Rob Reed, the one-man Consumer Reports who demonstrated that Apple's 3G iPhone isn't anywhere near as fast as Apple suggests it is, has conducted a new round of tests. This time, he has addressed the main complaint about the first round:
- That he didn't have a good enough signal
Rob ransacked Boston until he found a "3G sweet spot". He then retested the phone 6 times--running through the same tasks Apple shows in the ad--and presented the fastest round in a side-by-side comparison (see video below).
The issue here is not the phone itself: It's the advertised speed versus thee actual speed. The ad purports to answer the question, "What exactly is 3G?" Then it shows a demonstration that apparently isn't possible in the real world.
Which makes us ask again: Apple and Steve Jobs, really, what's with the deceptive advertising?
Also interesting: Rob observes that it takes the 3G iPhone about the same amount of time to run the tasks at a common half-strength 3G speed as it does at a rare full-strength speed. Rob takes this to mean that it is actually the device's processing speed and not the signal that is the limiting factor (a reader attributes this to latency). Unless there's something specific about Rob's phone, this makes the ad even more misleading.
See Also: Hey, Apple and Steve Jobs, What's With The Deceptive Advertising? (50+ comments)
