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Why does my iPhone get much slower WiFi speed than my Macbook?

  • 01-08-2015 07:07PM
    #1
    DareGod
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭


    My WiFi speed on my Macbook is 70mbps but on my iPhone is less than 40mbps, both tested within 2 minutes of each other.

    Anyone know why this would be, or how to fix it?

    Thanks.

    DETAILS


    Router details:

    wthond.jpg


    Macbook Air 2013 - Wifi Speed

    4549801557.png


    iPhone 5S - Wifi Speed

    wu2bm9.jpg


Comments

  • #2
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,716 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    iPhones have small, single stream antennas so afaik will always be slower than a Mac/PC which would be dual-stream at the minimum. I’m not really sure but I’d say 40Mps is probably about right.

    Do you have a 5GHz router?


  • #3
    flyguy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭flyguy


    What router and what iPhone? I get a better speed on my iPhone 6+ than on my MacBook Pro.
    The 6 has 802.11ac wifi (and so does my apple time capsule router) and don't think my 2011 MacBook has that... So could be down to the router or the device capabilities. I get 120mpbs over wifi on my phone which is the max on my upc connection.


  • #4
    DareGod
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭DareGod


    Sad Professor wrote: »
    iPhones have small, single stream antennas so afaik will always be slower than a Mac/PC which would be dual-stream at the minimum. I’m not really sure but I’d say 40Mps is probably about right.

    Do you have a 5GHz router?
    flyguy wrote: »
    What router and what iPhone? I get a better speed on my iPhone 6+ than on my MacBook Pro.
    The 6 has 802.11ac wifi (and so does my apple time capsule router) and don't think my 2011 MacBook has that... So could be down to the router or the device capabilities. I get 120mpbs over wifi on my phone which is the max on my upc connection.

    Hey,

    I edited the OP to include all those details. Thanks!


  • #5
    flyguy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭flyguy


    That router is a PoS, I have the same one but in bridged mode to my time capsule. After I did that my wifi speeds improved by about 30%, as I wrote I now get the full speed my connection is capable of over wifi.
    Also your MacBook Air has a better wifi card than your iPhone, your MacBook Air is capable of 802.11ac and your iPhone isn't, but I don't know if that makes much of a difference as your router isn't 802.11ac afaik.


  • #6
    JonMac
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 469 ✭✭JonMac


    Just being picky, but M is mega, m is milli.
    Mbps= megabits per second; mm = millimetre


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  • #7
    DareGod
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭DareGod


    JonMac wrote: »
    Just being picky, but M is mega, m is milli.
    Mbps= megabits per second; mm = millimetre

    Interesting. Never knew that. Although, nobody is ever going to think that by "mbps" I meant "milli-bytes per second." :pac:


  • #8
    DareGod
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭DareGod


    flyguy wrote: »
    That router is a PoS, I have the same one but in bridged mode to my time capsule. After I did that my wifi speeds improved by about 30%, as I wrote I now get the full speed my connection is capable of over wifi.
    Also your MacBook Air has a better wifi card than your iPhone, your MacBook Air is capable of 802.11ac and your iPhone isn't, but I don't know if that makes much of a difference as your router isn't 802.11ac afaik.

    The part in bold: :confused::confused:

    :)

    Thanks for the reply. I really don't need higher speeds on my iPhone anyway. I was just curious.


  • #9
    flyguy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭flyguy


    Here's a good explanation: http://www.ronanskehill.com/bridging-cisco-epc3925-and-using-asus-rt-n16-instead-howto/


  • #10
    stoksyXL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 470 ✭✭stoksyXL


    I've noticed this for a while too, I thought something is up with my iPhone 6.

    I've ran speedtests on my iPhone 6 and my iPad Air 2 straight after each other and always get around 40-45mb on my iPhone 6 and on the iPad I get between 60-70mb download speeds. Upload speeds are fine though, they're the same on both devices, just a difference in download speeds.

    I'm on upc 240mb line, is there any way to get the speeds on my iPhone up a bit to match what I'm getting on the iPad?


  • #11
    flyguy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,183 ✭✭✭flyguy


    stoksyXL wrote: »

    I'm on upc 240mb line, is there any way to get the speeds on my iPhone up a bit to match what I'm getting on the iPad?

    Do you close all apps (with swipe up) before you do the test? Nothing else on your phone or on your wifi using the connection while you do the test? As I wrote I get 120Mbps on my iPhone over wifi so I'd say in your case it's down to the router not the phone.


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  • #12
    stoksyXL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 470 ✭✭stoksyXL


    flyguy wrote: »
    Do you close all apps (with swipe up) before you do the test? Nothing else on your phone or on your wifi using the connection while you do the test? As I wrote I get 120Mbps on my iPhone over wifi so I'd say in your case it's down to the router not the phone.

    All apps are closed on my phone, apart from the ookla speedtest app that I'm using to do the test.

    My router is the cisco epc3925 from upc, is there anything that could be slowing down the wifi connection router side? Any settings that need to be adjusted?


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