Hasta La Gadget!

There’s been talk the last couple days about the fact that there really isn’t anywhere in the States to take advantage of the blazing 7.2Mbps downlink connection supported by the iPhone 3GS — except for one great hope, one diamond in the rough that could become a shining destination for 3GS owners the world over. That destination would be Chicago, where AT&T fired up 7.2Mbps trials late last year, and the hope was that they might be letting lay folk (like us) in on the action in time for the 3GS release. Well, we’ve been running side-by-side tests today, and the short answer is that we’re clearly not accessing 7.2 — granted, the 3GS is getting marginally faster speeds both up and down, but we figure this can easily be attributed to the new model’s faster processor because a doubling of the downlink pipe simply doesn’t account for a 100kbps bump in speed (latency was all over the map on both phones, for the record). If you’re holding out on upgrading from a 3G to a 3GS, go ahead and crack a smile — because for now, anyway, this is one spec bump that means precisely zilch in the real world.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

iPhone 3GS data isn’t really faster than the 3G’s in Chicago originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s contribution to the improved overall speed of the iPhone 3GS—their upgraded 7.2Mbps network—is nearly as important as Apple’s. But 7.2 is just a number, and AT&T’s network is just one of many. Here’s where it actually stands.

First, a direct translation: AT&T’s upgraded (or more accurately, upgrading) 3G network claims data download rates of 7.2 megabits per second. Though that’s the lingo used to describe bandwidth, it’s important to remember that those are not megabytes. AT&T’s impressive-sounding 7.2 megabits would yield somewhere closer to .9 megabytes (900 kilobytes) per second, and that’s only if you’re getting peak performance, which you never will because…

That 7.2Mbps is theoretical, and due to technical overhead, network business, device speed and overzealous marketing, real world speeds are significantly lower. UPDATEDEven looking at the old hardware on the current 3G network—the networking guts in your iPhone 3G is technically capable of reaching the 3.6Mbps downstream that AT&T’s network is technically capable of pushing. There are lots of reasons you don’t ever see that. For one, it’s limited to 1.4Mbps to preserve battery life—the faster you download, the faster you burn that battery. Another is congestion—all the a-holes watching YouTubes around you—and backhaul—the amount of pipe running to a tower, or more English-y still, the total bandwidth the tower has available. Another is proximity—the closer to the tower you are, the faster your phone is gonna fly. So for top speeds, you should sit under a deserted tower with plenty of backhaul.

As you can see on our chart above, our tested speeds for everything from EV-DO Rev. A to WiMax ran at anywhere from one half to one sixth their potential speed. Accordingly, Jason found AT&T’s network to run at about 1.6Mbps with the iPhone 3G S—about a third faster than with the 3G, though he was probably still connecting at 3.6Mbps rates—the 7.2 rollout won’t be complete until 2011, according to AT&T.

AT&T-style HSDPA is expected to reach out to an eventual theoretical speed of 14Mbps, which will undoubtedly make the current 3G networks feel slow, but won’t necessarily blow them out of the water. That’s the thing: the iPhone, and indeed just about all high-end handsets on the market today, operate at speeds that are reasonably close to the limits of 3G technology. In a funny sort of way, the iPhone 3GS is already a bit out of date.

So what’s next? And what the hell are those really long green bars up there? Those are the so-called 4G (fourth generation) wireless technologies. Americans can ignore HSPA+ and EV-DO Rev B. for the most part, and given that they’re the slowest of the next-gen bunch, shouldn’t feel too bad. And anyway, as Matt explained, WiMax and LTE are what’s next for us.

Both Verizon and AT&T are within a couple of years of deploying LTE in their networks, and WiMax is already out there in some cities. Our own WiMax tests on Clearwire’s network peaked at an astounding 12Mbps—nearly eight times faster than the iPhone 3GS on AT&T. And even if WiMax is shaping up to be more of a general broadband protocol than a cellular one, this is the kind of thing that’ll be in your phones in a few years, and the promises are mind-boggling: earlier this year, Verizon’s LTE were breaking 60Mbps.

So in short, your brand-new, “S”-for-speed iPhone is pretty speedy—as long as you only look to the past.

It’s the big question, isn’t it? Sprint vs. AT&T, Palm vs. Apple, physical keys vs. solo touchscreen. Here are recent stories to help inform you about every aspect of both, so your eventual decision is intelligent, whichever one you choose.

Palm Pre Reviews
• Our review
• What other reviewers said
• 10 things you should know about the Pre

Known Pre Issues
• Tethering? Maybe not
• iTunes syncing could go away
• Hooray for homebrew!
• How’s that reception?
• Screen scratchy? Heat distortion?

Apple iPhone 3GS Reviews
• Our Review
• What other reviewers are saying
• iPhone 3GS Complete Feature Guide

Known 3GS Issues
• 3GS-exclusive apps from the App Store; definitely better graphics for 3GS
• Tethering? Probably gonna cost extra
• Already jailbroken and SIM-unlocked
• What, no Verizon?

Easy Advice
• A flowchart
Stay tuned for more issues and revelations with the 3GS when the phone finally ships to customers, and people start the inevitable complaining.

What about the original $99 iPhone 3G? And while we’re at it, what about the best BlackBerry and Android phones? Hey, that’s why we wrote up the Smartphone Buyer’s Guide: The Best of the Best. You can thank us later. Or now, below, in comments.

And of course, there’s always the choice of buying none.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — right? We know countless reviews of the iPhone 3G S may begin with that cliché, but there’s little chance you’d find a better way to describe the strategy that Apple has just put into play with its latest smartphone. In many ways, the 3G S is a mirror image of the iPhone 3G; externally there’s no difference. It’s inside where all the changes have happened, with Apple issuing a beefed-up CPU, new internal compass, larger capacities for storage, and improved optics for its camera. More to the point, the release of the 3G S coincides with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, a major jump from previous versions of the system software featuring highly sought after features like cut, copy, and paste, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, tethering, video recording, landscape keyboard options for more applications, and an iPhone version of Spotlight. At a glance, what Apple seems to be doing is less a reinvention of the wheel and more like retreading the wheel it’s already got (and what a wheel, right?). So, do the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0 tweak the details in just the right places, or has Apple gone and gotten lazy on us? Read on to find out.

Continue reading iPhone 3G S review

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone 3G S review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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