Apple iPhone vs RIM BlackBerry Bold web browser test - round 2

Review by Julian Prokaza on Fri 17 October 2008

BlackBerry Bold web browser performanceWhen we compared web browser speed on the Apple iPhone and RIM BlackBerry Bold back in August, little did we realise that our test had one or two problems that rendered it invalid. We’ve been trying to arrange a repeat test ever since then, with no success. Until now.

The reason we ran the test in the first place (we seldom bother comparing smartphone web browser speeds) was because the BlackBerry Bold seemed very slow at rendering web pages over both 3G and Wi-Fi – even compared to the iPhone over EDGE. While our initial test was flawed (thanks to a flaky Wi-Fi connection), other Bold owners repeated it and many also found it to be slow.

Still, we weren’t able to rest until we could repeat the test ourselves and so that’s what we’ve (finally) done.

For the test, both smartphones were connected to the same Wi-Fi network and both had their mobile data connections disabled. We ran two sets of tests – one with JavaScript disabled on both devices (to reflect the BlackBerry Bold’s default configuration) and one with it enabled.

As you can see, the BlackBerry Bold performs much more respectably this time around, although the iPhone is still quicker most of the time. Of course this isn’t a scientific test performed under laboratory conditions, it’s just an informal comparison.

So, it seems that with the latest firmware, at least, the BlackBerry Bold is considerably nippier than when we last tested it. Better late than never, eh?

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Comments

Comment 1
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iJah420 15:41 on 17 Oct 2008

RIM needs to WORRY

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Comment 2
neutral
CYGNUS 15:51 on 17 Oct 2008

Does this say more about Safari vs. Explorer than Apple vs Blackberry? Everyone knew that Safari runs faster than Explorer. Can you run Firefox on Blackberry phones?

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Comment 3
neutral
Julian Prokaza | registered | 58 posts 16:55 on 17 Oct 2008

This isn't a "iPhone rocks!" thing, Cygnus...

Read the original review and you'll see that I had some serious misgiving's about the Bold's browser performance. it wasn't that the iPhone was fast, but that the Bold was appallingly slow.

Unfortunately, the test I devised to show it turned out to have a few problems, so I pulled the video. This repeat test shows the current Bold firmware is nowhere near as bad -- and is in fact on a par with the iPhone in terms of browsing speed.

So, this is really just a re-test to be fair to RIM and the Bold - I gave it a bit of a kicking last time around, but it's now improved quite a bit.

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Comment 4
neutral
Chris 18:18 on 17 Oct 2008

This is good to see as we did a similar test with our review bold and the browser performance was really bad and we received a lot of stick from blackberry users, i will put up a post with your video showing how it has improved with the new firmware

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Comment 5
neutral
Jason White 18:14 on 17 Nov 2008

Having had both, and sold the iPhone I know which one I prefer.

The apple just can't cut it as a business tool, it's too 'look at me' and a bit unreliable where the bold is subtle and gets on with the job in hand.

one aspect such as the browser is a small sacrifice, the UI is much better, the Bold doesn't have to be tethered to a charger all the time and the call quality is infinitely better.

I really wanted the iPhone to be a good phone, i love apple and all it stands for, but on this one they still have work to do IMHO

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