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iPhone 3GS Tops T-Mobile G1 and Palm Pre in JavaScript Benchmarks
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Cost
Twice as expensive, based on what math/logic?
An 8gb Pre (w/ 2-year contract) is $199 after mail in rebate
A 16gb iPhone 3GS (w/ 2-year contract is $199 (no rebate necessary)
A 32gb iPhone 3GS (w/ 2-year contract is $299 (no rebate necessary)
Why is this so hard for people to figure out?
Twice as expensive, based on what math/logic?
An 8gb Pre (w/ 2-year contract) is $199 after mail in rebate
A 16gb iPhone 3GS (w/ 2-year contract is $199 (no rebate necessary)
A 32gb iPhone 3GS (w/ 2-year contract is $299 (no rebate necessary)
Why is this so hard for people to figure out?
There will still be those who will saying that whatever future version of phone newly announced, that "this is the phone Apple should have first come out with."
I don't think so. Apple is trying to beat Flash on the mobile space; they won't allow Flash on iPhone until they admit "defeat".
They aren't using it to test browser speed - the article explains that they chose JavaScript performance because it provides one of the only fair comparisons between the different platforms.
Comparing CPU's based on MHz is generally meaningless when you are talking about different operating systems and hardware architectures. Similarly, at an application level its also hard to compare Android with Objective-C with WebOS because of the massive differences between each of them.
However, both the G1, Pre and iPhone share WebKit - the engine used in the respective web browsers, leading to a fair ground for benchmarking raw performance of the respective phones, relevant to each other.
Since we were talking about the EDGE iPhone in comparison to the 3G, my original iPhone 8GB with 3.0 just scored a 47.5s, which is right along the lines of the test value for the iPhone 3G. I didn't try resetting it or anything -- I just went to the site.
Based on contract prices. Someone said their Sprint bill was roughly half that of AT&T. I'm not sure about T-Mobile.
Hmmm yes attack me. Anyway there is no way its 3x faster with exact same hardware specs. Anway I want my 199 back... Shoulda kept 3G phone
The pre is 199.99 without rebate at best buy and radioshack. Also the hard drive is fairly unnecessary seeing as most people have 120 GB or the older 160 gb ipods.
Going by your logic, there shouldn't be any storage increases because everybody has ipods and want to carry around 2 devices. What about the photos we take, our videos, our apps, we should we store all that. I guess we should be storing them on our 120 gb ipods.
Hmmm yes attack me. Anyway there is no way its 3x faster with exact same hardware specs. Anway I want my 199 back... Shoulda kept 3G phone
You don't have any concept of how software works, do you?
Contract prices are slightly lower on T-Mobile (I pay for 3G but do not get it on the iPhone), although some of their prices have recently gone up. The effect is more pronounced for older contract holders. If I compare my contract to AT&T published prices...
Me = 1000 min @39.99, 400 SMS @4.99, Internet @ 19.99 = 64.97
The closest currently published T-Mobile plan (for comparison) is...
T-Mobile = 1000 min @39.99, Internet @24.99, 300 SMS @4.99 = 69.97
The closest published AT&T plan is...
AT&T = 900 min @59.99, 200 SMS @$5, data @$30 = 94.99
I think? It was a little hard to find a non-unlimited SMS plan on the T-Mobile site -- the price I put in above for 300 SMS is quoted when I searched for text messaging, but it didn't come up in the options when I tried to price out a G1 + plan. If unlimited messaging were done instead, then for the published T-Mobile plan, the internet rate jumps from $25 to $35 (but the $5 for SMS gets removed, so unlimited msging costs $5 additional to what's listed above) and for AT&T the messaging plan cost jumps from $5 to $20, so the published price difference becomes T-Mobile = $74.98 and AT&T = $109.99.
This is without MyFaves on the T-Mobile side; T-Mobile includes wireless hotspots on any device (I'm not sure if AT&T finally does that now, or if it's still officially only the iPhone) and AT&T includes rollover minutes, which T-Mobile does not.
This is also exclusive of any kind of corporate or FAN discounts. And it's exclusive of fees (I think fees may magnify the difference slightly, since I think some but not all fees scale slightly with the total monthly costs).
Of course this is also exclusive of all kinds of other differences like how many hotspots AT&T maintains vs. T-Mobile, how big the relative 3G coverage areas are, etc, etc.
So, from these calculations, based on the published rates for T-Mobile (not Sprint) and AT&T, at roughly comparable levels of plan feature, the T-Mobile plan cost is 74% of AT&T assuming limited messaging and 68% of AT&T assuming unlimited messaging.
I think if anyone is arriving at "half the cost," they are comparing a corporate discount / FAN type of plan on one network to a standard published rate plan on the other network, though.
EDIT: I don't completely understand how Sprint messaging pricing works, but the best comparison to the above numbers seems to be the "Everything Data" plan with 900 minutes, which is $89.99 for 900 minutes, data, and unlimited messaging, 81% of AT&T's cost. It seems to me that the biggest advantage arises on the Sprint published plan rates when one pays for unlimited everything -- this is only $99.99 on Sprint, and I think the comparable AT&T individual plan is $129.99 (unlimited talk and data) + $20 for unlimited messaging, which makes the Sprint plan 67% of AT&T's cost.
I think that this is a really good point. I am, of course, happy to have upgraded my 3G from 2.2.1 to 3.0, but in my practical, everyday use, I have seen no real improvement in speed. And certainly nothing like the improvement suggested by the graph on page 1. Again, I'm not saying that the graph isn't accurate; I'm just saying it is pointless.
I have a "FAN" discount on AT&T which gives me around 20-22% off my total bill which helps out and all it took was a quick visit to the store and a quick chat. If you find a nice rep they would add you on to save you some cash - it adds up with 5 lines.
Thanks -- yeah, I would definitely consider trying to do it if I got a 3GS. For the time being, I was just addressing the issue of published contract monthly costs. Every company has a FAN or corporate discount, and on average it doesn't seem like any one vendor's discount is any harder to get, so I guess that particular aspect is a wash in comparing the plans.