No sooner had we taken our UK T-Mobile G1 out of its box when someone shouted out, "Does it have 3G then?" It does indeed have 3G, but what's more interesting is that during testing we found out that it's faster than the iPhone 3G's connection.
Our first test, timed by the venerable Rupert Goodwins, involved visiting eHam.net on the G1 and iPhone 3G's browsers. The G1 loaded the page in 12.69 seconds and the iPhone 3G took 23.16 seconds -- almost twice the time.
We tested the G1 against another 3G phone with a T-Mobile SIM in it, the Samsung Omnia, and this time visited CNET UK's sister site silicon.com. The G1 loaded it in 20.7 seconds and the Samsung Omnia took 44.9 seconds.
To test all three devices side by side, we visited barackobama.com. The G1 took 45 seconds to load the page, the iPhone 3G took 1 minute 38 seconds and the Samsung Omnia failed to load the page.
We can conclude that in our offices the T-Mobile G1 has the fastest page-loading times compared to an iPhone 3G or Samsung Omnia -- and these are full Web pages, not WAP sites. So if you're looking for a fast Web experience on the go, we strongly recommend checking out the T-Mobile G1.
Update: A previously published version of this article concluded that the G1's browser and processor were able to render pages faster than the iPhone's. In response to reader comments regarding a Wi-Fi test, we have now run a set of tests and concluded that, indeed, both phones load pages at a similar speed over Wi-Fi. This means there's little difference in processor or browser performance. Clearly the G1 is a superior Web phone to the Omnia, but it seems to be O2's network that is holding the iPhone back.