4G SpeedTest follow-up: G2 vs. EVO, T-Mobile vs. Sprint
If you watched my first 4G SpeedTest showdown, you know that T-Mobile didn’t exactly come out on top as I had hoped. Since T-Mobile (and all other information I can find) confirms that there’s really no way to tell if your accessing HSPA rather than HSPA+ outside of the speeds you experience, we have to consider the possibility that I was connected to their 3G network for the first test. I know a lot of you are getting much better speeds than I did, and I decided to get very close to one of the locations you all reported as being an excellent area for 4G speeds.
So here’s a video of me: on top of a parking garage as opposed to surrounded by tall buildings; in the early afternoon of a weekend on Target’s parking garage as opposed to being in the lot outside of a stadium event; and comparing two phones, running the test three times on each. I also confirmed the server location immediately before the tests. In my last video, I set the servers before leaving my house, not realizing that the app would change them after locking the phone.
Were these fair enough conditions? OK, let’s see what happened. It’s just my experience, folks.
i get a consistent 2mb download on my mytouch 3gs, i hope you were on the hspa band and not on hspa+
Weird, maybe this is another issue affecting some G2s like the issue with hinge and storage.
For a server that’s in charlotte it seemed pretty far away
I ha
I believe you, I’m just showing what I experience.
I believe you, I’m just showing what I experience.
Thanks for doing this John. Interesting stuff.
I know, and my phone knows where I am when it comes to other location-based apps. SpeedTest’s app is pretty quirky, it seems.
I know, and my phone knows where I am when it comes to other location-based apps. SpeedTest’s app is pretty quirky, it seems.
My Telus Desire gets 6.5mbps on HSPA+
John any chances to get images of the results typed out….no access to vid at work!!!
Thank!!!!!
I’m on the middle of another vid at the moment, but the EVO got close to double the DL speed. I have experienced close to 4,000 mbps down with G2, but not often, and I haven’t caught it on video yet.
Thanks! I’m in the same boat with no video at work. Btw, love the site!
how about all of you guys shut up with your lame excuses. Wimax clearly beat HSPA+. Sprint owns, t mobile sucks and everybody knows it…….Sprint FTW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thats why tmobile and att are the first that will have reception in a subway haha, and its clearly his location doesnt like him besides next year we double speeds while your still going the same pace..close enough and it isnt even 4G its only 3.5G lmao !
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-fast-g2-hspa <<TMOBILE FTW !!! HIS LOCATION SUCKS HAHA
http://www.tmonews.com/2010/10/t-mobile-to-offer-reception-in-new-york-city-subway-stations/
http://www.tmonews.com/2010/09/t-mobile-says-wimax-is-niche-thinks-lte-is-the-new-hotness/
man when i had my EVO (miami, FL) i was getting those speeds on 3G (comparing HSPA+ on the G2)
There is something funky about your phone’s software. To begin with, I live in South Charlotte, and with a MT3G I averaged 3.3 mps down over three tests, using the Charlotte server. On my phone, though, the Charlotte server is properly 15.26 mi from my location. On your test, it reads 447 mi to the Charlotte server. If I select a server on SpeedTest that is approx 450 mi away, my results range from 1/2 to 2/3 what I get locally. The camera didn’t show the longitude/latitude readings when you were selecting the Charlotte server, but I suspect your phone believes it is in Wisconsin or someplace other than on the roof of the Metropolitan parking lot.
Much better test this time John, but erm, can I say something about your headwear? Flatcap…no! Tartan flatcap….double no! I have managed to call off the fashion police – told them annonimously that Mick Jagger was in town and they went crazy in the other direction with sirens wailing.
XD
I agree that something is definitely up. I will test and post again when I figure out what’s going on. I should mention that my phone knows where it is for other location-based stuff.
if you get your location in maps and keep gps on when you go into the speed test app it will usually show the correct location
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-fast-g2-hspa
another thing about these tests is the closest server doesn’t always necessarily bring the best speeds. I live in kansas city and there’s a server less than 20 miles from me and it gives me terrible speeds. If I pick the server in chicago my speeds increase dramatically.
i don’t know why but i think theres something wrong with the g2 or something is not right, i get 6003 download speed on my vibrant in my house just ran it as i seen the video
I get these speeds on my G2 when it is not on HSPA+. I am in Chicago and we do not have a full roll out of HSPA+. I would have to argue that you are not on HSPA+ for whatever reason.
i work for tmobile and can definitely tell you that he wasnt in our 4g coverage area. I have done speed test between the g2 and some other popular devices like the Galaxy, Evo, Htc HD2 running android and the G2 has beat all of them. The average speed in 4g coverage was about 5mbps and we seen some 7mbps also. The speed range your getting seem like 3g speeds which the Galaxy got time after time.
Here in Houston my G2 will average ~5.0 MBPS during the day. At night its a whole different animal! I got 10.5 MBPS!!! The evo put down only 3.8 MBPS on 4G. I have a picture of a side by side comparison of the both. We did about 11 test and all both were consistant with those speeds. I did not run the Evo at night so I cannot comment on that aspect. Love both phones!
Can you post the lat/lon of where you did the test? If there’s a service mode for the G2 you should be able to tell if you are in HSPA+ of not but in either event, both HSPA+ and WiMax are fairly sensitive to distance from tower for performance. Clear (which sprint uses) does identify it’s wimax tower locations in it’s coverage map and you should be able to identify the tower id and with some research find out which tower the G2 was using as well, then post the distance from each tower. You could have randomly chosen a spot much closer to a WiMax tower than a HSPA+ tower.
At very least you should test a larger number of locations
sprint killed t mobile thats what Im talking about
Why are you manually choosing the server? Despite what you said in the video, the Charlotte server is clearly not the best server for your phone and your particular internet connection.
If I do a speed test between myself and my next door neighbor, connected by analog modem, it will be much slower than a speed test between myself and a server on the other side of the world, connected by fiber. Distance doesn’t necessarily equate with speed.
There’s no reason to use the same server for both phones. The server that the Speedtest application automatically picks for you will generally be the fastest server for your particular connection.