Browser Battle: Nexus One / Droid / Iphone

[agentkalaw]

Here's a battle between WiFi browser loading speeds between the three phones. Very interesting result. Can anyone explain why the iphone was significantly faster? Nexus One should have been way faster compared to the iphone on same wifi speeds.

check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMGkhBIqOMg

 

[trinode]

are we sure the android browser is loading everything in the same order? (it could have been loading the images further down the page first), also, it seems like the apple had cached the page, I have no sound here, but did they say that all 3 phones had been fuly reset or had their cache's cleared?

 

[uansari1]

Yeah, that site was iPhone optimized! That's why there was such a huge difference in load times... what a scam! Notice you even see the "Engadget for the iPhone" banner pop up on the iPhone's screen...

 

[wick12345]

Also notice the guys' ENTIRE post was so SLANTED!!!!!!!!!! He's a complete Apple fan boy. He wanted the Driods to lose. Just ticks me off becuase people will buy that when there is NO way AT&T has a better network and the Iphone is a slower machine.

I so wish this phone was unlocked for AT&T too! gah... my wifes stupid plan and her free minutes!!! I'm switching anyway but it would have been nice to truly have the open system.

 

[duncan888]

No doubt the iphone had the page cached. I've just tried loading engadget on my iPhone 3GS, clearing the cache first and it took twice as long as what video showed on the iphone. I on Wifi with a 6.5mb connection too.

Engadget is totally biased toward Apple big time, nothing can ever live up to them if it hasnt got a apple logo on it.

 

[Bumble-Bee]

This begs the question how did a bias reviewer like that get the exclusive review ?

But in head to head non cached race they will be almost the same, but even if the iphone wins (as some browsers generally handle different coded sites better) its doesn't matter as hay nexus one has confirmed Flash ..... my 3gs is looking older and older with every nexus one news story lol

 

[jubeh]

Stop being fanboyish and look at facts. The new browser is nice, but Google screwed it up by moving the drawing engine to the skiagl library. It's now running on the same circumstances as the Chrome browser.
Engadget is a pretty punishing site, and, unlike the iPhone's safari, Android's browser won't release a page until most content is loaded (with the iPhone you can start viewing content even as it's loading).
Here's an interesting thing: If you have a Dream, load up Cupcake on it. No, seriously, load Cupcake on it, the do a browser test of Cupcake browser vs Eclair browser.
The new browser is pretty, but it's pretty much crap.

-edit-
I check engadget almost daily, and I had noticed that since I started using the 2.0 browser loading was slower. Oddly enough, most other websites are pretty quick too. The iPhone browser is supperior, and nobody's questioning that. I switched to Opera Mini on my device mostly because of the slow speed of the stock browser.

-edit2-
Honestly, run the test yourselves. Any eclair browser (either using a droid, or a nexus one, or a dream with either and aosp eclair build or cm's newest donut release with the 2.0 browser backported) will load the page at about the same rate (slower on my g1 over wifi which, according to speedtest.net, is running at 14.28 Mbps down, plenty fast).
Actually, I'll make a video of two android emulator devices, one with 2.0.1, and another with 1.5 and I'll load engadget on both.

 

[duncan888]

plus the smoothness of the scroll. The iphone scrolls at snail speed, moving down screen length, of course its going to look smooth. Android scroll speed is 5 times faster, obviously it's going to look less smooth because of the refresh rate.

I don't see them commenting about that

 

[jubeh]

Ok, here we go.
Android 1.1 browser (unchanged up to donut except for a few ui changes, but rendering engine is the same) vs Android 2.0.1 browser (with libskiagl drawing engine).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjsWWjh79oM

 

[Carloswithac]

Interesting stuff, Jubeh!

 

[newjaruz]

Yes, Engadget is quite a bit slanted in apples favor. That entire review which contained that video was slanted. They failed to mention call quality in that review... did not even bring up the noise cancelling mike. Used sarcastic remarks all over the place. In this video he was like ohhh.. "If I were an owner of this phone I would be in tears"

I bet when I run this test myself the nexus one will probably win out most times but it all depends on the site. Gizmodo stated that the Nexus outperformed both the 3gs and droid most times in multiple test. Unlike Engadget.. they saw the result they wanted on their first try and didn't try it elsewhere.

 

[liamhere]

i love my iphone

......now ducks under a table

 

[Bumble-Bee]

I love my iPhone too but some ppl who have them think they are flawless which is untrue there are may downsides to the iphone which this particular review glossed over when comparing the too, things like :-

- WiFi 'n' Connectivity
- Removable battery (when the iphones battery dies like they do its a mess to replace the battery not to mention it voids the warrantee)
- Apples Grip on AppStore
- How apple restricts JB/Rooting is immense ( reducing your control over iphones)
- Battery Nexus Has a bigger battery and better life

Im not saying the nexus is perfect either :-

- Browser does seem slower on nexus (time will tell) Acid3 test them :-|
- UI of the nexus still looks kinda dated
- Some reported lag on home screens

So I understand that there are areas where the N1 falls behind the iPhone but on other, some more practical areas the iPhone falls behind.

Also did they say there device was On 2.1 ?? it could have been on 2.0.1 and i dint see any 2.1 specific features

 

[Blueman101]

how is 1.1 better than 2.0.1, how is that even possible?
Why would they let it come to that?
They better fix that!!!!

 

[firedup]

Anyone know if flash 10 works on the Nexus??

 

[Blueman101]

......now ducks under a table

Whats wrong with liking your own phone?
Now if you were to say that the iPhone was better than the Nexus One in a Nexus One forum, with android fans, then you might need to hide under a table. BUT EVEN THAT WONT SAVE YOU!!!!
lolz

 

[trinode]

Err, is *2.1* slower?

 

[Blueman101]

Err, is *2.1* slower?

unknown, no one else seems to be wanting to do some browser videos.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=612843

 

[dwang]

Just got my nexus 1 and tried the engadget browser test. On my n1, it loaded the site just as fast as the iphone 3gs. And, after the page was cached, the n1 loaded the site faster than the 3gs.

And scrolling is very smooth, significantly better than the mt3g.

 

[duncan888]

Here is a video from REAL Nexus One users comparing the browser speeds.
The N1 is just as fast if not faster than the iPhone.
Don't know why Engadget would make it seem Android is dyingly slow!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdqXSY0UOHU