Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How is your 3G experience panning out?

lavrishevo

lavrishevo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 9, 2007
1,864
204
NJ
I have a wifi model and I am very happy with the device, in general, but I am wondering how the 3G speed is around the U.S.? I travel a lot and I know for a fact that there is significant differences with my iPhone on the 3G networks. In some cities, usually during large conferences with tens of thousands of people boggling down the towers I have experienced 3G become unusable. For some reason this really is a big problem in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay. Anyway, in general how is your experience on the 3G iPad?
 
FtrV8 said:
Speed wise I'd say same as my iPhone.
Click to expand...

With the popularity of the iPad I really hope this does not degenerate AT&T's network to much. I live in Puerto Rico and before the iPhone come to PR the network speeds were much better. Of Course I use my wifi when I am in range, but it is quite revealing how much slower the network is now. I am talking from 1/2 to 1/3 the speed before iPhone's blew up here.
 
Philly is horrible, Nashville is fast, Tampa is fast, and Houston is good. That's all Ive been to this week.

My iPad gets a much better signal than my iPhone though
 
ReallyOldGuy said:
Philly is horrible, Nashville is fast, Tampa is fast, and Houston is good. That's all Ive been to this week.

My iPad gets a much better signal than my iPhone though
Click to expand...

That's interesting. Signal strength does help a good deal. Unfortunately, I'm heading back to Vegas for two weeks and speed is terrible out there. Especially, if your staying in the strip. Man I hate that city, such a dirty cesspool.

I was just in Miami beach and it was not too great down there.
 
I've been at Disney world all week stuck on 3G and I couldn't be happier. Quite impressed compared to my iPhone. Not that the iPhone is bad but the iPad is humming along flawlessly.
 
really good in Austin, but 3G has been excellent in Austin for some time.
 
lespaul85 said:
I've been at Disney world all week stuck on 3G and I couldn't be happier. Quite impressed compared to my iPhone. Not that the iPhone is bad but the iPad is humming along flawlessly.
Click to expand...

That's that processor and beautiful screen at work. It is such a fun device is it not.
 
My 3G is fast in the Bay Area. I'd have to say that it is faster than my iphone. The signal strength is definitely better than my iphone. I was also in Reno this weekend and browsed a few sites and the 3G was pretty fast too.
 
I've had nice results so far with normal web browsing, email, twitter, FB, etc.

I don't think it's A LOT faster than the iPhone 3g, but the extra real estate does give a faster feel for some reason. I guess just seeing the content load in a larger screen gives the impression of faster load times.

Hard to explain. I guess it's more enjoyable.
 
lavrishevo said:
That's that processor and beautiful screen at work. It is such a fun device is it not.
Click to expand...

IMO, I have to agree that the iPad is faster due to the processor working. Using the FCC speed test app, both are running about the same bandwidth, but actually processing screen refreshes, etc. Has to go to the iPad with its better processor.

BTW, I am getting around 3-3.5Mbps in the Washington, DC metro area
 
bay area speeds are ok. i think you would probably get faster speeds on a mifi from verizon but those are around $60/month
 
lavrishevo said:
That's interesting. Signal strength does help a good deal. Unfortunately, I'm heading back to Vegas for two weeks and speed is terrible out there. Especially, if your staying in the strip. Man I hate that city, such a dirty cesspool.

I was just in Miami beach and it was not too great down there.
Click to expand...

So you're why my 3G signal has been weak these past few days.

Now it'll be better.
:p


Actually there's been a big conference and it's continuing throughout the weekend.

My iPhone 3G is usually 1.2mb+
 
I've had it all over the place.

Blazing fast at 6am, to slower than i thought it should be this morning.

But any of it is faster than NOTHING, which is what i have without it! LOL!!
 
In Portland, OR, the AT&T 3G towers are bogged down all the time -- especially downtown when I need my iPhone 3GS to deliver the goods.

Therefore, I chose the "WiFi only" iPad and got the Sprint 4G Overdrive palm-sized mobile multi-user hotspot. It handles my iPad at 5Mbit, the MBP at 6Mbit, and the iPhone at 2Mbit (when 3G fails).

I also tried the Clear Spot, a similar product to the Overdrive. It's faster on download, slower on upload, slightly larger, and with shorter battery life than the Overdrive. So I'm sticking with the Overdrive and waiting to see what Apple delivers in the way of broadband data support in the next gen iPad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back