Wi-Fi Browsing On The BlackBerry 8320 Sucks At Best

by Robb Dunewood on September 23, 2007 · 25 comments

What is the point of having built-in Wi-Fi if your BlackBerry 8320 cannot load pages via its speedy Wi-Fi connection any faster than via its EDGE connection? This is the question that a lot of new BlackBerry Curve owners are asking themselves after picking up the new Wi-Fi enabled BlackBerry Curve (8320) from T-Mobile.

The Boy Genius did a side-by-side comparison of the T-Mobile BlackBerry 8320 running Wi-Fi versus an AT&T BlackBerry 8300 running EDGE and, in most cases, the BlackBerry running EDGE loaded pages faster than the one running Wi-Fi.

That flat out sucks…

I can tell you that the difference between Wi-Fi and EDGE on the iPhone seems like the difference between a dial-up modem and DSL.

I guess that if you look at the bright side the T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve (8320) does have My Faves.

BlackBerry


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  • Thought

    Robb: I think the difference on the iPhone goes back to the software and the faster processor. The iPhone has a browser that can handle WiFi, as well as a far meatier chip.

    The BB is a great machine optimized for limited bandwidth…that is its strength, but also its weakness when dealing with high bandwidth connections like WiFi. In short, RIM did such a great job making the BB function efficiently on more limited bandwidth like EDGE that it cannot handle WiFi very well.

    Perhaps that is one reason why RIM has been slow in rolling out 3G devices.

    This is also a great lesson that we see over and over again in the tech world: that sometimes just adding features and making it look good on paper does not equate to a better product.

  • http://www.rimarkable.com Robb Dunewood

    If weren’t so paranoid about being tracked from space by spy satellites I would say that I’d rather have GPS in my BlackBerry over Wi-Fi for this very reason. :)

  • http://jonathanhfisher.co.uk jfisher

    i think they just had it set up incorrectly…

  • no one important

    Don’t know what all the complaining is about?

    I had a chance to use a 8320 yerterday and ther browser was really fast!!

    Faster than a EVDO enabled BB!!

  • hellno

    Remeber WiFi when done right (iPhone for one) is far faster than any 3G technology out there.

  • Ben

    Well I’m on a wifi blackberry right now and its really fast, don’t know what boy genius was doing cos its really fast!faster than my friends edge BB by far!

  • BM

    Wifi browsing on the 8320 will work without being provisioned on bes or bis so if you did the test in this mode it would explain the slow response of wifi as it would not have been able to take advantage of the compression and optimisation that rim have added in

  • Nikolaus

    That video on BGR is awesome. It’s also completely wrong!!

    EDGE matches the WiFi browser performance because the former goes through a BES or an MDS or whatever that preprocesses and precompresses the heck out of everything before sending it to the handheld.

    The WiFi browser has no such luck: it has to swallow all of those pages that were designed for Netscape and IE running on machines with endless memory and processor cycles, and somehow compress all of that *ON THE DEVICE* to render it to the small screen.

    If BG were true to his name, he’d have done parallel tests downloading something uncompressible and non-rendering: like an MP3.

  • hellno

    Sure think *ON THE DEVICE* is the new trend. Some devices seem to be able to handle this data and excel. Having reliance on RIM’s servers doesn’t seem like a good way to go forward. If:

    “EDGE matches the WiFi browser performance because the former goes through a BES or an MDS or whatever that preprocesses and precompresses the heck out of everything before sending it to the handheld.”

    Is true it sure sounds like a design flaw in the ever expanding role of the BB. Not being able to show HTML is another BB problem which needs to be solved sooner than later. It’s like going back to dos, after running OSX.

  • Thought

    The bottom line for most people is the experience they get out of the box; if that’s what BGR tested, and I believe it is, then that is the most proper comparison. Most users are not going to download 3rd party browsers, make special provisioning for their setup, etc…they are just going to use the device. If when they do, the WiFi doesn’t work as well as EDGE, or even just matches it, then that is a problem.

    I personally believe that aside from UMA, that WiFi on a BB is a solution looking for a problem; a clear case of just throwing a feature on a device because it sounds good, but doesn’t elevate the functionality that much.

  • unknown

    Saw this on bg. Have no idea how he came up with this, unless he has a poor device. Wifi on mine flat out flies. There are still some bugs to be worked on with call handoff to gsm. But the wifi is easily twice as fast as EDGE for me.

  • Phil M

    The brand new 8320 needed a fix for the wifi to work correctly, which was a dumb error considering wifi was the biggest new feature. I called Tmobile on Wed (Monday was the release) and they finally figured out how to fix it. I had to do some kind of wipe on my phone and then it was connecting through wifi at a much faster speed. Wait at least 2 weeks from the Sept 24 launch date to buy this phone. TMobile & RIM don’t yet know how to make this phone work correctly for the consumer.

  • PK

    I happen to have two 8830′s on hand. I set one for wi-fi and left the other on the T-M edge service.

    When downloading a 2098k video form CNN.com it was touch and go as to which one was faster. In the end, the wi-fi downloaded about 2 seconds faster over a 70 second download. Running the same test a second time, the EDGE actually won by a few seconds.

    Sheesh. At least the @home service works great!

  • EV

    8320 That I have i run opera mini with the wifi and this bad boy moves! I honestly feel they had some issues with their wireless router or something cause even when I use the blackberry browser with wifi its much faster! I use opera cause i like it better and its a bit faster than the blackberry one! I love blackberrys. Windows mobile is garbage and the iphone is sick but I dont feel like shelling out 400 dollars! Thats its downside even though purchasing an iphone outright is still cheaper than outright buying a windows mobile phone, BB, or other pda through the wireless service provider!

  • keane

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  • Robert

    Just got my curve 8320 2 days ago and the very same night it started crashing with the hourglass neverending. Had to take out battery to restart. All started when I went to blueapple.mobi to get streaming video which worked but after 2 plays would not render. Never had a pc and wanted browsing and quick emails. Gosh! All the tmo rep kept saying was that he was so surprised that when I took the batt and sim out and reset that it actually worked b cuz most crash and NEVER restart. Great news for a guy who just shelled out 271 bucks and made himself broke buying the phone in the store instead of online. And what’s up with tmobile not being able to be accessed via bb on the browser? I can’t access my own f ing sp website on my handheld? Geniuses rim bb and tmo r I tell ya. Anybody else furious?

  • http://jonathanconcepcion.com Jonathan

    I any body there how to use Opera Mini 4 via wifi?

  • Diego

    I try to conecet my Blackberry using a Certificate, but always it rejected the network..

    can anyone help me ???

    regards

    Diego

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  • NM

    I just got a BB 8xxx something from my employer.

    It’s a complete piece of sh.t. The GUI is atrocious. The fonts are fugly.
    The browser? It’s gotta be a joke. Opera Mini on my Nokia 6300 is snappier,
    more usable. And that is a cheapo non-smart phone.
    The menus don’t make any sense. The error messages don’t make any sense, probably bad translations, I guess.
    The email client appears to work. It’s just so ugly and poorly designed, it hurts.
    I mean, I remember using pine back in the days, on machines that had less
    processing power than a BlackBerry; well it was snappier, easier to use,
    and more user friendly.

  • Nick L Flushing Queens NYC

    I agree with NM above. The BB curve 8320 is a flat out POS and a cheap one at best. The WIFI barely connects. I have a data plan for blackberry but cannot connect because the BB wants to use WIFI which isn’t available.

    Sound quality for music is awful. A $10 clock radio has better sound than this. I have decent headphones and use in my IPOD nano which no issues.

    Seriously, this thing sucks. And I agree, people want functionality out of the box not have to hunt and guess & download the correct drivers. RIM software is a POS. This device is getting fedex’d right back to Tmobile. I do not even want another.

  • Cyclosity

    Just posted something very similar to yours, but I elaborated on the errors I enounter when using WiFi

    http://blog.cyclosity.com/?p=28

  • Eli

    I’m on an 8320 now, and browsing is…eh, OK. I’m less concerned about the speed and more about the compatibility and licensing issues (with T-Mobile)… For example, its dumb that I can’t use some apps that use the internet like facebook and AIM while on wi-fi… I’d have to pay extra for the data plan… But why should I have to when there is wi-fi access almost everywhere I go – home, school, and work… And I certainly don’t need to be browsing the internet on the drive to these places! :-| …its all a money making scheme for the manufacturer and primarily the cell carriers.

  • Yoselinne

    Ok, so im really like the 8320 ; and i want to know if i get it, and i dont make any purchases on the data, would i be able to sign in on AIM with the wi-fi connection ? or it wouldnt let me ?

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