Feed yourself!
3G / HSDPA + EvDo Burnout Tests
July 31st, 2007 by marius
Tonight was one of the rare occasions to play with all these beauties at once. Will spare you of too much introductory stuff and jump right into the testing results.
Toys in test:
1. Reference RDS/RCS 1Mbit cable connection via 54Mb WiFi - http://www.rdsnet.ro/
2. Vodafone 3G/HSDPA 3.6Mbs Huawei USB ‘SmartModem’ - http://www.vodafone.ro/ [product page link]
3. Orange 3G/HSDPA 3.6Mbs Option ICON II USB Modem - http://www.orange.ro/ [product page link]
4. Zapp Mobile 2.4Mbs Z010 CDMA 1xEV-DO wireless modem http://www.zapp.ro/ [product page link]
Testing machine and area:
1.83Ghz Core 2 Duo 2GB RAM Apple Macbook with a/b/g/n - enabled Airport WiFi card.
All tests were performed in a residential area in Bucharest, RO. Time 11:00ish PM. Moderate network loads.
Additional testing was performed on a WinXP Dell 1.6Ghz Core2Duo machine. Performance obtained was about 30% lower!!
Testing on:
- Local (short path) download - Zapp data driver library
Test file - Software image WL-500gx - Deluxe (v 2.1) - 1x/EV-DO [3.20MB]
- External (overseas) download - Revision3 / Diggnation
Test file - diggnation–0108–2007-07-26multipass–large.h264.mov [108MB]
- Ping to google.com
Without further ado, the results:
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The control RDS cable connection needs no introduction or explanations. It performed as expected, capping out at the 1Mbs mark. Response times were great -inline with expectations- but maybe reported a tad lower as the WiFi router adds its own slowdown. This said, here are the screenshots.
Short path:
Overseas:
— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 67.475/68.679/71.692/1.056 ms
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The Vodafone HSDPA SmartModem. I had a really good experience using this modem with speeds in excess of 300KBs (3-4Mbs). Unfortunately I was unable to replicate the performance tonight. Granted, and this goes for the other two players, the quality of the link, signal strength, network load and cell performance affect the max speeds attainable. Vodafone RO provides 3G+ (HSDPA) 3.6Mbs service in major cities and a guaranteed minimum of 1.4Mbs. What I managed to get was a not-so-flashy minimum with an excellent signal strength.
The proof-
Short path:
External:
— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 11 packets received, 8% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 278.274/313.286/609.070/93.856 ms
Notes: The application (Vodafone Mobile Connect for Mac) needs to be downloaded from the VF website. It weights around 15MB and it’s fairly easy to install and use. The drawback is that an additional “Activate” click has to be performed in order to enable the connection in the pref pane. The link is pushed through a VF APN proxy that strongly compresses the traffic (esp JPG images). That adds a certain lag and forbids use of some web bandwidth testing apps.
VMC:
[+] click to enlarge
============================================
Orange touts a fresh 3.6Mbs capability in its network. Although generally slower compared to Vodafone, with a poorer link quality, the very ugly Option modem has performed on par (if not a tad better) with its competitor. Here is the proof:
Short path:
And overseas:
— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 267.750/283.606/298.381/8.540 ms
Notes: Orange has performed notably better than VF in the response time test, with almost half the average round-trip time. Great news for VoIP applications. Its Mac application I had to request at Orange Customer Service and was later forwarded in an email. The whole process took around 10 minutes. GlobeTrotter Connect weighs around 2MB and is spartan. It required a restart (not typical for OSX) to work without asking for one. The traffic is also routed through a proxy but optimization is only provided through separate APN.
Orange took no pride in customizing the packaging of their modem, sign of eagerness to take it to the market. More so, the documentation has Mac screenshots of an app you expect to find in the package but can only get separately, on request.
Not so cool!
The app:
[+] click to enlarge
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Zapp…oh Zapp…used to rock when its antenna was in good shape. Anything between 1.4Mbs and 2.0Mbs was possible. It’s generally a connection that can handle many streams at a time without degrading the ongoing transfers. It scales in an intelligent way. Plus, unlike Vodafone and Orange, the connection is direct without a pass trough a proxy for compression.
On the short path the Z010 would usually do 150KBs and on the diggnation file it would normally fly at a sustainable 180KBs!
I’ll add the screenshots though, but with a big fat disclaimer: this is not how a *healthy* Zapp modem performs!
Local (their own freakin servers):
A la longue:
— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 254.470/386.584/1362.356/296.632 ms
Notes: It breaks my heart to bash Zapp so badly after serving me 140ishKbs downloads for years in times when Orange/Vodafone only had shitty EDGE (150ishMbs) with this poor performance due to the faulty modem. Yet I think the ping results are relevant, the Z010 still doing good at 254.470 minimum round-trip time! Mkay… we have some spoilers here as I knew what to expect of some modems in test. Also sadly reporting that the CDMA modem was only here for a broader image of the competing technologies, less for actual results. It’s had a long service life feeding my mobile lifestyle and unfortunately it has the antenna bruised, which translates in very poor reception - read performance!
The Z010 needs no drivers for Mac running OSX, a compatible driver already rests in the OS’s library. With the connection set up in the pref pane, call is initiated in 2 clicks and established in less than 3 seconds! No other apps involved! Sweet!
Unfortunately the Z010 is no longer offered by Zapp but can be purchased by special request. It features a battery of its own that improves overall performance and lowers the drain on the notebook battery. It also has a b/w LCD screen that displays data such as signal strength, time/date and battery level. SMS can also be received on the device.
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The conclusion is optional for a buying decision. Both Orange and Vodafone do well in normal-real life tests! Both offers are compelling, reasonably and approachable priced for near-unlimited traffic (8GB/month). Both modems come free with subscription and are both Mac and PC compatible. If on the PC counterpart the modems have PnP installation - the drivers are stored on the modems themselves - you’ll have a little more trouble getting them for your Mac. Be advised! Request those drivers before you are on the road and need further internet access! :)
Not surprisingly, both modems do shitty jobs on Bill Gates-flavoured machines. With Orange capping downloads at around 85KBs I went no further testing and lit up the Mac. And there numbers started looking like the ones on the marketing fliers. ;)
Overall brief: sexiness/performance/ergonomic; grades from 1-5
Vodafone 3G/HSDPA SmartModem: 5 / 3 / 4
Orange 3G/HSDPA Option ICON II USB Modem: 1 / 3 / 3
Zapp Z010 CDMA 1xEV-DO: 3 / 4 / 3
===== 5 cigarettes were smoked during the making of this review. please do not try this at home. smoking is bad for your health!! =====
Posted in General, All Wireless, All Apple, All WiFi, Skype, Google, Microsoft, Gadgets, Fun | 
August 1st, 2007 at 12:21 am
um…picturing a woman that looks like the Orange modem… result: offensive to the sense of…can I use the word…beauty? :))
August 1st, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Nice idea, to perform this evaluation. Though, I do have some criticism :D :
- “compresses traffic, especially jpeg pictures”. Really? Quite a compression algorithm, I would be very interested to find it. I thought jpeg is about the best compression one can get for an image :)
- No evaluation of the upload speed; I see you only use bittorent to download (non-copirighted!) files, but you don’t care much about your peers. Ntz, ntz… :D
Seriously now, if you are a “regular home user” you are problably interested only in downloads; but for some “business applications” it is quite relevant what upload speeds you have. I personally found Zapp to be much faster at upload than Vodafone… but I admit I didn’t re-test recently.
- I can’t understand why, against objective figures, you chose to give worse marks to the Orange modem/connection. I mean, really, wtf do I care how nice it looks? I want an internet connection, not a beauty queen. Factor in the fact that Orange had weaker signal, by your own measurments… I think at least it deserved a higher grade than vodafone for “performance”. Then, you judge “ergonomy” but don’t tell the criteria (why is Orange so much worse than Vodafone at ‘ergonomy’?)
August 1st, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Thanks Virgil, but you are quite wrong:
1. You want to see how compressed Jpegs are (by lowering quality) when filtered through their proxy . I will post an example.
2. there was no bittorent client or seed involved in the test. I for one haven’t even used such an app. don’t need it. test file is available for free download at revision3.com and is a videocast I watch weekly.
3. have not had time or interest to post upload test results. all were around 50KBs, fair and notably good.
4. Maybe that’s you and a few others. I do give a shit. i don’t like the way the option modem looks, period! Plus, the grading is a personal take and may vary on my mood. ergonomy meant wether it was easy to use and carry, store or use clamped to a laptop. and Option is nothing you can call ergonomic. performance was measuring the device, not the service. the service proved equally good on both ;)
tip: read carefully before you flame :)
August 1st, 2007 at 9:14 pm
It wasn’t intended as a flame, really…. sorry if it looked like this.
1. I didn’t think this was even conceivable. I agree it is technically feasible, and what you said makes sense in this context; But still :O WTF??? Altering the data it delivers to me is not quite something I would expect from my ISP
2. It was a figure of speech… i actually tried to make a joke. Forgive me, I have to do the paperwork for last month so my jokes may not be funny now :D
3. 50K (bytes right? not bits) is consistently better than what I got; then again, I don’t use the modems in midtown. Still, what I like about ZAPP is that where you dont have EVDO and HSDPA coverage (say…. a small town like Teius), the transfer rates are still decent.
4. I am still not pleased here. I undrestand the importance of the “aspect” factor… but I still question the other ratings. First, although “: Orange has performed notably better than VF in the response time test”, they have equal performance. Ok, fair enough… But I would expect the same “relaxed” appreciation at the “ergonomy” ratings. Let’s split this in categories
a. Easy to carry/store: Orange & VF about the same size, ZAPP slightly larger.
b. Easy to use: PnP for windows, relatively easy to get for Mac. A plus for Zapp which works “out of the box” on Mac. Small minus for Orange - must contact customer service. Small minus - application requires restart. (the “spartan” part is not a minus here, I include it in “sexiness”).
c. Others: ZAPP modem has LCD screen, can receive SMS on it. I’d give it a relatively big “ergonomy” plus here.
Final result: orange & vodafone about the same in text, ZAPP with better ergonomy. Your rating: VF 4 - highest; ZAPP 3; ORANGE 2 - half the VF score.
August 1st, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Again, we don’t like the modem, the service was just fine! I’m a Mac user and I like the VF modem. I fear I’d damage my USB port using the Option. That’s ‘ergonomics’ and it’s a personal call. From a performance perspective, both modems are 7.2Mbs capable and the carrier service was consistently similar. The signal strenght was reported wrong on the Mac because the Win app would show it full (excellent). So with same signal strenght (VF and Org towers across the street), I think speeds were not altered by that.
I believe you nailed a few things there and I thank you for adding them to the cue!