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does the iPhone have a better Wifi Antenna than iPad?

T

Tiger8

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 23, 2011
2,479
650
Ok so this is really strange, and I don't know if it's the result of upgrading my 3rd gen iPad to iOS 6 (and keeping my iPhone 4S on iOS5). I am staying in a hotel, and I have been noticing consistently that the iPad is unable to pick a signal, while iPhone picks it in 2 seconds. Once it picks it it is fine, but once I set it to stand by, it loses signal.

I understand -thanks to Amazon- that laptops have better wifi antennas, but does the iPad wifi antenna suck so much that even a tiny iPhone has a better chance of picking a signal? or is it an iOS 6 side-effect?
 
Yes it is true I believe. My iPad can't connect at the moment but I'm tapping this away on my 4s. Bummer. With all that space you'd figure otherwise!
 
plympton said:
Yes it is true I believe. My iPad can't connect at the moment but I'm tapping this away on my 4s. Bummer. With all that space you'd figure otherwise!
Click to expand...
No. You'd figure exactly as the OP observes.

iPad is full metal shielded rear, can only transmit WIFI through the front glass.

The 4/4S/5 has RF transparent glass panels front and back. RF signals can propagate in/out from wider angles..
 
I noticed this too with my iPad 3 16GB Wifi and iPhone 5. With a 100 Mb/s connection, my iPhone gets around 60-80. My iPad will get 40mbps. Its reception is horrible and I am wondering if I should take it in this March since my warranty will be up soon. Does anyone have a defective Wifi iPad?
 
The wifi antenna is located behind the speaker. You can test this by putting your hand/palm over the speaker grate and see the number of wifi bars drop.
 
Yep, its known as the "death grip". But the real question is, is why does the iPad get 1/2 the network connection speed as the iPhone 5. Surely, there has to be a different Wifi chip between the two. Multiple SpeedTest on the same server confirm the iPad is slower than the iPhone.
 
davyvfr said:
I noticed this too with my iPad 3 16GB Wifi and iPhone 5. With a 100 Mb/s connection, my iPhone gets around 60-80. My iPad will get 40mbps. Its reception is horrible and I am wondering if I should take it in this March since my warranty will be up soon. Does anyone have a defective Wifi iPad?
Click to expand...
Your iPad wifi isn't defective. The iPhone 5 was released after the iPad 3, meaning the wifi technology is better hence the difference. To be exact, iPhone 5's wifi specs are (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz) while the iPad 3's wifi specs is just (802.11a/b/g/n)
 
AndyKE said:
Your iPad wifi isn't defective. The iPhone 5 was released after the iPad 3, meaning the wifi technology is better hence the difference. To be exact, iPhone 5's wifi specs are (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz) while the iPad 3's wifi specs is just (802.11a/b/g/n)
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the person doesn't care anymore about it. Considering this entire thread is 4 years old and post you quoted was a little over 3 years ago.
 
I remmedered at the main public library with so many people carrying laptops/tablets, etc. iPhone picked up library wifi pretty well but slow connection. my Air 2 took so long to find wifi. LG G Pad F 8.0 was very quick connect to wifi.
 
Weird . My iPad mini4 have much better wifi strength than my iPhone 6.
At the same spot iPhone barely load webpage while iPad streaming 1080p Netflix with ease
 
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