Rui Carmopfig serves, Gruber counters. Anyway, “almost” isn’t the word I’d use, nor would I compare EDGE to a R99 UMTS-only device on a fixed data rate.
Why? Because the limiting factor for web surfing on devices like this isn’t solely bandwidth - page rendering speed is also a factor. And the E61i isn’t the brightest spark in Nokia’s portfolio - the 6120c soundly trounces it on both CPU speed and bandwidth.
And regarding 3G speeds - for all we know, the E61i (which isn’t an HSDPA device) might only have received a 128Kbps allotment from the radio network (i.e., on R99 UMTS, you have hard limits on what the network can spare depending on the traffic on your base station area).
Plus access speeds also be capped off in different ways: For instance, operators limit the data rate on specific APNs depending on your tariff plan to 128Kbps (which is a common value for handset-based access, to make sure that a bunch of phones won’t choke off non-HSDPA data cards).
So yeah, this video is about as significant a test as seeing which will blend better.
Just goes to show you how ignorance is the first step towards unsubstantiated belief…