In a great write up at WP Down Under by guest contributor DZX, the Windows Phone Internet Sharing option is put to the test on a Samsung Focus (using the same methods we used to load it up on ours). Our experience with Internet Sharing is like many others: simply great. It's fast, easy to use and works every time. But that's a non-critical, non-scientific opinion. What do the numbers say?
DZX looked at three important areas in testing Windows Phone Internet Sharing: speed, battery and range
On speed, it was noted that there was no difference between the speed of the Focus itself versus when being used as a modem. What that means is that you'll experience no loss is 3G speeds when tethering--it's as efficient as you can get with not a drop of bandwidth wasted. Win.
Probably the biggest concern with tethering is the battery. Traditionally, using your phone as a modem drains the battery extremely quickly and while the temperature increased 5°C from idle, it was well within the limits of the device. So how'd the battery do? Turns out, very well. After about 30 minutes of browsing the web on the laptop (consuming 26.6MB and uploading 3.41MB of data), the battery was down 3% or about an hour of 'estimated time remaining'. Translation: Battery life is not significantly impacted by tethering. Win x2.
Finally, range of the phone as a wireless router was looked at with a surprising result. Even at 82 feet away, a considerable distance, the signal maintained a connection, even though it was very low in strength. More importantly, web pages loaded just as quick as if the phone was next to the PC. Mind you, the Focus was transmitting through the house at this point with the author in his yard. Win x3.
Conclusion? Even though most of us can't yet get internet sharing on our Windows Phone, the feature seems to be top notch, with it performing better than expected from such an option. Here's hoping for some quick fixes by OEMs or some new phones pronto.
Check out the full write up at WP Down Under.
