Possible cause of different speeds?

[zion168]

In the two weeks I've had my Tour, online browsing just didn't seem as fast as it should. It's marginally faster or no different than my Curve 8330m. So today I took it to a Sprint Corp. store and did a side by side speed test, the results surprised me.

First of all, let me just say that I know xtremelabs.com Speedtest application uses the BIS path and does not represent the carrier network bandwidth. But it DOES provide an excellent analysis of OTA browsing speeds if we hold all variables (location, time, device, etc) constant or as close as possible.

Test setup:
My Tour
- Activated on July 20 on SERO plan
- Made in Mexico-5
- All default software
- Network provision performed prior to test
- Network set to Sprint, Home Only, 1XEV
- Closed all applications except Speedtest
- Battery charge at 70%
- Loose battery door

Sprint demo Tour
- Activated on July 21 on Simply Everything plan
- Made in Mexico-5
- All default software
- Network provision performed prior to test
- Network set to Sprint, Home Only, 1XEV
- Closed all applications except Speedtest
- Battery charge at 95%
- Loose battery door

Test 1:
I downloaded the speed test app from http://www.xtremelabs.com/assets/mob.../speedtest.jad to both phones, then closed BB browsers and ran the test at the same time with the phones spaced two feet apart.

Results 1:
My Tour
Download: 445Kbps
Upload: 320Kbps
Signal: 80db

Sprint demo Tour
Download: 699Kbps
Upload: 245Kbps
Signal: 80db

Multiple tests were run, results varied within 10% of the above values.

Test 2:
I opened BB browser on both phones and loaded this web site iPhone speedtest. Again I ran the 3G test at the same time.

Results 2:
My Tour
Approx 220Kbps

Sprint demo Tour
Approx 250Kbps

Summary:
On Speedtest app the Sprint demo Tour consistently pulled in 30-50% faster speeds than my Tour. The variation is much smaller, however, on the web based iPhone speedtest.

I think the difference on the Speedtest app tests is significant enough that it can't be written off as normal variance. What do you guys think is causing it?