[pinkert11]

So, I thought I would run a little test on my playbook internet speed bridged and tethered. Then I ran a little speed test using my notebook, wired and Bluetooth connection to my 9810. The results are a bit staggering. All test were run at speedtest.net. All tests were done on the normal browser.

The worst - Bridge - Download 0.81, up 0.03 Mbps

The next - Laptop via Bluetooth - Down 1.03, up 0.06 Mbps

Then Playbook via tether - Download 1.07, Up 0.51 Mbps

The fastest - Corded Laptop - Download 5.92, up 3.77 Mbps

This is way outa wack. So why would you want a LTE or 3G playbook? The answer is so you can get 3G or LTE speeds on the playbook. The bottle neck that Bluetooth makes is simply unreal. RIM needs to figure out a way to get past this by allowing users to cable link the BB to BP for some real speeds. I would love this option when I really need some good speed beyond browsing.

One interesting thing is that when bridged the connection ISP is noticed as "Research In Motion", when tethered the ISP is noticed as "Bell Mobility" the same as on my notebook.


It makes this all the more interesting question

[Cozmik]

Your post got me thinking. I just ran the tests on my iPhone/iPad combo.

Wifi hotspot- 4.84 down, 0.97 up.
BT tethered- 1.54 down, 1.02 up.

BT is a definite bottleneck

Will be doing this tonight with my wife's PB/Torch and her PB/ my iPhone. Would be interesting to compare the numbers.

Also, all tests done using speediest.net as well.

As an aside, RIM really needs to get the wifi hotspot feature activated on their phones ASAP.

[adrenaline_x]

Bluetooth v1.2 is limited to 1 Mbps.
Bluetooth v2.0 is limited to 2 Mbps.

That is wifi hotspots are important on the new BB devices when its enabled so we can benefit from the HSPA+ speed improvements on those devices.

[EGerhardt]

There is practically no reason why you would even want to connect your BB to your PB by cable. I mean, yes it would give you better connection speed, but it would be hideously impractical.

Even with a standard 3-foot cable you are going to be seriously limited in how you use the PB. It would work ok if you were just sitting still with the BB on the desk and holding the PB up, but other than that any significant movement would pull the connector out (forget having the BB in a pocket for example) and just not be worth the bother.

Personally, I don't see the big deal at all. At home, I have wifi, at the office I have wifi and there is a lot of public wifi out there other places you might want to chill with you PB, Starbucks and such like.

Outside of that, the only place where I am certain to not have wifi is on public transport, and you aren't going to get good speed when you are moving anyway because you never do. Even with full signal, being in motion radically reduces the speed.

The only thing that a faster connection from you BB would really help as such would be streaming video, and honestly data caps don't make that a smart option anyway. While its cool to be able to stream video and stuff, its not making or breaking the experience for me. As long as bridge is giving me my emails etc and a usable browsing connection (sure faster is better, but that always comes with a price) I'm happy with the performance.

The reason why I went for a PB anyway is specifically because I could mate it with my BB and wouldn't need to get another data contract for it. However, for those of you who DO want high speed away from wifi you probably shouldn't have got what is in essence a wifi only tablet, and waited for the 3g/4g versions to come out, because that was ALWAYS going to be way faster.

Oh and while wifi hotspot has its uses, do remember just how much it melts your battery life. All I can say is that its absolutely not the answer to the problem in terms of everyday use, its pretty much just a parlor trick that everyone throws in these days. Tethering by BT is useful because of its way lower power consumption (I can leave my BB and PB connected all day without charging if I want to) where as wifi from my android phone will give me an hour at best. Since the PB is comfortable doing it by BT, its the best compromise for daily use. Other tablets, well.. less so, but thats what you get for not buying RIM. As for laptops etc, then tethering by cable is a way better option. If you are going to need to have the phone running on external power anyway you may as well just run a cable to the laptop.

[lnichols]

RIM really needs to work on getting BT 3.0, which the Playbooks chip supports, up and running, and hopefully they have 3.0 capable hardware in the 7.0 phones. BT3.0 essentially switches the connection over to 802.11 when needed, and can support up to 24 Mbps. The BT chip on the Playbook also supports FM radio which would be a cool little app to have.

[pinkert11]

There is practically no reason why you would even want to connect your BB to your PB by cable. I mean, yes it would give you better connection speed, but it would be hideously impractical.

How is this for real life reason. On the long week-end I was camping 4 hours north of Toronto in the middle of no where. At 12:30 am I get an email from an Executive VP, then a couple of others that our lotus domino (email and apps) server in Asia (Shanghai) is not working. The local on call tech can not solve the issue. So I grab my playbook, tether it to my 9810 then connect to a computer in Toronto via Logmein and then rdp to the Asia server. Sixty min. later the issue is resolved and a half or more day is not lost for 40 to 50 people. All of this was done while my daughters (5 & 8) and wife were comfy and sleeping in the tent beside me and I did not wake them by having to leave the tent and walk 15 min back to the car to use my laptop.

With a 5 Mbps connectivity vs <1 Mbps I could have been done a lot faster and smoother, and plugging in a wire at while snug in my sleeping bag would not be a bother, no more so then the earphones I was using while watching True Blood.

I purchased a playbook for mobility, versatility and speed but lets be honest most of the times it is used the user is stationary. You are not walking down the street or riding your bike ect. The option to use a cord for that fast speed when needed would be awesome, not to mention uses no extra battery like Bluetooth does.

I admit that there are better options the BT 2.0 such as BT 3.0 or wifi-hot spot but a cable and a modem app would be very quick to implement and would work for all series of existing BB.

[sophace]

I have to agree on battery consumption for wifi hotspot. When I used it on an iPhone it burned through the battery very quickly, to the point where I think it negates any speed advantage. I am impressed that I can keep the 9930 and the Playbook in bridge mode all day with what seems like little impact on battery life.

Question - It appears the difference between tether and bridge downloading is not as significant as I thought it would be (around 20-25% slower) if you take the OP's test results. Do you think this will push providers to force RIM to take the bridge data tether out? Or go back to the original release of only access through the bridge browser and no other apps?

[louzer]

How is this for real life reason. On the long week-end I was camping 4 hours north of Toronto in the middle of no where. At 12:30 am I get an email from an Executive VP, then a couple of others that our lotus domino (email and apps) server in Asia (Shanghai) is not working. The local on call tech can not solve the issue. So I grab my playbook, tether it to my 9810 then connect to a computer in Toronto via Logmein and then rdp to the Asia server. Sixty min. later the issue is resolved and a half or more day is not lost for 40 to 50 people. All of this was done while my daughters (5 & 8) and wife were comfy and sleeping in the text beside me and I did not wake them by having to leave the tent and walk 15 min back to the car to use my laptop.

With a 5 Mbps connectivity vs <1 Mbps I could have been done a lot faster and smoother, and plugging in a wire at while snug in my sleeping bag would not be a bother, no more so then the earphones I was using while watching True Blood.

I purchased a playbook for mobility, versatility and speed but lets be honest most of the times it is used the user is stationary. You are not walking down the street or riding your bike ect. The option to use a cord for that fast speed when needed would be awesome, not to mention uses no extra battery like Bluetooth does.

I admit that there are better options the BT 2.0 such as BT 3.0 or wifi-hot spot but a cable and a modem app would be very quick to implement and would work for all series of existing BB.

A better solution would have been to let people know you would be on vacation and set an email autoresponder. The fact that you made a subliminal typo where you referred to your tent as your text says that you maybe need more time away

[pinkert11]

A better solution would have been to let people know you would be on vacation and set an email autoresponder.

Not a vacation, simply a long week-end and I don't get paid what I do to ignore bad situations. Now I can tell you the poor junior who reports to me and was on call that night and did not respond was made well aware of this failure.

[willtothewong]

RIM really needs to work on getting BT 3.0, which the Playbooks chip supports, up and running, and hopefully they have 3.0 capable hardware in the 7.0 phones. BT3.0 essentially switches the connection over to 802.11 when needed, and can support up to 24 Mbps. The BT chip on the Playbook also supports FM radio which would be a cool little app to have.

that is very interesting! a keyboard powered QNX device sometime next year w/ BT 3.0 would be perfect!

Bridge would be a much bigger selling point if it could stream moves and music from your phone. Since the Playbook does not have a microSD port, you could use your phone as the SD slot =D

[info600]

it would be better if the bridge between a BB and Playbook was an actual 2-way connection, either:
1. allowing either control of the BB from the Playbook (ie. skipping tracks on the BB from the playbook)

2. the other way around (ie. streaming music AND bridge browser data from the BB to Playbook)

ps. can't seem to search out topics regarding the bridge limitations...

[kbz1960]

Too bad the new phones only have bt 2.1

[kill_9]

Outside of that, the only place where I am certain to not have wifi is on public transport, and you aren't going to get good speed when you are moving anyway because you never do. Even with full signal, being in motion radically reduces the speed.

I find the MiFi has sufficient speed to allow streaming while on the move. Sure it is a separate data plan but I bought it primarily as an ad-hoc WiFi-sharing device for meetings. That said, I normally find the connection speed in bridged-mode between the tablet and smartphone good enough much of the time.

[sportline]

a 3G playbook should have been released from the beginning. then there's no issue with bridge and so forth...its a full functioning, high speed tablet. always connected. no issue with multiple ID, carrier blocking, ( since it is paying a data plan). the bridge is a piecemeal solution - heck a 5 years old Nokia can do tethering via bluetooth.
a 3G capability will bring playbook to a different league, which is full BIS/BES service, that other manufacturer don't have. bbm, pim, push email, and connectivity.