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

[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.

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?

 

[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.

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:

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.

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.

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