Iphone 4 Speed Test

In our informal performance testing in San Francisco, the AT&T-connected iPhone 4 registered far faster download speeds than the Verizon-connected Droid X did. The iPhone 4 showed an average download speed of 1958 kbps (almost 2 mbps) across our five testing locations in the city. The Droid X had an average download speed of 1130 kbps--still more than enough speed for reasonably fast Web browsing and standard-definition video watching. The two new devices posted similar average upload speeds; the iPhone4 registered 434 kbps and the Droid X averaged 564 kbps. Those upload speeds are fast enough to support basic file sharing but not enough to make fat-pipe apps such as multiplayer gaming or videoconferencing run well.

We tested the iPhone 4 and the Droid X in five San Francisco locations and used the same testing methodology we use for our 3G speed tests. We used the FCC-endorsed Ookla testing app on both the iPhone 4 and the Droid X to measure upload speeds and download speeds. The Ookla test sends a stream of packets from the phone to a network server and back, and then measures the average speeds at which the packets make the round trip. We ran three consecutive speed tests on each phone at each location and then picked the best upload and download speeds of the three. Our voice-call tests were more subjective; we placed calls to a common local number, listening for static, jitter, delay, dropped calls, or a failure to connect, and then assigned a score to each call.