BlackBerry 8320 Wi-Fi vs. BlackBerry 8300 EDGE speed test
We told you our thoughts on AT&T’s new BlackBerry 8820, and how Wi-Fi simply wasn’t a big deal for us. On AT&T there is no UMA functionality, and it currently can’t tie in with your corporate phone system (Avaya IP Office, Cisco, etc.). The only use of Wi-Fi is for data, like email or web browsing. There’s such a big bottleneck on the device though, that we figured Wi-Fi would certainly not be as fast as everyone had hoped. We had countless emails telling us we were crazy, that it simply couldn’t be true, that Wi-Fi on a BlackBerry was a godsend. Well friends, we hate to say it, but we were kind of right. Wi-Fi browsing simply doesn’t cut it. The device is so underpowered that it can’t really handle and process the speeds that we have hoped for. Take a look at our quick video comparison showing Wi-Fi vs. EDGE on a BlackBerry 8320, and BlackBerry 8300. You won’t like what you see. Feel free to do the same speeds at home and tell us what you get!
Disclaimer: The first couple tests had JavaScript enabled by default, which most likely slowed the browser down, but the last test had JavaScript off on both devices. In addition, it seems as if the BlackBerry 8320 on Wi-Fi downloads higher resolution images.
UPDATE: Check out the second part of our speed test, after the jump!
Conclusion? If you have T-Mobile and your BlackBerry needs replacing, this is a logical upgrade. While even though Wi-Fi does not offer much of an improvement in speed over web browsing, file downloading and UMA access make it worthwhile. We just still don’t see the attractiveness of the BlackBerry 8820 on AT&T…
On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:20 pm, Wifiguy Said:
BGR,
How is the voice quality on the wifi uma BB on T-mobile?
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:42 pm, chris Said:
Man you guys did prove that the 8820 Wifi Speeds are slow. Great Vid..
BTW Your edge speed is really slow. Mines isn’t even that slow its pretty quick.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:44 pm, Jeff B. Said:
So the only difference is that the tmo BB has tmo icons and a nicer to look at color. Oh and GPS.
For a recommendation which BB would you tell somebody to buy? (buying it as an unlock)
By the way how is the GPS on it?
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:46 pm, Jeff B. Said:
And what’s the song playing in the background?
I want it.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:46 pm, daddybear Said:
BG-
Nice background music… was that Jane’s Addicition..?
Anyway…my treo running winmo5 on evdo was faster than all of them except the gizmodo site…don’t know why…
-db
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:50 pm, Clay C Said:
the song is Where’s Your Head At by Basement Jaxx.
btw, I was going to switch to the 8320 (im stuck with tmo) but after watching that, I might just stick to my pearl…
thanks guys
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:51 pm, xsipnos Said:
Just curious. Did you try putting the Wi Fi TMO BB on the right hand side and the EDGE BB on the left? Could the antenna be on the right hand side? Just a thought?
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:52 pm, Jeremy Kitching Said:
I have become accustom to the BlackBerry web browsing with everything disabled except the support for HTML tables and images. The javascript, style sheets, and foreground and background colors all slow it down too much. So browsing for me is already fast enough. I will still get the T-Mobile Curve, though, as they haven’t dropped the 8820 yet.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:52 pm, Rey Said:
i dunno guys my wifi is pretty fast on my bb 8320
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:52 pm, dynamiks Said:
wow that is really upsetting to see the 8300 running on EDGE beating WiFi on the 8320… I hope this isn’t always the case, and something is wrong here.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:52 pm, Digital504 Said:
The song that was in the video is called -
“Where’s Your Head At” and its by - Basement Jaxx
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:54 pm, J.C. Said:
Dayum! thats amazing, yet terribly disappointing, thinks for the great comparison!
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 9:57 pm, eJay Said:
I mean come on folks wasn’t this pretty much a given? Wifi on a blackberry just isn’t going to cut it. I mean for UMA its good but thats about it. The browser on my curve was fast and that was on plain old EDGE. I think its time for RIM to come out with the 9xxx series with some major upgrades, dont you?
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:01 pm, Jeff B. Said:
I would like for somebody to explain to me why the Curve on EDGE and on WiFi were beating my Blackjack on 3G.
WHAT THE F**KS UP WITH THAT???????????????
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:06 pm, Jas Said:
A couple thoughts:
1. With AT&T you’re using the default AT&T (Cingular) proxy. It’s entirely possible that they (AT&T) are using a cache engine (like Akamai).
2. DNS. A fair comparison would have you change both DNS Servers on both Blackberries to be the same. A good one to use would be OpenDNS. Now for the Wi-Fi Blackberry you may have to try changing DNS on the device and/or your home network (wireless router?).
Suggestions:
1. I would suggest disabling any proxy on the AT&T unit (I’m guessing the Blackberry has this - but I don’t know because I have a Treo 750 using WM6).
2. Yeah, change DNS.
Then try your tests again and post up!!!
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:10 pm, wesrubix Said:
EDGE on ATT has improved significantly ever since the iPhone. ATT’s been upping the bandwidth on all of its towers to upgrade EDGE capabilities (aka operation “fine edge”). ATT also has proxy servers that compress a lot of the data that goes through them (you may notice that google’s logo looks funny if you’ve ever used an ATT phone as a modem).
EDGE has often been reputed as a laggy technology, high latency between initial and actual data tx. Then on the other hand you have WiFi, which is still imperfect at best, but still by spec should be faster than EDGE. (Assuming the router, and ISP connection were not busy as stated in the video.) What we’re seeing here is a WIFI implementation with a lousy bottleneck: an OS not designed to handle large packets. BB browsers have always been zippy. I think the greatest gain for the BB with Wifi is UMA. It’s unfortunate that this feature just didn’t have enough time for BB testing and was rushed to market. There is also the chance that the hardware wasn’t operating quickly enough (think 8525 wifi and its slow CPU).
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:12 pm, subtech Said:
I would imagine that with the UMA still getting up and running that they have some kinks to iron out. Since the 8320 is actually supposed to roll out tomorrow (24th), I’m hoping they’ll at some point they’ll be flipping the speed switch. I must say I’m impressed with the voice quality over (reg and uma) the 8700g, actually sounds like a phone and not a walkie talkie.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:16 pm, Wifiguy Said:
BG, Can you do a comparison between iphone wifi and bb wifi and edge to show BB how it is suppose to be done?
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:20 pm, Mark R. Said:
Man, just watching that video was painful. I could never imagine going back to a phone that ran EDGE and not UMTS or HSDPA.
I would jump all over a Blackberry if they released one with 3G.
Until then I will stick with a QWERTY WM6 PPC running 3G.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:20 pm, The Boy Genius Said:
@ jas
As far as I know, you can’t manually change the proxy on a BlackBerry. It is all done through service books. Also, your point about the DNS is valid, but not when you’re testing a 150kbps connection against a 30mbps connection…
@ Wifiguy
Great idea, but I think it would hurt too many feelings.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:24 pm, b.N Said:
I think that speaks more to the poorness of the OS or BBB than the WiFi utility itself because there were quite a few points in the video where it clearly got stuck. I think a better test to run would be WiFi and EDGE over a better browser such as Opera Mini 4 beta2 or to wait until a few OS versions later when there’s a smoother relationship b/t browser & WiFi.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:26 pm, Bruce Said:
“wear your hair down”
from the Tomb Raider soundtrack
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:29 pm, 180kid Said:
you might have the Curve w/ at&t T-Mobile. but can you really mess with Sprint EVDO? stop kidding yourselves.
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:32 pm, 16 coming through roofless Said:
Blackberry + iPhone = God?
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On Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:32 pm, Michael Said:
hopefully the 8820 will have better speeds
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