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Which is Faster? Dedicated EVDO Devices vs. Tethered Phone

Here's a topic that will come up more and more as each new phone or PDA is released:
Which is faster? A Tethered Phone / PDA, or a true EVDO data card / USB modem?

3Gstore.com will (very soon), be selling PDAs. In our research testing, we decided to write this article.

Important points on tethering:

-- Tethering makes sense only for those who need infrequent access to the internet. someone who only has to log in once a day or less, and doesn't live online for 2-12 hours a day.

-- You can only tether for as long as your phone/pda's battery lasts. Of course, you can always plug your phone in - but the point of broadband wireless is that you can use it without being plugged in, right?

-- While you are tethered, your phone/pda battery will die faster. In fact many phone forums are spreading the word that just turning off the EVDO part of a phone saves a lot of battery life. Imagine how short battery life is when you are actually using your phone to move data over EVDO!

-- You cannot talk on your phone/pda, and be tethered for internet access at the same time. This is the main deal-breaker for the tech/consultant/executive who is on the go and needs to be talking with a client at the same time researching an answer on the web.

-- As of 06/14/07, there are no EVDO Rev-A phones out yet. EVDO Rev-A is the fastest available networks from Sprint and Verizon and many people with their new Rev-A compatible devices experience in excess of 2000kbps/sec downloads. (See for yourself: Fastest Downloads submitted on EVDOMaps.com)

-- If you tether via wireless BlueTooth and only have BT1.x you are never even going to see EVDO speeds. BT1.x has max throughput of about 200-400kbps which is slower than EVDO speeds. If you are lucky enough to have one of the rare phones / PDAs with BT2.x or tether via USB cable, then at least your tethering method is not a bottleneck.

-- Lastly, a phone or PDA's infrastructure is designed for phone use FIRST, and data transmission second. (sometimes 3rd, 4th etc) This means that phones and PDAs are NOT good at being a data device. Their internal processor focuses its effort on other things like actually being a phone, or being a media player, etc. The internal data bus of a phone is not 'tuned' for maximum data throughput.

Another issue may be if you have a Macintosh. Most PDAs will not tether via USB "out of the box" to Mac, however, there are many 3rd party solutions to get around this.

All this adds up to the fact that the fastest tethered phone or PDA is only about one third as fast as a dedicated EVDO data device, given the same exact EVDO signal.

We tested a Treo 755p (tethered via USB) and an EX720 ExpressCard at the same location and time. Here are the results:

Treo 755p Speed Test Results:

EX720 ExpressCard Speed Test Results:

It's obvious from the speed test results that the Treo 755p is only able to use the slower Rev-0 network as the upload speed is limited. With the faster Rev-A network you can acheive average upload speeds of 300-600Kbps.

Think about this for a minute: Do you really want to pay for a Data Option on your phone, only to end up getting one third of the potential speeds that EVDO can provide?

Doesn't it make sense that if you are going to pay for High Speed EVDO Rev-A service, that you can actually get it where its available to you?

Now, if you are an occasional data user, it may make sense and be more cost effective to tether a PDA/phone.

(for the purpose of discussion on this thread, I'm adding this static image of archive results that were live when I wrote this post.)

• Purchase your Sprint EVDO Device from the EVDO Experts - 3Gstore.com
• Purchase your Verizon EVDO Device from the EVDO Experts - 3Gstore.com