Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Smart LTE on iPad 4th Gen - Actual Test

Last week even before Smart announced that they are offering plans for the 4th Gen iPad (WiFi + cellular) and iPad mini, I've thought of trying out my Smart LTE sim with a 4th Gen iPad w/ LTE. It's just yesterday that I get to try and do an actual test.

For those curious on what Smart LTE can do with an iPad Mini or iPad 4th gen w/ LTE, I took videos of the actual performance and performed some "real life" scenarios on it. Not just speed tests. Here they are.

Test location: Dolcelatte, Quezon Avenue
Test date: May 13, 2013
Test time: ~7:30pm
Unit used: Apple iPad 4th gen (Wifi + cellular) / 16gb / White

Test #1 - App download test
(App size downloaded: 47.8 MB / App downloaded in: 27 seconds)


Test #2 - Multiple App Download Test
Apps downloaded:
A) I Am MT (Size: 49.6 MB)
B) Fields of Battle (Size: 47.4 MB)
C) Hill Climb Racing (Size: 13.0 MB)
Time it took to download A,B and C with a total of 110 MB = 53 seconds

D) Zombie Tsunami (Size: 50.8 MB)
E) Hay Day (Size: 38.7 MB)
Time it took to download D and E with a total of 89.5 MB = 38.5 seconds


Test #3 - Speedtest and Video Buffer Test


Conclusion
Using Smart LTE prepaid sim in the iPad 4th gen (wifi + cellular), video buffering was a thing of the past. Actual app downloads were averaging 2 MB/ second. Doing speed tests is not the same when performing actual tasks so I did all these tests. I can't wait to go to those locations were LTE signals are more optimized and stronger because where I did the tests, move a few steps more and the LTE signal is gone. Well, Smart is still 100x better than Globe in terms of providing LTE signal (and speed) because my friend w/ an iPhone 5 didn't have LTE signal in most of the places where I got Smart LTE signal.

Since iPad is more for entertainment and is easier to use when doing some work, I suggest that you go for the wifi + cellular version of the iPad 4th gen and get the Smart LTE prepaid sim.

BUT if you can wait for May 18 which is this Saturday already, check out Smart's iPad LTE plans. They said that it will be available for the iPad mini and iPad 4th gen. I'm pretty sure that the prices will be competitive as Smart has always been.

I will do more actual performance videos in the coming days.


To know more, visit http://www1.smart.com.ph/pages/ipadmini

Can't wait to check out their offers!

Cheftonio
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

how can you reload a prepaid lte sim in an ipad?

Anonymous said...

how can you reload an lte smart sim in an ipad?

Cheftonio said...

@Anon 1,2
What I do is I transfer the sim to another phone for the activation. I'll check if there's an easier way (I think there is).

Will update soon. :)