Little information exists regarding how large-mode holey fibers compare, in practical terms, with their conventional counterparts. We present what is to our knowledge the first experimental study of mode area and bend loss for a range of large-mode holey and conventional fibers. It is demonstrated here that large-mode holey fibers exhibit mode areas and bending losses that are comparable to those of conventional fibers at 1.55mu . However, the novel wavelength dependence of the numerical aperture in a holey fiber offers a significant advantage for broadband and short-wavelength applications in which single-mode operation is required.