email attachment downloads 20 times slower than a PC on same WiFi

[swbca21]

My Nexus S and my notebook are both connected to the same WiFi network. They both get a 30M download speed test on that network. My notebook can download a 1 meg video clip email attachment from our exchange server at work in 3 seconds. The Nexus S takes 70 seconds to download the same clip from the same email message.

The notebook and Nexus are both using using the same address https://mail.xxxxx.com with Outlook Web App and Exchange Active Sync to access the Exchange server. I don't think there is any performance differences with the server for the two devices.

If a speed test is equal why does an email attachment take 20 times longer ? (using Touchdown on the Android)

Are all phone downloads slow compared to a PC ?

 

[dvhttn]

Maybe because it has to download to the SDCard and that's a lot slower than a hard drive in a PC? (He asks without checking the read/write speeds - but then I don't know what hard drive you have).

Dave

 

[RazzMaTazz]

Most online speed tests measure the speed of relatively small bursts of data, not long, sustained downloads, because doing such a real-world test would be impractical. (Testers wouldn't want to wait so long for the results. And the speed test providers wouldn't want to incur the expense of the bandwidth needed). Devices with larger amounts or RAM, faster CPUs, and faster mass storage (like your PC) will likely fare better in real-world downloads.

Or put another way... Downloading one bit doesn't require much hardware capabilty. Downloading a movie does. If you drag-race a Ferrari and a Hyundai, they might use the same gasoline and seem equally fast after 1 inch, but over a quarter mile, you'll see a big difference.

 

[swbca21]

Re dvhttn: Thats a good thought, the memory would slow it down some, but it shouldnt slow it down to 1Mbyte / Minute. I can copy the same file to my phone with a USB cable in just a few seconds.

Re RasMaTazz: It seems that both speed test sites that I use a file that takes about 10 seconds to download on a 30M test result.

Web sites are also much slower to load on my phone compared to a PC when they are both on the same internet connection. I am wonder if this is processor or video rendering speed.

 

[RazzMaTazz]

In your original post, you semed to be asking why your relatively powerful PC downloads large email attachments faster than your relativly weak phone. That has nothing to do with video rendering, and everything to do with connection speed, processor speed, RAM speed, and mass storage speed.

If you want to know how your Nexus fares in other aspects of its performance, like video processing (relative to other devices) you can download one of the many benchmarking apps, like Quadrant. That may give you an idea of the relative bottlenecks of the Nexus.

 

[dvhttn]

....

Web sites are also much slower to load on my phone compared to a PC when they are both on the same internet connection. I am wonder if this is processor or video rendering speed.

The other difference is the web browser you're using. At least, it would be in my case (Firefox on the PC, Dolphin HD on the phone) but you may be using, say, FF on both. Though even here I'm sure the rendering engines are different. Try looking for some comparative reviews of the available browsers and see if any are faster.

Dave