Why does the BOLD post slow DL / UL on speedtest...?

I was playing with a buddies' 3G S and 3G and these things blow the BOLD out of the water when it comes to browsing. I mean same network, same location, same bars, and the iPhone posts about 1.5 to 2.2 Gbit/s and my Bold a mere 260 Kbit/s to 450 Kbit/s. The speed difference is considerable and we were standing on the same spot... Next time I will make sure it was not over WIFI! As the place has free WIFI, but I could have sworn they were telling me they were on 3G.

Originally Posted by Agonz010

I was playing with a buddies' 3G S and 3G and these things blow the BOLD out of the water when it comes to browsing. I mean same network, same location, same bars, and the iPhone posts about 1.5 to 2.2 Gbit/s and my Bold a mere 260 Kbit/s to 450 Kbit/s. The speed difference is considerable and we were standing on the same spot... Next time I will make sure it was not over WIFI! As the place has free WIFI, but I could have sworn they were telling me they were on 3G.

1.5-2.2 Gbits? are you serious? high speed internet user don't see that much bandwith, i think you mean mbits not Gbits

Originally Posted by my240sx88

1.5-2.2 Gbits? are you serious? high speed internet user don't see that much bandwith, i think you mean mbits not Gbits

I think you're right.

Oh, and yeah, make sure they weren't connecting via WiFi... Sounds iffy, but not out of the question. I have both (3GS and Bold) and I notice a significant difference, too, with the winner being the 3GS.

Its because all data goes through RIM servers.

IMO the speed difference is insignificant unless you are tethering. The BOLD is more than capable and speedy for on device browsing, radio/video streaming etc.

^sure the bold can. but relatively speaking, it lags (even with opera mini browser), the experience leaves a little to be desired. and yea, data goes through the RIM server. but forget web browsing on a phone, too small anyways.

as for data transfer rates...i dunno. it depends:
Bold:


Iphone 3G:

How did you get that speed test to show like that? Is it an application or the web page? And yeah Mbit/s not Gbit/s vs Kbit/s my bad....

Are you tethering both iphone and BOLD with your comp during the speed test? I haven't seen the 2nd pic like that before on speedtest.net.

Yeah, I'd kind of like to know why my Bold doesn't get anywhere close to what my laptop gets on WiFi. I get about 3Mbps on my laptop, but the BEST I've ever gotten with my Bold is 500Kbps. It's usually more like 200-400Kbps.

Is it really because it all goes through RIM servers? Is there a way to speed it up?

I think someone said it was like this because the Bold compresses data, while the iphone does not. And thats a big reason why the iphone battery stinks.

Compare browsing experience on bold vs iPhone. iPhone isn't crappy mobile browsing... it's the real thing. Apple built their phone as a multimedia phone (with horrible multi-tasking abilities:() and that includes the web now.

i apologize. lemme clarify. currently speed tests does not offer an app for the bold. so it was tethered. the iphone is using the iphone speed test app, used directly off of the iphone. The bold was tethered via usb, and although tethering may hinder the speed a little, those are the ball park numbers you will get with the bold.

The numbers are not so important as the real world results are. I find browsing on my Bold to be plenty snappy - to the point where, despite being around WIFI all the time, I almost never connect to it because the time gained would not outweigh the time spent connecting.

Who really cares what the speed test numbers are anyways - they are heavily effected by network traffic and your precise location at that moment.

Originally Posted by jeffreii

The numbers are not so important as the real world results are. I find browsing on my Bold to be plenty snappy - to the point where, despite being around WIFI all the time, I almost never connect to it because the time gained would not outweigh the time spent connecting.

Who really cares what the speed test numbers are anyways - they are heavily effected by network traffic and your precise location at that moment.

I agree that it's generally fast enough. But I'd still like to know the technical reasons why my WiFi dl speed is consistently less than 20% of my dl speed on my laptop, when I'm sitting in the exact same spot using both. It's not a one time thing...it's every time I test it. Every time. There has to be a reasonable explanation as to why.

Originally Posted by LuvMyBB

I agree that it's generally fast enough. But I'd still like to know the technical reasons why my WiFi dl speed is consistently less than 20% of my dl speed on my laptop, when I'm sitting in the exact same spot using both. It's not a one time thing...it's every time I test it. Every time. There has to be a reasonable explanation as to why.

I'm gonna be very vague and guess "hardware limitations." In my experience, even if you have two laptops sitting next to each other, connected to the same WIFI, you will have some variance in the speeds. Possibly due to something as simple as a different wireless chipset in the laptops.

Not only does your bold certainly have a different wireless chipset, but it also has severe limitations on processor power and memory, when compared to your laptop. You may even be experiencing issues with write speed to your flash memory. Without being an expert on the hardware and wireless technology in the Bold, I can't tell you which one is the bottleneck - but it may be a combination of everything.

It's still rather insignificant though, in my opinion.

i agree. i'd have to say its hardware limitations (system cache and TIF's to harddrive) on the bold in comparison to laptops thats causing the difference. browsing speeds on the the bold between wifi and 3g are insignificant. I can only tell on data intensive websites.
However, the difference is night and day between wifi on my netbook, and tethered internet via bold 3g to on my netbook.