VIDEO: iPhone speed test showdown – YouTube search
Vodafone became the third iPhone carrier last week, after O2 and Orange, and while an epic price war didn’t emerge, Voda were keen to stress improved network performance as their key weapon in the iPhone armoury. So can it live up to its claims?
We put three iPhones from the three networks head-to-head in out video showdown to see which handset would perform the best with everyday browsing tasks.
First up, searching for content on YouTube…
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January 18th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Does anyone else think its weird that this site is clearly owned by Vodafone? Do you think us consumers are dumb enough to realise…?
January 18th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Hi Peter,
I am editor of the site, and wanted to address your comment. While we are *sponsored* by Vodafone, we are not owned by them, and any editorial content that we produce is independent and unbiased.
We want to bring the latest UK mobile news, and our relationship with Voda is to make consumers aware of what they have to offer within our independent editorial remit, as well as provide an environment for people to discuss any Voda or other UK mobile issues.
We are completely upfront about our relationship with Voda, and more details can be found in our About Us section.
I helped to film this test and if the results had been different, we still would have published. As it was, Voda simply had faster speeds – it’s not really something you can fake unless you have considerably better video skills than I have!
Cheers,
Linsey
January 18th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Don’t get me wrong, I love VF and would never move to any other network – I’ve been there and… well it’s not nice – esp Orange. But this is something you could fake quite easily.
3G speed is dependant on bandwidth and the way the 3G network works means that the further you are from a cell site the less bandwidth you will have and therefore your download speed will be slower.
If you did the same test underneath an Orange mast, Orange would more thanks likely win and likewise same with O2. Simple as that.
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:23 am
@Neil – Yes, you are absolutely correct, and the chances that all three masts are equidistant from the Fonehome testbed are quite remote. However, I’d not suggest that Fonehome were faking anything in these videos.
Generally these videos reflect my own iPhone experience, coming from O2 this week on to Vodafone after several iPhone/O2 years of grief and frustration. If the handset were available from the outset on any other network I would have gone there instead.
The Fonehome tests reflect two things, in my opinion. The first is that O2’s ability to carry data, even where there is a signal, is pretty poor with in-flight stalling or total loss. The other would be a demonstration of O2’s lack of investment in its network deployment. It is patchy at best, worse outside of London, and a complete frustration to use.
I knew what I was coming to with Vodafone having another service on their network already. But doing so has brethed new life into the iPhone 3GS like I can barely believe. Even with a long experience in the technology and the telecoms industry itself I did not hope for the iPhone to perform on the network as it does on Vodafone’s.
In short, then, these videos by Fonehome are a reasonable and accurate representation of what to expect, blackspots notwithstanding.