Web pages load 9% faster over LTE on Galaxy S III than iPhone 5

Computerworld - The Samsung Galaxy S III loads Web pages 9% faster over LTE wireless than Apple's new iPhone 5, according to tests by Strangeloop Networks, a vendor of network optimization software.

The report was based on tests in July and September of six different devices. The tests measured page load times from 200 e-commerce sites.

Strangeloop also found the iPad 2 loaded Web pages 22% faster than the Samsung Galaxy tablet over a 3G wireless network.

In a separate comparison, Strangeloop found that the average home page took 11.8 seconds to load on a Galaxy S smartphone and 11.5 seconds on an iPhone 4 over 3G, making both 40% slower than the average desktop load time.

When LTE was compared to 3G, Strangloop found that LTE was 27% faster. While most carriers claim that LTE is 10 times faster than 3G, Strangeloop's tests found the difference to be far less.

The average LTE speed for loading a Web page was 8.5 seconds compared with 11.7 seconds for 3G.

"Although LTE networks have improved mobile performance, pages are still far too slow," Strangeloop CEO Jonathan Bixby said.

Most mobile shoppers want a page to load in four seconds or less, according to surveys, he said.

Strangeloop didn't elaborate on the test methodology.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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