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 24, 2007 @ 12:01 pm, Ian D Said:
Did you by any chance switch the default browser on the device to the “Wi-Fi” browser? (shows up as an option after wi-fi is enabled) I don’t think you can just assume that since the Wi-Fi icon is displayed in the top corner that this is the connection the browser is using. The one way to confirm this would be to turn the Wi-Fi connection on, and turn the mobile network OFF. Would like to see your test results repeated in this scenario…
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:02 pm, b.mason Said:
Do you guys know anything about networking and who runs the national backhauls? AT&T! Your cable modem provider has how many extra hops versus AT&T? Also, you don’t know how AT&T is caching previously requested web pages on their network/infrastructure. WiFi will always be slower in this type of test. The point is you can get your BB to work when you don’t have a carrier signal. That’s it.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:11 pm, Ralph Daniels Said:
you all are some serious assholes I just did the same test BG did on my 8320 and my 8300 (unlocked T-Mobile EDGE) and the difference was completely minimal at best I don’t have a 30MBPS connection like BG but mine is 15MBPS also Opera is the same thing I found the 8300 would load faster
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:29 pm, evilcaptain Said:
I am not sure if the test really are conclusive enough. Maybe test the 8320 with web page loading on wifi compared to EDGE on the same unit and see the time difference.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:54 pm, Amnon Said:
This is making my deliberation between the 8820 and the 8310 much easier…
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 1:12 pm, Byrd Said:
Wow…good insight BG. Seems like there are a myriad of opinions running rampid. I’m not all that concerned if one device loads a webpage 1 or 10 secs faster than another. I’m more concerned about which device/service provider I should choose that gives me the data capabilities I need at the cheapest price! I’m looking for best value! In everyone’s opinion, which one…ATT or TMo?? I need to have email, internet access and text messagiing capability.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 1:29 pm, Usually Named Said:
If the connection speed isn’t the issue, how is CDMA or 3G going to help? I’m afraid that it might be a platform issue — but let’s wait until 4.3 to see. I’d rather have a GPS-enabled 8310 than a no-GPS Wifi 8320 anyway….
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 1:41 pm, Duncan Said:
I can’t get the opera mini 4 beta to work on my 8320. It says I don’t have a working internet connection, even though the built-in browser works fine.
For other apps (gcalsync, jmirc), I get the ‘invalid tunnel name error’.
GMail, Google Maps and Google Talk all run fine, though.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 1:43 pm, shlammed Said:
thats because i too have both devices (not on TMO) and the tests on my end show otherwise. the wifi is much faster then the EDGE connection.
Don’t make me make my own videos to prove it.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 1:56 pm, Ben Said:
Guys can i just say that i really want EDGE over here in the UK, only one network runs EDGE and im not on it!! i have a wifi blackberry and its much faster than whats on that video, dont know whats going over there in america!!
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 2:17 pm, AF Said:
As I mentioned earlier, I had the same results as BG. Here is my video of teh comparison. (Only one site tested on the video due to size limitations)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCYeTa4g8_w
Do I return right now, do I wait for a software update?
Would there be a difference if we were usiong BIS or BES? BG is on BES and so am I. Can someone that had fast WiFi speeds show screenshots or write the browser settings?
Thanks!
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 2:21 pm, DQuestic Said:
Well even with these results I’ll take the Wifi anyday. I can make calls and browse the internet? HA! That’s a no brainer.
Also, in the test to tmo customer care, if attached to UMA, wouldn’t that call had gone over the wifi?
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 2:55 pm, A Rod Said:
According to the BB Tmo CSR I am talking to now, even though there is WiFi on this phone, the internet is still using EDGE network.
Maybe in the future.
Kinda sad, but maybe in the future.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 2:58 pm, JRD Said:
Me so pretty….
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 3:17 pm, marco Said:
Also, BGR wifi is open, i mean imagine how many people are using their network, how many laptops are using their wifi signal, how many phones also.. that will definitely decreases the speed! if you want to test it again, you must block your wifi router for your device, so no one can use the signal, then compare it with the att bb.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 4:34 pm, WirelessGuy Said:
Questions on test setup….
Do you have the devices on a BES or BIS only?
For WiFi are you setup for WiFi only, or are you using UMA?
If you are using this as a UMA device, then even though the device is communicating on the 802.11 network, it is still only using the EDGE radio stack at the layer 2 side of things, not allowing for full WiFi speeds. This is the same for all UMA devices.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 4:50 pm, Anon Said:
According to pinstack forums (http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/45672-8320_how_make_use_wifi_when.html)
There is a setting that needs to be set to make wifi work correctly. This setting is made unavailable when BB desktop manager software is used to do a full transfer from an old blackberry to the 8320. If a data-only transfer is done, no problem occurs.
You can tell that this bug is happening in the video because there are no red signal bars next to the WIFI logo on the 8320. If wifi is being used correctly on an 8320, red signal bars and a UMA logo appear next to the WIFI logo.
The only reason the EDGE is faster is because both phones were using EDGE and AT&T EDGE is faster than TMO EDGE.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 5:09 pm, Nikolaus Said:
That video on BGR is awesome. It’s also completely wrong!!
EDGE matches the WiFi browser performance because the former goes through a BES or an MDS or whatever that preprocesses and precompresses the heck out of everything before sending it to the handheld.
The WiFi browser has no such luck: it has to swallow all of those pages that were designed for Netscape and IE running on machines with endless memory and processor cycles, and somehow compress all of that *ON THE DEVICE* to render it to the small screen.
If BG were true to his name, he’d have done parallel tests downloading something uncompressible and non-rendering: like an MP3.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 5:18 pm, Dale Said:
Can anyone do a test of this with the mobile network off and the tmo phone and just wifi active? I would be curious to see the performance change (if any) with the gsm network completely dormant.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 5:23 pm, ray Said:
I dont know about u guys but im not droping 300 bucks on a phone that dont offer much, i have the 8700g and i dont see why make the change, but i definitely i need a new one, any recommendations?
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 5:24 pm, xsipnos Said:
Maybe we should rename this the ANON GENIUS REPORT???
BOY isn’t so genius now is he? BGR I don’t care you still get major props for pushing the envelope.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 5:39 pm, The Boy Genius Said:
No one is saying that for attachments, Wi-Fi won’t make a difference. The point we were making was about the data side of the device, for instance the BlackBerry 8820 on AT&T. People are so excited over it when you will see a marginal increase at best, with internet browsing and that’s it. It can’t tie in with your corporate voice system, there is no UMA on AT&T. If you have T-Mobile, this is a logical upgrade and well worth it. The UMA features actually work quite well.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 5:52 pm, ray Said:
lets see if this new bb make the cut
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 6:13 pm, Wifiguy Said:
I can understand that you don’t want to embarrass BB with a iPhone wifi versus BB wifi test but how about an iPhone wifi versus iPhone edge test to show consumers that wifi does make a big difference if implemented correctly.
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On Sep 24, 2007 @ 6:26 pm, blah Said:
I found out from a reputable source that traffic that goes over blackberry.net is compressed (images and html), also it is cached by RIM at their server (so clearing your local cache is only clearing your local cache and not RIM’s cache), this server caching greatly improves performace since it doesn’t need to traverse the Internet for each element of the page.
Also, the reason that the http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed speedtest isn’t recommended for blackberry is that the speedtest sends an image file, which gets compressed by RIMs server and therefore would not be a fair test.
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