Wi-Fi tethering is one of the most prominent features for iPhone users in the iOS 4.3 upgrade, and Australians don’t have to pay extra to use it. But if you’ve been using the long-in-place Bluetooth tethering option, is switching to Wi-Fi a better bet? Nick at our sibling title Gizmodo investigated, and concluded “not really”.
Nick compared tethering performance on his daily train trip using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and found that there were some performance variations that favoured Bluetooth. That said, the available speed varied so widely (something I’ve also found when using any kind of 3G network on a train) that it might not make a huge practical difference. Hit his post for the full set of results.
iOS 4.3 Personal Hotspot Battle: Bluetooth Vs WiFi [Gizmodo]
poodle
Friday, March 11, 2011 at 11:58 PMI think it’s more that I can now get on the net anywhere with my wifi only iPad and iPhone combo. That and it’s easier to set up with new devices, no need to mess around pairing things.
AJ
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 9:09 AMI simply couldn’t get Bluetooth pairing working. Although the two devices recognised each other and started to pair, they never quite got their. The USB tethering works fine, but since that requires a physical connection it is not as handy when in a confined area like a train.
Drew wieczynski
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 11:14 PMGood luck being able to use public access wifi in Darwin. Very few and far between