4G download speed vs Droid Charge

[stew930]

Any idea why my wife's Droid Charge would download twice as fast as my GNex? I would assume they would be comparable but on hers Speedtest.net consistently downloads in the 20Mbps range and I barely hit the low teens. Most of the time my Upload is faster than Download.

Both phones side by side have the same bars. One day mine did hit 26.6Mbps

 

[jkc120]

Any idea why my wife's Droid Charge would download twice as fast as my GNex? I would assume they would be comparable but on hers Speedtest.net consistently downloads in the 20Mbps range and I barely hit the low teens. Most of the time my Upload is faster than Download.

Both phones side by side have the same bars. One day mine did hit 26.6Mbps

Couple of things:

1. make sure you are using the same speedtest.net server when doing your testing. This can make for huge variance in results.

2. you can't compare bars on the charge and the nexus, as gingerbread only shows the bars based on the CDMA/3G dBm, not the LTE/4G. So a speedtest is the only (currently) valid comparison.

Just make sure you select the same server on both

 

[stew930]

The server is set the same.

 

[jkc120]

The server is set the same.

What I'd do is the following (I don't know how many tests you've run), to avoid statistical or network congestion anomalies:

1. pick a server (set it on BOTH phones)
2. run a test on gnex, then on charge. do this 3 times, alternating between phones (reduces the risk of the network being less loaded vs. if you'd run it 3 times in a row on each phone
3. now pick another server and repeat step 2
4. do one more different server and repeat step 2

You'll then have 3 data samples for each phone on each server and if the trend is the same, you've got data you can show to the VZW store if you want to take the phone in to exchange it.

As an optional step, you could try the server(s) again outside, because at least in my experience, being inside a structure definitely seemed to adversely affect the nexus' 4G (and even 3G) performance.

Please post the results here, as I'm curious (and I'm sure others are as well!).

 

[stew930]

I'll test this out tonight and post the results.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Is your wife's Charge updated to the latest GB? I heard that it improved connectivity, data speed significantly. If so, Gnex will see similar improvement with updates as it uses similar 4G chip.

 

[richardtb]

My wife also has a charge and I have done numerous tests (in Houston, TX) with same conclusion:
Charge much faster than Gnex on 4G network.

Yes, she has latest GB update and that made a big difference.

The other difference is that Gnex is much faster than Charge on WiFi.

 

[sperho]

I wonder how the Charge would do on this tower + server (tested on the Nexus a few hours ago):

 

[milan03]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, but I've never seen faster speeds than what I'm getting out of my Galaxy Nexus. Just keep in mind that Verizon's theoretical speeds out of their current 2x10Mhz channel is 73.6mbps.

 

[jkc120]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, but I've never seen faster speeds than what I'm getting out of my Galaxy Nexus. Just keep in mind that Verizon's theoretical speeds out of their current 2x10Mhz channel is 73.6mbps.

Um, the signal varies by location, device, and indoor vs outdoor. Congrats on the great speeds but just because yours is fine doesn't mean there aren't issues in some areas or with the phone itself, especially in marginal signal locations.

 

[syntrix]

Um, the signal varies by location, device, and indoor vs outdoor. Congrats on the great speeds but just because yours is fine doesn't mean there aren't issues in some areas or with the phone itself, especially in marginal signal locations.

Plus the majority of the VZW backhauls are set at either 50Mb or 100Mb right now. There are most likely lower speed backhauls in certain areas.

So if you have excellent signal, and the tower is congested, you might only get say 3Mb. The entire network has to work together. This can be thought of like your home internet connection and wifi. If you have a 150Mb connection to your wifi, but only have a 5Mb internet connection, your theoretical maximum is 5Mb (minus tcp overhead of course, and sans any transport capacity issues along the way ).

 

[milan03]

Um, the signal varies by location, device, and indoor vs outdoor. Congrats on the great speeds but just because yours is fine doesn't mean there aren't issues in some areas or with the phone itself, especially in marginal signal locations.

The point is that ive never seen speed close to what i get on nexus using charge or thunderbolt.

 

[SolidOrange]

my GNex is consistently 30-50% faster than my thunderbolt was and 10-20% faster than my rent-a-razr. the bars may not be reporting a strong signal, but it still crushes any other LTE device i've used. granted, i still can't get any higher than 15 mbps, but my thunderbolt was consistently around 7 and the razr was consistently around 10.

 

[milan03]

It looks like that last LTE outage changed a bit the throughput I'm getting on my UE as I'm getting about 30% lower throughput at the same locations I've been testing for a while. It could very well be that they dialed down the backhaul a bit since the speeds have been consistently lower for the past few days, peak or off-peak hours.
I'm sure it'll all come back to normal in a few days.

 

[Ken7]

I'll test this out tonight and post the results.

Bet you'll get the same results. It is what it is. I am a bit surprised by the results given that you were comparing it against the Charge...the only radio I found to be worse than the GNex.

But I will say the download speeds were, on average, better on my GNex than the Razr I had. That surprised me. But nothing topped the Rezound.

 

[Ken7]

It looks like that last LTE outage changed a bit the throughput I'm getting on my UE as I'm getting about 30% lower throughput at the same locations I've been testing for a while. It could very well be that they dialed down the backhaul a bit since the speeds have been consistently lower for the past few days, peak or off-peak hours.
I'm sure it'll all come back to normal in a few days.

Welcome to our world.

 

[milan03]

Welcome to our world.

That's the world of the early adopters

 

[JLW24]

Ok I am definitely concerned with my speeds! And I am on my 2nd Gnex since launch.

I am connecting to the New York, NY server which is 3.6 miles away. It is the closest one. The top 2 results are in 3G and the bottom is 4G.

This is not good!!!

 

[milan03]

Ok I am definitely concerned with my speeds! And I am on my 2nd Gnex since launch.

I am connecting to the New York, NY server which is 3.6 miles away. It is the closest one. The top 2 results are in 3G and the bottom is 4G.

This is not good!!!

Towerstream or Optimum Online? Try them both. I tend to get better results out of Towerstream, it also feels like it's a longer test.

 

[JLW24]

Towerstream or Optimum Online? Try them both. I tend to get better results out of Towerstream, it also feels like it's a longer test.

I've tried both of them. But I am only getting somewhat decent results outside. And i have no idea how your numbers are so high in manhattan! i work in midtown and the best i got today was 20.79mbps download and 14.14 mbps upload and that was outside. And that one was a rare fluke!
In my office building I barely even get 4g.

 

[jkc120]

I've tried both of them. But I am only getting somewhat decent results outside. And i have no idea how your numbers are so high in manhattan! i work in midtown and the best i got today was 20.79mbps download and 14.14 mbps upload and that was outside. And that one was a rare fluke!
In my office building I barely even get 4g.

Unless the two of you are testing in the exact same spot, you can't really compare results. The Nexus (at least the 2 I had and from other reports here) can have a problem inside buildings. All Nexuses may not have this particular problem, but there are enough reports of it that it's a possibility. It could be that the building you're in has thicker/less penetrable walls/joyces/etc and it's affecting your 4G speeds more than the other person in Manhattan. If you guys are very close to each other, why not meet up somewhere and do some testing side-by-side? Then if your phone still doesn't perform as well, exchange it for a new one and perhaps you just got a bad one.

 

[JLW24]

Unless the two of you are testing in the exact same spot, you can't really compare results. The Nexus (at least the 2 I had and from other reports here) can have a problem inside buildings. All Nexuses may not have this particular problem, but there are enough reports of it that it's a possibility. It could be that the building you're in has thicker/less penetrable walls/joyces/etc and it's affecting your 4G speeds more than the other person in Manhattan. If you guys are very close to each other, why not meet up somewhere and do some testing side-by-side? Then if your phone still doesn't perform as well, exchange it for a new one and perhaps you just got a bad one.

I just went outside at lunch and could barely get 4G and i am right by grand central. there are so many things to worry about in life, and this silly phone and its issues are taking up way too much of my time.

 

[jkc120]

I just went outside at lunch and could barely get 4G and i am right by grand central. there are so many things to worry about in life, and this silly phone and its issues are taking up way too much of my time.

I would recommend exchanging it. Explain to them where you were and that others on 4G phones (even other Nexus owners nearby) have reported much better radio performance and that you'd like to exchange for a new one. If that one also has the issues, at that point it's up to you whether you decide to wait for a radio or software update to address it (IF it will address it, we don't know with 100% certainty it will), return it or exchange it for a different device. If you like everything else about the phone, you do have until 1/15 to wait to see if an OTA or radio update fixes it, mind you...

 

[milan03]

I've tried both of them. But I am only getting somewhat decent results outside. And i have no idea how your numbers are so high in manhattan! i work in midtown and the best i got today was 20.79mbps download and 14.14 mbps upload and that was outside. And that one was a rare fluke!
In my office building I barely even get 4g.

It really depends where in Manhattan you are. My tests were from upper west side area and there are tons of DAS installed in office buildings, and public areas. But I did notice significantly slower speeds after that last LTE outage. Seems like Verizon has dialed down the backhaul on sites I used to max out the sectors. Hopefully it's short term.