Early reviews show internet speed on iPhone is SLOW
44 CommentsPublished June 28th, 2007 11:22 AM EDT By Daniel Goldman
The early reviews are trickling in by the select few in the media who got an early look at the iPhone. Reporters from the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal all got an early peak.
So how did they rate the internet speed?
The iPhone has two methods of connecting to the web. Through a WiFi connection and AT&T’s ‘ancient’ (as the Times put it) EDGE network. Going online via a WiFi hotspot is fast, according to the reviewers. However, when you’re away from a hotspot and need to rely on AT&T’s wireless internet, you’re in for a rude awakening.
Here are snippets from the early reviews:
“But otherwise, you have to use AT&T’s ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Time’s home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo, two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem.”
“In addition, even when you have great AT&T coverage, the iPhone can’t run on AT&T’s fastest cellular data network. Instead, it uses a pokey network called EDGE, which is far slower than the fastest networks from Verizon or Sprint that power many other smart phones. And the initial iPhone model cannot be upgraded to use the faster networks.”
“Web pages load up with what feels like dial-up speed.”
“On the data side, it works through AT&T’s Edge network, which is pokey compared with third-generation, or 3G, data networks used with other phones. At times, I fell off the Edge and lost coverage. Even at its best, Edge never felt close to the broadband-type speeds I experience on my home network. Assuming Apple gets around to supporting 3G in the future, you’d ultimately have to buy a new 3G-capable iPhone for improved network performance, not that Apple is ready to announce one.”
Hehe… I’ll just stick with my Opera Mini, which is way faster.
(Via CyberNet)
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Excellent reviews.
And very good news for OperaMini (even if none of the reviewers bothered to mention it as a superior alternative).
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Love the picture!
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Yes, read same reviews this morning. Seems like Opera on DS has become faster, over night
… and OM 4 is the one and only… 
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Ryan, it took me about 15-20 minutes to make it.
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From what I saw those are only reviewing AT&T’s wifi, which really does suck. But I was watching David P.’s review (New York Times, he has a YouTube account and posted a video review) and said that the WiFi is great, it’s got the same speed as desktop Wifi (of the same type that is).
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Daniel, I’ve followed this blog for a longish time and haven’t found any fault with it. But this is ******** and will not further Opera in any way. Let iphone fail on its own if it comes to that.
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@DMXell: That’s correct and that’s exactly what I mentioned in my blog post above. “Going online via a WiFi hotspot is fast, according to the reviewers.”
@Pasi Savolainen: I personally find it perfectly okay to highlight the differences between iPhone and Opera Mini. I’m not trashing the iPhone in anyway.
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To be fair – it sounds like the connection speed is the problem rather than the browser. So a direct comparison between the iPhone hardware and Opera Mini is not really accurate as any browser would struggle at these slow connection speeds.
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allan: that’s precisely the point. Opera mini does not struggle at these slow connection speeds but still gives (at least the current beta) pretty much the same features as Safari on the iPhone. Well… I never tested Mini on anything else than the simulator, and I don’t think I’ll come close to an iPhone any time soon, so this is just my understanding of what I read here and elsewhere.
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Thanks for pointing out that u can get a better internet experience than on this $3000 phone – for free, with Opera Mini 4 beta
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It’s really up to the consumer to decide which comparisons are useful. In this case, Daniel is comparing the browsing speed available on the iPhone to the browsing speed using Opera Mini on just about any Java-enabled phone, when both phones are using cellular networks. For a customer deciding which phone to buy, especially if Web browsing on the go is an important consideration to him or her, I think that’s a very useful comparison to make.
Even with regards to Wi-Fi access, the iPhone is not the only phone out there whose browser can use a Wi-Fi connection. On my Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone, Opera Mini runs incredibly fast when I’m connected via Wi-Fi.
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now, WHO would have guessed???? :\ :\
now when you are checking the ’speed of safari’ on iPhone, go ahead and blame the browser, not the phone/network/ISP!!!
thats what they do with other ‘low popularity’ browsers….
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How does Opera Mobile compare, though?
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@trickster: I thin it should be the same as the data are not “reformated” by the Opera [Monkey
] server.
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illiad: You saying you can run Safari on other phones then Iphone or use other providers in the US then AT et T ? :-p
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What an embarrassing blog post.
Internet speed on iPhone is not slow, EDGE is slow. The iPhone does WiFi as an alternative (and has been represented as very fast with that), and Opera Mini will be just as slow on an EDGE connection. This is not a reason to blame the iPhone itself, unless you are critical of Opera Mini users who run on EDGE as well.
Why not write a post about how the iPhone’s web browser has been universally praised (so far) as a revolution, and try to explain why nobody’s ever cared as much about Opera mini as people do about the web browser app on the iPhone? It looks like Opera are about to lose their place as the best mobile browser, and all you’re doing is grasping at straws.
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What I’m enjoying is how in none of the quotations you have do they actually mention anything about the browser, it’s all about the network it’s using. So basically it has nothing to do with Safari or Opera. Why did you post this?
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I didn’t read all the reviews you pointed, but all the one i have (4) have said that the internet sux on EDGE. Where you guys have a big vantage becouse you pre-process the data ^^
But i still think the iPhone browser will completely own OperaMini.
I think that Opera Mobile must be as good as safari (at least) but i don’t a phone fancy enough for it
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SuitCase, right. The internet speed is slow on the iPhone when using AT&T’s EDGE network. AT&T does have 3G networks, Apple just chose not to use it. They claimed 3G will shorten the battery power time.
Running Opera Mini on AT&T phones using the 3G network will be much faster than the iPhone running on EDGE. And even when using Opera Mini on the EDGE network, Opera Mini should still be faster since the page content is compressed (by the Opera Mini servers) to about 1/5 of the origional size, meaning less time is required to download and show the page.
No doubt, the online connection with the iPhone when connected to a WiFi hotspot is fast. When Opera Mini connects via a WiFi hotspot, its connection is also fast. Though, obviously, I haven’t compared the two.
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Opera should do something about those poor iPhone users. And no, not another video. Too bad there’s no JVM (yet).
Iphone’s users are pretty uncompromising, I would think, so there will be a real demand for good, advanced content. Web 2.0 apps like people have started streamlining for it.
So maybe we can all just get along. I’ll take the fast free *scriptless* content, please.
I do see Mini with an amazing future: just imagine OM servers transcoding widgets, the IRC client, the email client, the super advanced user preferences and whatever innovations Opera will come up with.
Back to the best Internet experience, let people compare it across devices
and choose accordingly. Opera for the win.
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@illiad, that’s exactly right… I recall plenty reviews of Nintendo DS, blaming slow loading and no flash on the Opera browser, not on hardware…
OM 4 is about getting the Web everywhere, at highest speed, and lowest cost. Not sure what iPhone is all about, though…
Facts are, it’s a $ 500 gadget, with no flash support, and download speeds of :
a) time to get to hotspot + download time
b) or 1-2 minutes, like a $ 160 Nintendo DS
@Olli, it’s Apple’s choice to build iPhone that way. End user only care about bottom line, no ?…
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The point here is that the iPhone is Opera’s only competition to speak of in the mobile market. That is why the comparison is being made. That is why it is significant that Opera can allow virtually any phone to be as good or better than the iPhone when it comes to mobile browsing.
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Opera Mini receives compressed data, remember.
Of course. When it’s Apple, you never blame them. It’s always someone else. Apple can do no wrong.
Unversally praised even though no one had actually tried it?
A revolution doing what Opera and Nokia have been doing for ages?
Really? How do you know? Do you have the numbers to back up this claim?
Oh yeah, I get it. It’s Apple, and Apple can do no wrong, and everyone always talks the most about Apple. No one uses Opera Mini at all. It’s just a lie. Opera Mini doesn’t really exist, because Apple is all that exists. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.
Yes, since it’s Apple, and Apple can do no wrong, then Opera must of course lose. Never mind the fact that Opera can run on just about any phone, while iPhone is extremely expensive and only available in a very limiting way.
Apple can do no wrong.
Opera Mini doesn’t really exist.
iPhone is the best thing ever and there are no flaws. If there are flaws, it is not Apple’s fault.
Apple can do no wrong.
Repeat ad nauseum.
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Seems like AT&T upgraded their EDGE network and squeezed some more speed out just a day before the iPhone launch.
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…
Please note that Safari works in iPhone only which was developed for it so they know how they can “load” resources, etc
Opera Mini works with any mobile phone… Does it makes sense?
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I didn’t realise all content viewed by Opera Mini on the web was compressed by the Opera servers. Excellent idea as compression on the web is totally underused. Having said that – the outcry about privacy if a company such as Apple routed all the content you view through their servers would be huge.
Are there any details about how Opera Mini does the compression? Is it only text, or are images etc also compressed over there standard compression. I can see the 1/5 original size with text, but not with images etc without degrading them.
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Like the outcry about privacy due to your ISP routing your data for you?
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olli: what, me serious?? I’m just ‘having a go’ at all the people that blame the *wrong* things for whatever is going wrong….
as the last poster : ) said, it is just too many apple fanboys, with their head up their…..
and as usual, the best thing for serious peeps to do, is wait a few monts, and see if the massive hype lives up to it.. I dont expect much….
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Ah! I take the point about the compression, I did forget that and that does mean that it’s likely that Opera Mini would be faster at delivering data over the same network (providing the faster renderer of the iPhone didn’t counterbalance the advantages of smaller downloads).
But you see, that’s what should have been noted in this blog post if it wasn’t biased. In fact, it would have done a better job of evangelising Opera had it actually mentioned how Opera Mini is better. I’d really like to see some comparisons of Opera on 3G vs. Opera Mini on Edge vs. the iPhone, and see how different favourable the different browsing experiences really are. Is latency the real delay factor involved here? Do web apps function better on the iPhone, and do news sites function better on Opera Mini? There’s a lot of things to investigate here, and I’d be interested to know how Opera fares.
Yes! Look at any number of “revolutionary” products – the Mac, the iPod, the Blackberry, god, even the Ford Model T. All of these technologies had been done before by someone else, but for whatever reasons (cynical people say marketing, others say ease-of-use) they were the breakthrough products that actually had an impact on the world and changed the way people looked at that respective category of products. Sorry to say, but Opera mini has not had anywhere near that impact. (Congrats! 2 million users! Prepare to be eclipsed by the end of July in the US market alone!)
Oh hey, I just did. Sure, the idea that Apple will sell 2 million iPhones in its launch month is conjecture from my part, but it’s extremely probable. If Apple sells 10 million like Jobs thinks it will? Opera’s left in the dust.
.. And are you seriously asking me to find numbers to prove that “nobody’s ever cared as much about Opera mini as they do about the web browser app on the iPhone”, though? Goodness me.
Again you’re trying to portray me as some mad Apple fanboy by putting insane words in my mouth. The iPhone has all sorts of limitations and problems. This doesn’t change the fact that it is marginalising Opera’s role in mobile browsing and is most likely their greatest threat to date. What was once known as the best handheld browser is now being perceived as being leapfrogged by the iPhone’s Safari software. That’s why I wouldn’t mind if this blog offered some serious coverage of how they measure up in user experience, how Opera intends to respond to it, and if Opera mini will ever really matter again to anyone but a niche audience.
Sure, but this is along the lines of the argument that “Mac OS X is only good because Apple makes it for a specific set of computers.” Um.. so? Doesn’t change the fact Opera mini suffers from a lack of integration with the hardware it runs on, and all indications are pointing to this being the single reason why iPhone’s Safari is going to surpass it in userbase, mindshare and quality.
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er, ’selling a phone’ won’t leave opera in the dust… If ‘using the web from a phone’ was anything near fully, easily, *cheaply* usable, then almost no-one would be using a PC…
- and has anyone tried getting Operamini onto the iPhone?? results from that, I’d like to see.. unlike comparing apples with cucumbers…
wsssat you say? the apple isnt here yet??? more empty talk then….
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SuitCase,
Are you kidding?
It’s totally different, when you develope software for one product and when you do that for all the mobile phones.
I wonder how Opera Mini developers could use that iPhone CPU speed and memory, I am sure well better than Apple devs.
I actually see no point to argue as you don’t really understand that or just love iPhone/Apple too much and ignore all the facts.
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I’d love an iPhone. I love gadgets; what can I say.
But I love OperaMini. Loaded it up my w880i and it’s fantastic. Showed it around my work, let the w880i float around the office and lots of oohs and aahs.
And to the point of this, doing it on a 3G network on the phone it’s very fast but even when I fall out of the 3G back into old faithful zone, it is still very much faster than dialup speed. Pages load instead of in 1-10seconds in 5-30 seconds.
The thought of browsing on a mobile has never been appealing because it was always such a slow fraught thing and until Apple get around that it’ll be a cool gadget that people will buy so they’ll make the money, but it won’t become too largely used a web platform.
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Dumbass Maczealots would buy even a **** with the Apple logo.
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Saying that Opera is doomed just because the iPhone is coming out is way too moronic even for an Apple fanboy, christ.
Do Apple fans know that other phones exist in the market (you know, not locked, not with a price of 500$+plan=>2000$ , with mms, etc) and millions of people around the world use these kind of phones?. Or is it just that because they do not have a friggin’ apple icon do not count at all?. Do Apple fans realize that these phones are actually Opera’s main target, that is, the phones 95% of users have?.
For christ sake, cut the fanboyism out and try to understand that millions of people:
a) Don’t give a rat’s *** about the iPhone.
b) Won’t buy a phone which costs more than a PC and doesn’t offer what they need.
c) Simply don’t have the money.
That’s it, the iPhone can be a total success but it won’t change the fact that it’s an elite and locked piece of hardware. So no, not everyone will go nuts and buy an iPhone just like not everyone buys a Mercedes (in this case without airbags).
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Looks like Opera already did that with the Wii browser AND Opera Mini, and Nokia with their S60 browser.
2 million users, based on what? LOL! Apple fanboys…
Haha… Apple fanboys. Funny every single time!
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now that the *mobile phone* websites have got one, we can see more accurate reports…
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/30/iphone-pottymouth-friendly
http://www.mobileburn.com/gallery.jsp?Id=3519&source=HOMETOP
http://www.techdigest.tv/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/30/first_apple_iphone_review/
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good and bad news(if you have just got an Iphone!
) – there WILL be 3G version!!
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40694
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Activation problems plague iPhone debut
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=12&articleId=9026021&intsrc=hm_topic
Big iPhone headache: Waiting for AT&T activation
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9738300-7.html
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hmm, I see links arent getting through…
look at
gsmarena.com
mobileburn.com
engadget.com
techdigest.tv
for real coverage
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and YES! 3G will be supported, but not in the current model, so dont buy yet!!
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Re. impact on Opera Mini…
OM market share in June was 0,21%, meaning every 500th web page, or nearly a billion, was accessed using OM…
Indeed, nice to have Apple promoting mobile browsing, however, the iPhone way is far too expensive to have an impact…
OM, the one and only, does the trick faster and cheaper, thus usage will continue to grow…
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you have to know about opera mini to install it. this is the root of the problem, with solution yet to come, opera company doesnt have a clue how to find that solution.
opera, sorry to say, s*x at selling its products. most people in my company have 3G mobiles, lots of them use internet in their phones, but almost noone use opera mini. why? because they dont know about it. if firefox had working mobile browser they’d know. and they ofc know about iphone, and will check it (cost is not a factor here). they mostly use firfox at work, because opera doesnt work with corporate networks, but ive stated it otherplace
opera should promote outside its user base, this page, like many other opera promotional stuff (official, or fan based) is targeted at users that already use opera – quite a waste of time.
imagine top-level manager seeing opera ad with that super-opera-man in panties.. is he going to be convinced? no. is he going to ever ever use opera after seeing something so stupid? hell no.
marketing is the key – the more they talk about you, the better, it doesnt realy matter if it is good or bad. opera could have a nice press coverage with Wii Internet Channel, but theive failed. it is ‘wii internet channel’ not ‘opera browser for wii’. oportunity lost.
iphone, no matter how bad is there has a trumph that is yet to be beaten. it is apple. apple is the coolest of cool brand in the world. opera has no brand realy..
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Dear oh dear. Hold on a second, let me stop fantasising about Steve Jobs naked for a second and I’ll try to respond to you guys.
Yes. Can you hold off on the strawman tactics for just one clause or two?
No, Opera made the products, but they didn’t make the “breakthrough products that actually had an impact on the world and changed the way people looked at that respective category of products”. I don’t even know how to begin arguing this point, it’s pretty self evident from the press coverage, to presence in popular culture, to simple word of mouth. Deservedly or not, the iPhone has the buzz, and Opera’s got one or two newspaper articles a month.
Based on my quick research. I typed opera mini million users into Google and found Opera had announced 2 million Opera Mini users in April.
But why? Do you think the iPhone will not sell ten million? That’s the number Jobs has said he aspires to sell, and recently reiterated in an article that he thinks it’s very achievable. Considering that it seems like Apple have already sold a million phones in one territory, in one week, in light of shortages, in light of high prices and contract restrictions.. it seems very achievable.
And unless those Opera Mini numbers have ballooned four or fivefold since three months ago, I maintain that the iPhone’s browser is a huge threat to Opera and is pressuring them into irrelevancy. Leaving them in the dust, if you will.
And so I found this blog post rather frivolous, and would be far more interested in some postings that actually look at how Opera will be affected by the iPhone and how they plan on responding to it. But I hold little hope for this as this blog seems to have lost most of its editorial integrity since the owner joined Opera.
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Unfortunately slow speed has very little to do with ATT’s specific network solution (EDGE). Neither 3G nor WiMax or even the “magic” 4G are not going to solve this problem. While it is true that EDGE’s maximum speed is lower than the “more modern” solution, it uses much less spectrum (less than 1/6 of EVDO, less than 1/18 HSDPA and less than 1/50 of WiMax). If number of iPhone (and other portable devices) grows, the maximum radio speed is not important since network’s resources are to be divided between many users and than spectrum becomes the real bottleneck. For more information you can go to http://wirelessdreams.wordpress.com/. If you would like to find and help discover free WiFi hot spots, go to http://www.wefi.com.