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3G iPhone vs EDGE iPhone Speed Comparison
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It still took 16 seconds to load a page?
Hm.
3G impresses me less and less. If the next iPhone simply has 3G and GPS as the only additional things, I won't think about upgrading. 3G isn't anywhere in my area anyway!
But I am surrounded by wifi...
Hm.
3G impresses me less and less. If the next iPhone simply has 3G and GPS as the only additional things, I won't think about upgrading. 3G isn't anywhere in my area anyway!
But I am surrounded by wifi...
I question their methodology. But assuming it accurately represents 3G speeds, I'm a bit disappointed. It's faster, but still not all that fast.
Yeah...the way 3G people were beating up Apple for choosing Edge, I thought 3G was like the second coming. So it appears it might be twice as fast (at least on that guys street hehe). I'm glad something is coming along faster and all, but I'm a bit disappointed. Certainly not "Broadband" speeds at least in the U.S...
Although I'm sure you do it- Fully shutting down and Restarting the IPhone from time to time does help with some of the speed issues that occassionally pop up (just like restarting a computer).
Yikes, that Edge browsing is slooooooow. I would not even bother. this is why I held off on the iPhone as hard as it was to do. Cannot wait for 3G.
I don't know exact speeds, but I use a 3G card on AT&T with my MacBook Air. It is very fast. I can browse, use Slingbox, YouTube, all without feeling slow at all. It is not as quick as my cable modem at home of course, but it is faster than many WiFi connections I find in public and at my office.
Put simply, 3G on my laptop is an excellent experience, and I am hopeful that the 3G iPhone will prove the same.
And, did I mention that Edge is painful for anything other than email or some other push type data?
I don't know exact speeds, but I use a 3G card on AT&T with my MacBook Air. It is very fast. I can browse, use Slingbox, YouTube, all without feeling slow at all. It is not as quick as my cable modem at home of course, but it is faster than many WiFi connections I find in public and at my office.
Put simply, 3G on my laptop is an excellent experience, and I am hopeful that the 3G iPhone will prove the same.
And, did I mention that Edge is painful for anything other than email or some other push type data?
Ummmm, so this is one test of one page? How about a little scientific rigor here. Let's have time lapse videos of the same page rendered 10 times. Or get the average load of 10 different pages.
I won $10 on the lottery once, but that doesn't mean I'm going to win $10 every time I play.
I won $10 on the lottery once, but that doesn't mean I'm going to win $10 every time I play.
Yes, and computers work just like the lottery - you never know what you're going to get, that's why we use them for important scientific calculations.
Man the sarcasm is coming easy this morning...
some thoughts
First of all, this isn't a fair comparison in the least. There are so many variables in this process it's impossible to draw any conclusions.
1) Disregarding the iMac workaround for a second, as others mentioned, the actual throughput and latency of a 3G UMTS/HSPA connection depends on a huge number of factors, including cell-tower total bandwidth available, user saturation, distance from tower, tower transmit power, obstructions, etc.
2) 3G PCMCIA/expresscard laptop cards most always see a higher throughput than 3G cellphones, all else being the same. I'm not sure if the cause of this has to do with the 3G chipset used, the processing power of the host CPU, the total output power of the radio, or what else. So using a HSDPA iMac card isn't real fair.
3) the round-about mechanism of HSDPA express card-> PCIe bus -> software driver -> iMac-> software driver -> IMac Wifi radio -> iPhone WiFi radio -> software driver -> Safari has many places that could be possible bottlenecks for throughput, and even more importantly many places for added latency.
On a related note, one thing for everyone to remember is that 3G technology, including HSDPA (fast download) and HSUPA (fast upload), does not only improve average throughput by 3-10X, but just as importantly it *GREATLY* improves latency of the TCP/IP connection. So (without HTTP pipelining) when you load an average webpage on the iPhone (just like on a computer), mobile safari has to issue an individual HTTP request for every single element on the page including javascript files, CSS files, images, icons, etc and in SEQUENTIAL ORDER, waiting for each chunk of data to return before issuing the new request.
The result of this process is that data throughput is NOT the only factor affecting the loading of webpages. The latency on both the uplink (from phone to web server) and downlink (web server to phone) side of the connection can have a profound impact on how long a page takes to load. EDGE not only has a much slower data rate than HSDPA, but it also has a much higher latency. I believe it's in the 500-900ms range, and HSDPA improves this to 100-200ms. Conversely, HSUPA has the same affect on the uplink side of the connection. So although latency will not really improve raw file transfer times, it will have a significant effect on web page loading times. (NOTE that I specifically referred to HSDPA/HSUPA when talking about improved connection latency over EDGE. I did not mentioned the base 3G technology UMTS --- apparently UMTS by itself doesn't improve latency that much over EDGE)
First of all, this isn't a fair comparison in the least. There are so many variables in this process it's impossible to draw any conclusions.
1) Disregarding the iMac workaround for a second, as others mentioned, the actual throughput and latency of a 3G UMTS/HSPA connection depends on a huge number of factors, including cell-tower total bandwidth available, user saturation, distance from tower, tower transmit power, obstructions, etc.
2) 3G PCMCIA/expresscard laptop cards most always see a higher throughput than 3G cellphones, all else being the same. I'm not sure if the cause of this has to do with the 3G chipset used, the processing power of the host CPU, the total output power of the radio, or what else. So using a HSDPA iMac card isn't real fair.
3) the round-about mechanism of HSDPA express card-> PCIe bus -> software driver -> iMac-> software driver -> IMac Wifi radio -> iPhone WiFi radio -> software driver -> Safari has many places that could be possible bottlenecks for throughput, and even more importantly many places for added latency.
On a related note, one thing for everyone to remember is that 3G technology, including HSDPA (fast download) and HSUPA (fast upload), does not only improve average throughput by 3-10X, but just as importantly it *GREATLY* improves latency of the TCP/IP connection. So (without HTTP pipelining) when you load an average webpage on the iPhone (just like on a computer), mobile safari has to issue an individual HTTP request for every single element on the page including javascript files, CSS files, images, icons, etc and in SEQUENTIAL ORDER, waiting for each chunk of data to return before issuing the new request.
The result of this process is that data throughput is NOT the only factor affecting the loading of webpages. The latency on both the uplink (from phone to web server) and downlink (web server to phone) side of the connection can have a profound impact on how long a page takes to load. EDGE not only has a much slower data rate than HSDPA, but it also has a much higher latency. I believe it's in the 500-900ms range, and HSDPA improves this to 100-200ms. Conversely, HSUPA has the same affect on the uplink side of the connection. So although latency will not really improve raw file transfer times, it will have a significant effect on web page loading times. (NOTE that I specifically referred to HSDPA/HSUPA when talking about improved connection latency over EDGE. I did not mentioned the base 3G technology UMTS --- apparently UMTS by itself doesn't improve latency that much over EDGE)
Not sure about the value of comparing a make believe 3G iPhone to a real Edge iPhone.
There are too many variables, this makes no sense.
But what makes even less sense, is the fight in these pages over something that has little to do with reality.
Which one will be faster .... The grey elephant or the pink elephant?
The test is meaningless guys.
There are too many variables, this makes no sense.
But what makes even less sense, is the fight in these pages over something that has little to do with reality.
Which one will be faster .... The grey elephant or the pink elephant?
That's it? Only 2x faster? Maybe it's not worth the wait. Or only worth half the wait...
The test is meaningless guys.
a mildly ignorant question
So will the new iPhone have both 3G & EDGE support? What happens if you're in an area that is covered by EDGE, but not 3G?
So will the new iPhone have both 3G & EDGE support? What happens if you're in an area that is covered by EDGE, but not 3G?
3G chip is backward compatible, will use Edge if 3G not available.
Both (old and new) phones also can live in the same network.
I'd KILL for 384 kbs Edge; at best, in San Antonio (home of AT&T cellular) you get 140-150 kbs tops. And from what I experienced in the same location on an AT&T Tilt 3g topped out at 750kbs
There simply is no comparison. Either you realize this or you don't understand the technology. A 1-3% tick on your laptop while resolving, connecting, downloading, and rendering a page on your laptop is a highly intensive operation on a mobile device regardless of the actual content.
As far as the video goes, I have similar experience that makes me excited for 3G. One of my bandmates has a WM phone with WMWifiRouter on it, and the difference in speed is very noticeable.
No comparison is worthwhile..
...until you are holding a real 3G iPhone in one and and an EDGE iPhone in the other. This test is a joke. 3G will be nice, but not make a difference to many users. Some of us, however, will make the most of it.
...until you are holding a real 3G iPhone in one and and an EDGE iPhone in the other. This test is a joke. 3G will be nice, but not make a difference to many users. Some of us, however, will make the most of it.
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)
We all know it will be faster but we won't really know how much faster it will be until we can actually compare them side by side.
We all know it will be faster but we won't really know how much faster it will be until we can actually compare them side by side.
Where the Delay Come FRom
The buttons that you see when you first start the calculator are not actual buttons. Instead what you are seeing is what Apple calls a Launch Image. The Launch Image allows the phone to hide some of the application launch time by making the application appear to have already loaded. The application is fully loaded when the numbers appear on top of the buttons, replacing the original image.
If you have a Apple Developer Connection account you can read more about this topic here.
The buttons that you see when you first start the calculator are not actual buttons. Instead what you are seeing is what Apple calls a Launch Image. The Launch Image allows the phone to hide some of the application launch time by making the application appear to have already loaded. The application is fully loaded when the numbers appear on top of the buttons, replacing the original image.
If you have a Apple Developer Connection account you can read more about this topic here.
My wired broadband is 100Mbit both ways and it's 99 SEK (about 15 US dollars @ current exchange rates) Sorry, couldn't resist rubbing some salt in those wounds
But there is a BIG migration going on from wired broadband -> 3G currently here I think. Probably cause it's cheap, it's faster than (most) people need and it's easy.
But don't worry, this country is a total arse in other ways so it evens out
It would be like someone putting out a benchmark for a PowerBook G5. Hard to fairly benchmark something that doesn't yet exist (outside of Apple anyway). It's also likely to have other hardware specifications that would impact a comparison to the Gen. 1 iPhone.
You should be aware that services up 24mbit via ADSL2 are already available in australia dependant on where you live and that's through decent providers other than telstra.
And as for wireless, all of our mobile networks also currently support HSDPA at least up to 3Mbit with upgrades on the way and telstras 850mhz network had faster speeds again (if you want to pay through the nose for it). Well over your quoted wired broadband speed.
So it's not quite as gloom and doom as you might make out.
Jay
My wired broadband is 100Mbit both ways and it's 99 SEK (about 15 US dollars @ current exchange rates) Sorry, couldn't resist rubbing some salt in those wounds
But there is a BIG migration going on from wired broadband -> 3G currently here I think. Probably cause it's cheap, it's faster than (most) people need and it's easy.
But don't worry, this country is a total arse in other ways so it evens out
Broadband is a mess in the United States outside of a few regional areas that have competing cable and fiber-optic service. Basically, the phone lines are much older and crappier than their European equivalents, which has limited average DSL speeds to about 1-1.5Mbit/s. Worse, the idiot politicians (while the conservatives were in control) changed the telecommunications laws so that the cable and phone companies don't have to offer competitors wholesale services that can be resold to the public --- basically giving them a total monopoly. In most areas, including the 5 states I've lived in, an individual home or apartment will only have access to ONE cable company and if you are lucky, ONE DSL provider. There are some small-scale wireless ISPs that offer what is basically a 5+ miles WiFi link. My parents have that type of system. $100/month for 3mbits.
If you are really lucky, you live in an area where there is a fiber-to-the-home provider like Verizon. In those areas, the competing cable companies jack up the speeds and lower the prices to compete with cheap, high-speed fiber service. You can get up to bi-directional 50mbps, but that is generally expensive. 15mbit/down and 5mbit/up service is around $30-50/month. You sure as hell can't get anything for $15/month.
In areas where fiber is not available, cable broadband speeds and prices vary considerably. I would guess the average cable service speed tops out at 6-10mbit/s down and 1-2mbit/up for around $40-50/month. It's funny, in considering moving out of the country, I have broadband speeds/costs listed near the top for priorities.
