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iPhone 3GS is fast, just ask the iPhone 3G and Palm Pre

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 11:25 AM

We knew the iPhone 3GS was fast – just a couple minutes with the iPhone 3GS in-hand is enough to prove as much – but now we have a more applicable idea of the iPhone 3GS‘s speed. Anandtech ran a series of speed-tests on the iPhone 3GS, comparing it against the iPhone 3G, Palm Pre, and T-Mobile G1. The results speak for themselves. And they say that the iPhone 3GS is king!

After loading various webpages, using WiFi to rule out any inconsistencies in 3G network speeds, the data showed that the iPhone 3GS had an average speed-advantage of 122% over the iPhone 3G and a 21% advantage over the Palm Pre. The faster 600Mhz ARM Cortex A8 processor in the iPhone 3GS is likely due most of the credit for the bump in speed, what with its ability to handle 2 instructions simultaneously. But, the advantage over the Palm Pre’s OMAP3-based processor (not a slow processor by any means) is surprising.

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In testing applications launch times (dialer, camera, email, Google Maps, web browser), the iPhone 3GS proved the fastest of the bunch. Application load-times weren’t markedly different between the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, but when comparing the Palm Pre and T-Mobile G1, it’s obvious that the iPhone 3GS is the quicker of the bunch.

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Now, if only we could precisely measure the iPhone 3GS’s enhanced 3D graphics capabilities and compare them to the iPhone 3G…

[Via: Anandtech]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Jasper

    I have to say the 3G S is fast, but the test is not as fair as it should be. Many of the websites that Will Park tested have special websites that are built specifically for the iPhone. Meaning that it would definitely download faster compared to the Pre which has download the complete page as you would see it on your desktop or laptop. In all fairness, Will Park needs to tests pages that the 3G S and Pre have to download the whole page. Lastly, I think this test will need to be done again in couple of months. Give Palm a chance to update and fix any bugs that is causing the Pre to slow down. I have a feeling the Pre will be equal or better than the 3G S.

  • Theo

    Apple makes a great phone. The Pre for a 1st generation phone is not doing bad either.

  • Lava

    Maybe if you actually read the article instead of trying so hard to defend the Pre, you would have realized that Will Park had nothing to do with the test. The test results come from the highly respected AnandTech.com website, and given their primary mission is to test things thoroughly, I highly doubt they did something as goofy as test a mobile version of a website on the iPhone against a full version on the Pre.

    The results stand – iPhone in general is 21% faster at loading websites as the Pre.

  • jaytee

    Of course, if you were not trying so hard to defend the iphone you might care that cnet had the Pre winning 2 out of 3 real world tests against both ihpones.