So I downloaded the Sirius XM Premium iPhone App, and it made me want to pit it against the other two apps I have used in the past, Pandora and Last.FM. I have the original iPhone, so I am testing against the Edge network, so the network bar is definitely the lowest possible on the iPhone. I looked at the following categories: Buffering Time, Sound Quality, Content.

Sirius/XM Premium
Buffering Time: 5/5 After selecting a station I barely even noticed the wait time, and never experienced any sort of jutter, or re-buffering period

Sound Quality: 4/5 I actually thought the sound quality was ok, not stellar, and much better for talk radio than for music channels

Content: 5/5 120 channels of Music and Talk Radio minus Howard Stern

Last.FM
Buffering Time: 1/5 This was pretty awful, I didn’t get to even listen to a full song without the app having to wait for a buffering period.

Sound Quality: 5/5 When I did get some music playing, the sound was pretty great, but I guess that goes hand in hand with the buffering issue.

Content: 5/5 Music based on preferences

Pandora
Buffering Time: 4/5 When ever a radio station kicked on, I had to wait a minute or so for the buffering to catch up, but once it got going, everything was fine.

Sound Quality: 4/5 While the sound quality wasn’t as good as Last.FM, it was still better than the Sirius/XM app.

Content: 5/5 Music based on preferences and centered around radio stations you start using a favorite artist

Final Thoughts: 1st Place definitely goes to the XM/Sirius app, mainly because I like to be able to choose between the channels, and I’m a sucker for Talk Radio. Everyone is down on the fact that the Stern channels aren’t included, but to be honest, I could care less. The only times I have listened to Stern, I had to stop after 10 minutes. I am definitely not a prude, but listening to Stern was like listening to Radio Porn, so the lack of hid programming didn’t bother me at all. The only down side is it is not free. I already have a Sirius subscription, but it still costs a few extra bucks each month to use the app.

2nd Place goes to Pandora. The streaming experience was not sub par, even on Edge, the quality of the streamed music was pretty good, and the music selection is always great.

3rd Place goes to the Last.FM app. I was so disappointed by this app. Last.FM is my favorite internet radio station by far, and they totally didn’t deliver the experience over Edge that I was hoping for. If I had done this test with WiFi or even 3G, the results might have been different, but as a developer, I know you should always create software based on the slowest hardware, so that every user has an enjoyable experience, and they just missed the mark on this one.

NOTE: The reason I did my test on the EDGE network, was because I can’t stream internet radio at work, and if you are like me and have the original iPhone, this is the only option.

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