyways, its just that once in a while the server will shutdown for maintenance or when 100+ students are connected to the same wifi connection it slows to a crawl and thats when tethering becomes useful.

If I'm in my car, I can just keep my Nexus one on its dock plugged into the car charger and tether it to the iPad if needed. But the android google maps comes with turn by turn directions via GPS anyway, so no need to use an iPad especially while driving!

Maybe if I go on a road trip with my friends then I can tether it to the iPad and use it at the backseat.

[Peter Harrison]

The battery drained approx. 50% (its a 3G so it doesn't show the %) in 40 minutes

Have you tried updating the OS sometime in the last year? It's been a LONG time since the % wasn't an option. I'm looking at my non-jailbroken 3G right now and it says 88%.

[HXGuy]

Have you tried updating the OS sometime in the last year? It's been a LONG time since the % wasn't an option. I'm looking at my non-jailbroken 3G right now and it says 88%.

Hmm...it's my wife's phone, but it is updated to the latest OS. Where in the Settings can I turn it on?

[MikePA]

I wasnt downloading anything heavy continuously but was just surfing the net continuously.
Then it's not an equivalent test of battery life.

[lcdbot27]

Have you tried updating the OS sometime in the last year? It's been a LONG time since the % wasn't an option. I'm looking at my non-jailbroken 3G right now and it says 88%.

Not sure why yours has this...the regular 3G does not have the battery % option. Are you sure you don't have a 3GS or the settings weren't messed with using SBSettings or something?

[barefeats]

I tried Verizon's MiFi with my iPad WiFi. I saw a maximum of 600Kbps. Took it back.

Then I tried the Sprint 4G OverDrive. This time I got 4500Kbps on the iPad. I kept it.

Because it supports up to 5 devices, I use the Overdrive with my iPhone 3GS (since AT&T's 3G data coverage is poor in our town). And I also use it on the MacBook Pro when there is no WiFi. The MBP gets even faster speeds for some reason -- up to 6500Kbps.

[jjahshik32]

Then it's not an equivalent test of battery life.

Why are you quoting me again??

Surfing the net on an iPad continuously IS a test of battery life.

You do not make any sense.

[RabidBear]

Hmm...it's my wife's phone, but it is updated to the latest OS. Where in the Settings can I turn it on?

Settings --> General --> Usage --> Battery Percentage On

[MikePA]

Why are you quoting me again??

Surfing the net on an iPad continuously IS a test of battery life.

You do not make any sense.

So, I double posted by accident. Get over it. :rolleyes:

The OP was doing download tests while you were simply surfing the Internet. You can't compare battery life using these 2 different tests.

[jjahshik32]

So, I double posted by accident. Get over it. :rolleyes:

The OP was doing download tests while you were simply surfing the Internet. You can't compare battery life using these 2 different tests.

Fair enough about his battery life test compared to mine but my point is in general who's going to use their iPad to continuously download things? Maybe a small app from the app store here and there but most likely almost everyone will just surf the web and stream videos.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that my battery test is more realistic.

[cheekyjeremy]

Here in Houston, TX, the iPad 3g is only slightly slower than wifi. I tested the 4 options I have available to me, and they are (from left to right) as follow:

iPad 3g - 2.37mbps download
iPad tethered through miwi - 1.97mbps download
iPad tethered verizon mifi - 1.72mbps download
iPad through wifi - 2.5mbps download

http://gallery.me.com/cheekyjeremy/100269/Speedtest/web.jpg

[imacdaddy]

Whats the point of this test if the 3G connections are coming from the same carrier and same cell tower? Of course the speeds will be relatively the same.

A better test would be iPad 3G vs iPad via MiFi on another carrier or using Sprint 4G.

But thanks anyway.

[cheekyjeremy]

imacdaddy, I gave you ipad 3g vs iphone tethering, vs Verizon vs wifi. What's missing with that ?. Sprint blows chimps, so it hardly counts as you'd be stuck on Sprint

[imacdaddy]

imacdaddy, I gave you ipad 3g vs iphone tethering, vs Verizon vs wifi. What's missing with that ?. Sprint blows chimps, so it hardly counts as you'd be stuck on Sprint

Actually My comment was to the OP. I didn't see your post until I posted.

I'd like to see a wifi signal comparison between the iPad models and if the 3g+wifi is better because the back is different.

[cheekyjeremy]

I couldn't find any relevant difference on wifi speeds between the iPad 3g and and the standard wifi only ipad. The numbers were pretty much the same

[tttexxan]

Last time I checked free was free!! My wifi plenty fast tethered to my iphone while all you suckers pay the man

[pkdoyle]

imacdaddy, I gave you ipad 3g vs iphone tethering, vs Verizon vs wifi. What's missing with that ?. Sprint blows chimps, so it hardly counts as you'd be stuck on Sprint
Jeremy, have you actually tried Sprint's 4G or was your comment just you being cheeky? ;) I think you guys have 4G in Houston don't you? I am in the Dallas area and we have it here but I have not had the opportunity to try it.
Also, I am wondering why your WiFi is so slow. When I am at home I consistently get 13-18Mbps! It rocks! :cool:

[bosox2009]

Location: near Boston
Server: Boston

WiFi
Verizon FIOS (wireless G w/FIOS router)
19.2 Mbs down
4.5 Mbs up

3G
2.4 Mbs down
287 Kbs up

Source: speedtest.net iphone app

[Travisimo]

Location: Quad Cities IL/IA
Provider: Mediacom cable

WIFI
15 mbs DOWN
2 mbs UP

3G
3 mbs DOWN
.33 mbs UP

Using Speedtest.net iPhone app. Results were different each time I ran the test over 3G. I averaged 3 mbs down which I thought was pretty good, with some bursts over 4 mbs. Upload was much slower.

[cheekyjeremy]

Jeremy, have you actually tried Sprint's 4G or was your comment just you being cheeky? ;) I think you guys have 4G in Houston don't you? I am in the Dallas area and we have it here but I have not had the opportunity to try it.
Also, I am wondering why your WiFi is so slow. When I am at home I consistently get 13-18Mbps! It rocks! :cool:

You know, we were both complaining that the wifi seemed slow last night too, so it may have just been a network issue. i'll reset it today and see if it makes any difference. As far as sprint goes, they have some great things and some terrible things. As mentioned, I am out on the road about 300 days per year with 9 other people. We have a selection of phone and networks, and the t-mobile and sprint folks really suffer out there compared to the att and verizon folks. In the LA/NY area, Verizon blows att apart, but truthfully, for most of the rest of the country, the att folks beat the verizon folks.

The drop outs that happen on calls etc to me when I am in NYC/LA, never seem to happen to me in Houston (or really anywhere else for that matter).

I am sure the sprint 4g mifi thing is excellent for some, and in some areas, for me it's really a pricing issue on that one.

[moviecouple]

Curious what Adblock is that Advil is referring too?

[markyr17]

Here are the results for the 3Gs tethered with my wifi iPad.

http://www.markyr17.com/IMG_0008.PNG

Note: The previous tests were done using my 3G tethered to my iPad. I am from upstate, NY where we just recently got 3G coverage, and so far, it has not disappointed one bit.