Instinct vs iPhone 3G: Speed Test!A few months ago Sprint unleashed a media campaign for the Samsung Instinct that pit Instinct against Apple's iPhone in a series of head-to-head tests. Now that both Instinct and the new iPhone 3G are out on the market and in the PhoneDog "labs" I figured I'd pit the two against one another in a few head-to-head tests of my own (UPDATE: Check out the video of the test, if you like). First up? Speed. I ran a few speed tests on both phones using the free tools at dslrpeports.com/mspeed. The tests took place in Oakland, CA on a weekday afternoon; the Instinct showed EV-DO connectivity and the iPhone had its 3G on. The winner? Instinct blew iPhone 3G out of the water. First I ran the 400k download test and Instinct was the clear-cut winner, if not quite in a landslide. Then I ran the 1Mb test twice: Instinct was more than twice as fast as iPhone both times around in terms of both kbits/second and total download time. It wasn't even close. The next two tests ran without a hitch, and iPhone was the clear winner. I loaded up the ESPN home page and also an interior page (a blog article) and while Instinct seemed to grab the early lead in terms of downloading data, iPhone actually rendered the page faster and finished well ahead of Instinct on both pages. Same with the PhoneDog.com home page: iPhone by a wide margin. Well, first off your mileage will vary depending on the network coverage and conditions during your test. Location (geographic and indoor vs outdoor, etc), time of day, and other factors can definitely impact network performance. That being said, the results weren't particularly suprising to me. AT&T gets a lot of flack for their network performance while Sprint is generally considered to have an excellent network - particularly when it comes to moving data over EV-DO Rev. A, which Instinct supports. On the other hand, iPhone has one of the best mobile Web browsers on the market, and Apple build iPhone using one of the most powerful processors you'll find in any mobile device. As such, it's not suprising that iPhone 3G's Safari Web browser renders complex pages faster (and more accurately) than Instinct. Things will hopefully get better for both camps. Sprint is working on a firmware update for Instinct and also trying to drum up developer support for more Instinct apps. I know Sprint and Samsung put lots of work into Instinct's HTML Web browser, but I'd love to see an Opera alternative all the same. Meantime iPhone 3G owners can hope that AT&T's simply feeling the strain of those one million new iPhones (or whatever the real number is) hopping on the network in the past six days. Some network tuning and reinforcement will hopefully boost 3G data speeds in the weeks to come. All about Our fancy algorithm says this stuff is related...Sunday, July 20, 2008how good or bad is the iphone phone quality. how often drops calls ??? Friday, July 18, 2008The ATT 3G network is slow because it is strained from a million iphone? That just proves ATT's 3G network lacks capacity and is weak. Did you think those million iphones sold were just going to be used the first weekend then never again or something? If anything more iphones will be sold and the inferior ATT 3G network will only get worse unless ATT seriously builds lots more 3G transmitters. Theres no question that iphone is MUCH nicer than the instinct, but the fact is instinct has more capabilities (camcorder, navigation etc) and clearly the Sprint Data network is MUCH better than ATTs. Just facts so dont twist things around to make ATT sound better just because you got an iphone. Friday, July 18, 2008Is it not possibles for me to down load 3g to my Nokia 5310 Express music pls email me the answer. please. Thank u!! Friday, July 18, 2008Unsurprising -- you results show the iPhone is a much better phone and AT&T under the strain of one million iPhones is a far worst network than Sprint which is busy serving 500 Instincts and 400 Kindles.
In other words you've proven the iPhone is better, and have no way of doing a controlled test on which network is better. Sure, it would have been better if the iPhone was sold unlocked, but that would only add T-Mobile domestically as neither Sprint nor Verizon support GSM. Friday, July 18, 2008You do realize of course that AT&T's 3G network has been severily overloaded since the iPhone 3G came out and 3G speeds are not what they should be as a result of the thousands of new iPhones overloading the network. So of course any other network is now faster than AT&T's 3G. This alone invalidates this test. So wait until AT&T brings it's network back to normal speed and test again. Thursday, July 17, 2008I would test how each does on a Wi-Fi network.
This should tell how fast each can process downloads since Wi-Fi is even faster than any cellular network. Also, at home, at a hotel, at the office, it is far more convenient and faster to use Wi-Fi than 3G.
Oops! The Instinct doesn't do Wi-Fi.
There you go... iPhone wins. Thursday, July 17, 2008umm to let everyone know, with sprint u have to have a good signal to get good internet the better the signal the better the internet so there is no "fixing" it Thursday, July 17, 2008Dunno if you've heard yet, but there is a hack online to increase the buffer size of the Instinct, making the download speeds much faster. You need your MSL and the ##DATA# code. Thursday, July 17, 2008the head-to-head really high lights the big POSITIVES for both devices. Instinct's EVDO Rev A capabilities...the 3G iPhone's software and hardware superiority. Sprint needs to "FIX" the browser on the Instinct to take advantage of the Rev A network  New Perspective: Ryan Rea's first look at the Samsung InstinctFor a new take and additional coverage, Noah shipped the Samsung Instinct to Ryan. With a full review in the works, this video highlights Ryan's first impression of Sprint's exclusive 3G touchscreen phone. PhoneDog Mailbag 9/4/08: Glyde, iPhone 3G, Voyager TitaniumInstallment #1 of the PhoneDog Mailbag. Noah answers your questions on Samsung Glyde, Apple iPhone 3G, LG Voyager Titanium, and new T-Mobile phones. iPhone 3g v HTC Touch Diamond v Samsung Omnia Part 2Three of the heaviest heavyweights take center stage in part two of this PhoneDog Dogfight. In this corner - the iconic iPhone 3G. In that corner - the "Windows Mobile with a cherry on top" HTC Touch Diamond. And in, uh, that corner - the super-spec'd Samsung Omnia. Whose cuisine will reign supreme? Win Gift Cards and Phones with PhoneDog Tips and TricksSo you're a cell phone master? PhoneDog.com wants you! Submit your best cell phone tips and tricks and you may get published on the site and win gift cards and even a free phone! If we think your tip and trick is worthy, we'll feature your Tip on the Phonedog.com homepage as a new blog post. Here's how... Register as a Phonedog user, click here Email us a written or video Tip and Trick to phonedog@gmail.com What you can win? If we... iPhone 3G and 2.0: Jailbreak and Unlock and T-Mobile HackNoah's got the iPhone 3G and the old iPhone - the old one's jailbroken, unlocked, and running on T-Mobile. Side by side you can see how the unlocked version works just like the new one (minus 3G). All hail the iPhone-dev team! Also, check out the T-Zones hack for T-Mobile users! Instinct vs iphone 3g vs Dare vs Treo 800w: Speed TestAnother Internet speed test pitting four 3G phones against one another. The takeaway? 3G coverage is lousy in Oakland. Or ... Noah has no idea what he's doing. What's the Best Phone: Dare vs Voyager vs iPhoneyfz450lrd from YouTube asks: Would you say the dare is better than the iphone and the voyager? Thanks for your time, your reviews are awesome!Noah answers: Thanks for the email and the kind words - glad you like the reviews.I'm going to do a review comparing Dare to iPhone and Voyager. It's hard to say which is "better" - it comes down to personal preferences and network coverage. Dare and Voyager run on Verizon which in many... Instinct vs iPhone: A Few Thoughts on How To Read/Watch a ReviewThings have been busy over in YouTube land lately, which is great. And while I can't read all of the comments on every video, once in awhile I scan through to see what people wish I'd done differently or would do next time in a video (seriously, have you ever tried reading YouTube comments on a regular basis?).Seems like comparison videos are popular, so I'll keep those coming. Seems like Instinct and iPhone are popular, as well, and... iPhone 3G: Apple vs the WorldApple may have disappointed some phone geeks by leaving a few badly wanted features off of the new iPhone 3G, but in typical Apple fashion they're looking past the specific desires of a few in order to set their sights squarely on luring more of the masses into the Cult of iPhone. Could Apple have added MMS messaging, stereo Bluetooth support, and a decent camera (with flash) to the new iPhone's redesign without sacrificing the grander... |
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