Why does WiFi broadband speed vary from laptop to phone?

[StephenFord]

I recently converted to 'superfast' broadband after 15 years of getting 3Mbs! (Rural areas look nice but not really cut out for tech LOL). Using a LAN cable, my laptop can now get about 50Mbs, on WiFi, it gets about 30Mbs. However, on downloading numerous different speed test apps on my phone, it comes up with just 2 to 3Mbs.

Do phones operate entirely differently to my expectations, or is there an issue I'm not aware of?

[Zico]

It could be a number of things causing a slower speed test on your phone than laptop:

1) Wi-Fi hardware - if your phone is using older Wi-Fi hardware then it might not be able to operate at the same speed as the router can put out.

2) The CPU of the phone - slower, less equipped phones may struggle to keep up Wi-Fi speeds. Closing app's down etc. might help if you've got lots of things open and running in the background.

Speedtest.net is a good site to try and they also have an app that can be used on mobiles.

[Morty1977]

Was just going to post about speedtest.net lol https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.speedtest.net/&ved=2ahUKEwjfo-OMidbvAhUlShUIHdkiAXkQFnoECBAQAg&usg=AOvVaw1xwt1IiBiLs6fIj_FSr0wr

[StephenFord]

Have just downloaded the 'speedtest' app as suggested, and got the result of, well see for yourselves LOL Phone is only a year old (Wileyfox Swift 2), yes, it's not cutting edge but watched the F1 race on it yesterday live in HD, not a judder, so plenty fast enough for me. Just the 'speed' thing confusing me. 

[TomsFocus]

I've got a 2 year old Motorola One, fairly basic I think (don't know much about phones!) and still gets decent speeds...

[StephenFord]

5 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I've got a 2 year old Motorola One, fairly basic I think (don't know much about phones!) and still gets decent speeds...

 

Crikey, mine really is pants then LOL I wonder why I can access HD video, and HD live streaming with no issue at all, yet when I 'test' the speed, all I should get in theory is the giant pizza wheel of doom!

[unofix]

Is your phone using the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHz frequency?

You will get much faster Wifi using the higher frequencey. I just tested my phone and got 29.6 Mbps

[Wino]

12 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Crikey, mine really is pants then LOL I wonder why I can access HD video, and HD live streaming with no issue at all, yet when I 'test' the speed, all I should get in theory is the giant pizza wheel of doom!

Ours is as bad as yours. Still manage to watch Netflix in HDR and Disney+ and stream live sports but like you mentioned Stephen that when you do the test it's very poor.

 

[StephenFord]

9 hours ago, unofix said:

Is your phone using the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHz frequency?

 

On a quick 'google', it uses 2.4 Ghz

Also, quick update. Last night when I closed my laptop, I did another speed test (don't know why!) but as you can see, the speed shot up from previous. It's like the laptop was sucking all the WiFi up, which yes, I know, is ridiculous LOL

[unofix]

It's not such a crazy idea that your laptop was hogging most of the band width. A lot can depend on your router and its settings, it is most likely operating in automatic quality of sevice (QoS) which means that it prioritises the Wifi traffic. Which by default will give devices like Fire Stick top priority, then laptops, then phones. If your router is less than 4 year old it will have both 2.4 and 5MHz frequency outputs. Put the phone on the 5MHz and the laptop on the other or vice versa. 

[StephenFord]

11 minutes ago, unofix said:

If your router is less than 4 year old it will have both 2.4 and 5MHz frequency outputs. Put the phone on the 5MHz and the laptop on the other or vice versa. 

Router is ancient, about 10 years old, and only has 2.4Ghz. I have very modest 'broadband' needs, and as long as everything just works, I'm happy. Kinda like my car, it's 16 years old, but all still works LOL

[unofix]

Hi Stephen, trust me even with a basic broadband speed you will see a massive improvement with a new router. If you have had it for 10 years your service provider will replace for free if was to fail which I feel it could do anytime soon 😉

[Andyr55]

Have you tried to turn the router off and then on after a few mins?

sometimes a reset can work wonders. 

[StephenFord]

8 minutes ago, Andyr55 said:

Have you tried to turn the router off and then on after a few mins?

sometimes a reset can work wonders. 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I've been 'computing' since Windows 3.1 LOL Who knew a reboot could fix stuff...

[Wino]

I thought you meant the Focus 😆

[Morty1977]

Mines ok on my phone 😉

[StephenFord]

1 hour ago, Morty1977 said:

Mines ok on my phone 😉

Now all folk are doing is showing off LOL 🤣

[Zico]

On 3/30/2021 at 10:07 AM, StephenFord said:

Router is ancient, about 10 years old, and only has 2.4Ghz. I have very modest 'broadband' needs, and as long as everything just works, I'm happy. Kinda like my car, it's 16 years old, but all still works LOL

If your router is that old then that could well be limiting your speed now if you've got a better connection with FTTC/VDSL.

This is from Wikipedia but it gives you a run down of the Wi-Fi standards and speeds over the years. If your router is at least 10 years old then you are possible running on Wi-Fi 4 (or N as it used to be called). The improvements in the standards over the years have helped with multiple connections etc. not just speeds so you might be better off seeing if your ISP can replace (for free if you've just extended your contract - don't pay if they say you need to) your current router with a newer model. You can always put the old one back in if you prefer.

Generation/IEEE Standard	Maximum Linkrate	Adopted	Frequency
Wi‑Fi 6E (802.11ax)	600 to 9608 Mbit/s	2019	6 GHz
Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax)	600 to 9608 Mbit/s	2019	2.4/5 GHz
Wi‑Fi 5 (802.11ac)	433 to 6933 Mbit/s	2014	5 GHz
Wi‑Fi 4 (802.11n)	72 to 600 Mbit/s	2008	2.4/5 GHz
802.11g	6 to 54 Mbit/s	2003	2.4 GHz
802.11a	6 to 54 Mbit/s	1999	5 GHz
802.11b	1 to 11 Mbit/s	1999	2.4 GHz
802.11	1 to 2 Mbit/s	1997	2.4 GHz

[Guest]

On 3/30/2021 at 10:14 AM, unofix said:

Hi Stephen, trust me even with a basic broadband speed you will see a massive improvement with a new router. If you have had it for 10 years your service provider will replace for free if was to fail which I feel it could do anytime soon 😉

Absolutely 

[StephenFord]

13 hours ago, Chainsawcharlie said:

Absolutely 

I installed my new Sky router 2 x weeks ago now. WiFi Speed on laptop is now about 30Mbs (50Mbs when connected via LAN), speed on phone shot up up to 15Mbs LOL

[Zico]

Looks like the Sky router being a little bit more up to date has helped. I'm guessing that your laptop Wi-Fi card may also be holding you back a little if you can still only get ~30mb in close proximity to the router. Not to worry though as if you're happy and there are no drop outs/issues, carry on as you do.

[StephenFord]

5 minutes ago, Zico said:

 I'm guessing that your laptop Wi-Fi card may also be holding you back a little if you can still only get ~30mb in close proximity to the router.

Possibly. Laptop is 10 years old, I'm in the habit of keeping stuff till it breaks, don't change for the sake of it LOL

[Zico]

If the laptop ain't broke and does what you want, no need to replace it, I agree. My father, up until the end of summer last year, was using a Lenovo laptop that was about 6 years old. I did upgrade the internal HDD (which died so had to be replaced) to a SATA SDD and the internal Wi-Fi card (I think the old one capped out at 150Mbps and the new one was 300Mbps along with a more recent Wi-Fi spec). RAM is also often a cheap way to boost the speed of a laptop if you have an empty slot available.

The only thing with older laptops are the batteries which can only be replaced with third party Chinese replacements that may or may not be any good, or £££ if you can even find a legitimate genuine OEM battery. I got lucky and got a genuine lager sized Lenovo OEM battery direct from amazon a few years ago that cost £45 and within a few days had shot back up to ~£100 which was the normal retail price.

My father now uses a newer Lenovo Ideapad 5 that cost me ~£535 (with some stacked discounts when it had just released) and then later retailed at almost £200 more (if you could even get the same spec). I think I may have subconsciously specced it for myself:

Processor  -  Intel Core i5-1035G1 Processor (1.00GHz, up to 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 6MB Cache) Operating System  -  Free-DOS Operating System Language  -  Free-DOS Memory  -  16GB DDR4 3200MHz Onboard Hard Drive  -  512GB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC Display  -  14.0" FHD (1920x1080), IPS, Anti-glare, 2.4mm Thickness, 300nits, Narrow bezel Graphic Card  -  NVIDIA GeForce MX350 GDDR5 2GB 64bits Color  -  Graphite Grey Keyboard  -  Keyboard Iron Grey English (UK) Camera  -  720p HD Camera with Array Microphone Surface Treatment  -  Anodizing Fingerprint Reader  -  Fingerprint Reader Palmrest  -  Metal battery  -  3 Cell Li-Polymer Internal Battery, 57Wh Power Cord  -  65W AC Adapter (3pin)-UK (USB Type C) Wireless  -  Wi-Fi 6 2x2 AX, bluetooth Version 5.0 or above Language Pack  -  Publication-English Warranty  -  1 Year Courier or Carry-in		1	£421.87
5WS0K75704 - 3Y Depot/CCI upgrade from 1Y Depot/CCI delivery

[StephenFord]

She's 'RAM'd to the max, and new replacement battery bought a couple of years ago, it's always plugged in anyway so no biggie. Internal WebCam failed a while back, but picked up an external brand new HP one in a charity shop for £2! Am thinking of getting a SSD 1Tb drive soon and also have a replacement internal WebCam I picked up on eBay for £4 that I may get fitted. I had a 'green' mentality before it was fashionable LOL

[unofix]

Hi Stephen, pleased you got a new router and things have speeded up. Are you thinking of upgrading from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 ? I know your a man who likes to get value for money 😉