large up/down speed difference between laptop and phone?

[bp3]

Hello,

 

I have great wired speed from my modem but was doing some test of my wifi network speed around the house with my new macbookpro and also with my iphone Xs. The iphone is registering 300+Mbps down and 200+ up consistently while my laptop is only getting ~100 down and ~35 Mbps up in the very same spot a minute later.

 

I recognize there are a lot of variables but I'm curious if this is common, expected, or if it means I'm doing something wrong on the laptop? I've quit all apps and have no processes using the network while I test. Both are the only devices connected to the wifi network. I ran the test to several locations several times and the result has been the same.

 

Maybe testmy.net shouldn't be used this way and its a bad test for wifi transfer rates as i see its tuned mostly for ISP speed? If so maybe one of you knows a tool I could use? 

 

Thanks for any help you can offer! --bp

[CA3LE]

It has nothing to do with the test itself... there is some reason why your speeds to that machine are limited.

 

I see it's a Mac, how old is it?  Have you tried wiring with ethernet?  Not that you want to keep it that way but that test may help shed light on what's going on.  Connect with ethernet, disconnect wifi and then run a 200 MB download test.  

[bp3]

Its a new 2019 macbook - so it has no ethernet port - probably some dongle I could get... I did manage to get it up over 200 Mbps by moving from 10ft away to right over my wifi router so definitely something going on there. Maybe my router is 'intelligently' limiting it or something. Anyways thanks for the suggestion!

[CA3LE]

Check this out...

 

 

The iPhone 10s had 2x2 MIMO... It doubles the bands.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMO

[CA3LE]

How far away is the MacBook most of the time?  What router are you using?  Do you know if you're running 2.4 and 5 Ghz or just 5 Ghz?  

 

I get highly variable speeds on my MacBooks around my house.  As long as you feel comfortable and stable I wouldn't worry too much... you won't match that iPhone's performance.  It's not really fair because of what's happening with 2x2 MIMO on the iPhone.  Disappointed that the 2019 MacBook doesn't have that yet.  Should have 4x4 really.  The 10s came out in 2018... and it has 2x2 MIMO.

 

I'd like Apple to also have LTE built into my laptop.

 

22 hours ago, bp3 said:

Maybe testmy.net shouldn't be used this way and its a bad test for wifi transfer rates as i see its tuned mostly for ISP speed? If so maybe one of you knows a tool I could use? 

 

I think this experience should show you that you already found the right tools to test that here at TestMy.net.  Trust the program, it works.

[Pgoodwin1]

23 hours ago, bp3 said:

Its a new 2019 macbook - so it has no ethernet port - probably some dongle I could get... I did manage to get it up over 200 Mbps by moving from 10ft away to right over my wifi router so definitely something going on there. Maybe my router is 'intelligently' limiting it or something. Anyways thanks for the suggestion!

The box for the laptop may have the Thundebolt-to-Ethernet dongle in it. Apple put them in the box for a MacBook Pro a few years ago. Don’t know if they do for the MacBook or if they still do.

[Pgoodwin1]

My wife’s 2015 MacBook Pro connects to our AirPort Extreme Bas Station at 877Mbps, and the TestMy download I just did was 230 Mbps - which is 15% above our Spectrum ISP plan 200 max.

 

The laptop is located 12-15 ft from the wireless bridge/router through one interior wall. The wireless bridge/router is set to a fixed 5GHz channel 161.I get our plan max speeds on iPads too. Seems like your MacBook should be able to deliver if your wireless router settings were adjusted.

 

since the 2.4GHz channel has better range, you might want to ensure that you’re auto switching between 2.4 and 5 GHz on the router - assuming you can’t get satisfactory results on a fixed 5GHz channel.