iPhone broadband WiFi performance

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BGN - 31 May 2008 16:10 GMT

I was interested to find out if there was any obvious difference with
the (WiFi) speeds on a normal PC and my iPhone.

To test this I have used the following speed tester which works on
both the Applie iPhone (1.1.4 software, jailbroken, Safari web
browser) and my PC (Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, Internet Explorer
7.0.6001.18000 web browser)

<http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/>

Taking ten tests on each device, each taken several seconds after the
other (First iPhone, note down result, then PC, note down result,
iPhone again, etc) over a period of about four minutes and here are
the results:

Test # iPhone (kbps) PC (kbps)
1 1804 1854
2 1816 1853
3 1817 1853
4 1821 1854
5 1815 1842
6 1810 1855
7 1810 1853
8 1808 1856
9 1814 1853
10 1807 1852

iPhone Average (mean) 1812.2 kbps
PC Average (mean) 1853.5 kbps

Therefore the iPhone is, on average, 41.3kbps slower at transferring
data over a WiFi network than a PC.

So what's this mean? Not much in real terms, unless you're
downloading huge files via WiFi on an iPhone, which you're not.

Anyone bored enough to try the above with an iPhone vs a phone with a
beefy processor like a Nokia n95?

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Adrian C - 31 May 2008 18:41 GMT

> iPhone Average (mean) 1812.2 kbps
> PC Average (mean) 1853.5 kbps
>
> Therefore the iPhone is, on average, 41.3kbps slower at transferring
> data over a WiFi network than a PC.

The iPhone OS kernal has been written with cycle by cycle analysis of
feature implications on battery life. Just doing what you've measured
within a 2-3% performance variance is remarkable in itself. Other WiFI
battery devices are slower - my Blackberry Pearl 8120 ain't too hot in
this department.

> So what's this mean? Not much in real terms, unless you're
> downloading huge files via WiFi on an iPhone, which you're not.

Well, not huge - but it's nice to watch iPod quicktime movies buffering
up quickly after starting so you can jump forward soon after you've
started watching, and same goes for downloading music and applications.

> Anyone bored enough to try the above with an iPhone vs a phone with a
> beefy processor like a Nokia n95?

Should be similar. Then the battery will run out ...

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Adrian C

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