Website load times compared: Archos 5 vs. iPhone 3G vs. Nokia N810
In my Archos 5 first impressions piece, I said that the Internet Media Tablet’s ARM Cortex A8 processor and Opera 9 browser create “the best ARM-based browsing experience around right now and [is] definitely the one to beat.” To qualify that statement, I’ve put the Archos 5 against the iPhone 3G and Nokia N810 (both commonly regarded as the best ARM-powered devices on the market) in a round of website load time tests.
Though page load time is just one of many ways to evaluate a web browsing experience, it is often the most important. Full Web 2.0 support is key, too, but most consumers tend to value faster over fuller, especially when it comes to mobile internet devices.
Parameters
I’ve done load time comparisons before (here, here, and here), so my standard disclaimer and testing parameters apply:
- This was not a scientific study or professional lab test.
- Each browser’s cache was cleared before each set of tests.
- Load times were measured from the same location (about 12 feet from a 802.11g wireless router) in a one-hour period from the click of the enter key or “Go” button in the browser’s address bar to the complete page load according to the progress bar.
- Load times vary by location, time of day, ad servers, content, etc., so your results may not be identical to mine.
Devices
Before we get into the results, let’s take a quick look at the gadgets.
- Archos 5: 600MHz ARM Cortex A8 (additional processor: 32-bit DSP @ 430MHz)
- iPhone 3G: 620MHz Samsung S5L8900 (ARM1176JZF) underclocked to 412MHz
- Nokia N810: 400MHz Texas Instruments OMAP2420
Load Times
| Archos 5 Opera 9 browser |
iPhone 3G Safari browser |
Nokia N810 MicroB browser |
|
| Amazon | 10 seconds | 26 seconds | 26 seconds |
| CNET | 24 seconds | 21 seconds | 32 seconds |
| Digg | 18 seconds | 29 seconds | 36 seconds |
| Engadget | 25 seconds | 27 seconds | 44 seconds |
| Google News | 4 seconds | 8 seconds | 11 seconds |
| Micro PC Talk | 13 seconds | 14 seconds | 20 seconds |
| MySpace | 11 seconds | 13 seconds | 16 seconds |
| NY Times | 19 seconds | 29 seconds | 36 seconds |
| Pocketables | 16 seconds | 31 seconds | 39 seconds |
| YouTube | 15 seconds | 22 seconds | 18 seconds |
Note: Nokia N810’s power-saving mode was enabled for these tests because it is the default setting.
Though the results aren’t consistent across the board, I think they speak for themselves. I’ll take a comprehensive look at web browsing on the Archos 5 soon, as there are definite shortcomings, but you can already see that the player is pretty close to the top of its game.
Related entries:
- First impressions of the Archos 5
- Website load times on portable gadgets
- Nokia N800 (OS2007) vs. Nokia N810 (OS2008): Website load times
