Range() VS Cells() - run times

Question

I see a lot of VBA code on this site using the Range method with For loops:

Range(\"A\" & i)

As opposed to a

Answer 1

I expanded upon the testing after seeing an example of .Cells(1, "A") notation which I thought might be a good balance between the readability of .Range("A1") with the speed of .Cells(1, 1)

I tested reads and writes and found for reads, .Cells(1, "A") executed in about 69% of the time .Range("A1") and .Cells(1, 1) executed in half the time of .Range("A1"). For writes there was a smaller difference (~88% and 82% respectively).

Code:

Option Explicit
Sub test()
Dim i, x, y, a, t1, t2, t3, t4
x=1000000
y=x/100
Debug.Print "---Read---" 'Cell A1 contains the number 55
t1=Timer*1000
For i = 1 to x
    a = Sheet1.Range("A1")
Next
t2=Timer*1000
Debug.Print t2 - t1 & "ms"
For i = 1 to x
    a = Sheet1.Cells(1, "A")
Next
t3=Timer*1000
Debug.Print t3 - t2 & "ms (" & Round(100*(t3-t2)/(t2-t1),1)&"%)"
For i = 1 to x
    a = Sheet1.Cells(1, "A")
Next
t4=Timer*1000
Debug.Print t4 - t3 & "ms (" & Round(100*(t4-t3)/(t2-t1),1)&"%)"
Debug.Print "---Write---"    
a=55
t1=Timer*1000
For i = 1 to y
    Sheet1.Range("A1") = a
Next
t2=Timer*1000
Debug.Print t2 - t1 & "ms"
For i = 1 to y
    Sheet1.Cells(1, "A") = a
Next
t3=Timer*1000
Debug.Print t3 - t2 & "ms (" & Round(100*(t3-t2)/(t2-t1),1)&"%)"
For i = 1 to y
    Sheet1.Cells(1, "A") = a
Next
t4=Timer*1000
Debug.Print t4 - t3 & "ms (" & Round(100*(t4-t3)/(t2-t1),1)&"%)"
Debug.Print "----"
End Sub

^{^transcribed by hand, may contain typos...}

Platform:
Excel 2013 32 bit
Windows 7 64 bit
16GB Ram
Xeon E5-1650 v2 @3.5GHz

(edit: changed "x" to "y" in write section of code-see disclaimer on hand-typed code!)