Have Apple corrected/improved the slow WiFi performance (design) in iPad 3 ?

[Piggie]

I'm not going to trawl back and try and find the articles, unless I have to, so I'll assume most of you here understand this already

The iPad1 has slow WiFi speeds, due to Apple, Something to do with channels and number of antenna's, making the iPad's WiFi, one could say, a bit on the cheap.

It was boasted as a N class device, but it was kind of fudging the truth a little as due to the physical design it could not run at full N speeds one would get with a Mac or Windows laptop or a desktop on wireless.

This was known about and well documented, if I REALLY have to find the articles again that explain it all.

So, knowing this, my question:

As we are now on iPad3 have Apple actually sorted this out now and has the latest iPad now been build/improved/fixed? to run at what we would consider full Wireless N speeds that other devices run at.

Or are Apple still, crippling it's WiFi speed due to their design?

Here is a little bit of the text relation to Apple's, ahem, playing with what standards mean from the iPad1 model:

Apple's technical specifications for the iPad say that dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) 802.11n is supported. And it is. But what Apple doesn't tell you is that the version of 802.11n built in to the iPad is such that you get almost no speed improvement over 802.11g or 802.11a.


To understand what's going on with the iPad's mediocre 802.11n design, you have to understand a little bit about what goes in to 802.11n. There are three 802.11n improvements that bump up the maximum data rate from the 54 Mbps we had with 802.11a/g: more efficient (5/6 instead of 3/4) OFDM coding, double-wide (40 MHz instead of 20 MHz) channels and MIMO antenna systems (for spatial multiplexing). (And yes, I realize that the short guard interval can also improve data rates, but let's pretend we live in a world where there is always a legacy a/b/g device sharing our BSS.) Let's talk about each of these things individually and whether the iPad supports them.

 

[Carouser]

From the same article as your red text:

Does this really matter? The reality is that it doesn't right now.

I'm not going to trawl back and try and find the articles

In this case, it's spelled 'troll' not 'trawl'. Just look at the smear job you have in your post, trying to imply that the iPad's WiFi is 'broken' or has some kind of problem:

The iPad1 has slow WiFi speeds . . . the iPad's WiFi, one could say, a bit on the cheap . . . Apple still, crippling it's WiFi speed

You don't understand the article to which you've linked, either. What a joke.

 

[Redjericho]

If you are talking about the sketchy iPad 3 wifi performance on iOS 6 beta, don't worry, it's still a beta. On iOS 5.1.1, the problem doesn't exist.

 

[Piggie]

From the same article as your red text:

In this case, it's spelled 'troll' not 'trawl'. Just look at the smear job you have in your post, trying to imply that the iPad's WiFi is 'broken' or has some kind of problem:

You don't understand the article to which you've linked, either. What a joke.

To make you happy, I have edited my main question title to be more accurate.

Oh dear, I've spelled a word wrong, all hail the spelling hero.

I'm still asking the same question, regardless of if, almost 3 years ago it was unsure how much it mattered that the iPad's WiFi was slow.

It's a fact it's slower than a MacBook or a PC Laptop, like it or not, due to the design in the iPad1 and that it's not running at the speed that it's specs "Imply"

I'm simply asking a very basic question which is, have Apple changed this in the current iPad3 hardware, and now, does the current iPad have the same WiFi Speeds as other Apple or PC products?

Not too much to ask is it after 2 model changes?

----------

If you are talking about the sketchy iPad 3 wifi performance on iOS 6 beta, don't worry, it's still a beta. On iOS 5.1.1, the problem doesn't exist.

No No. This has nothing to do with iffy WiFi which can be tweaked by the OS, this is a hardware issue, or it was on the original iPad.

Perhaps someone can run SpeedTests with iPad1, 2 and 3 models against their Macbooks and see if any improvements to the iPad have been done, which is what I'm wondering?

 

[Mobster1983]

My new iPad has the same wireless performance as my laptops, both my MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Running speedtest.net resulted in the same speed.

My iPad 1 also achieved the same speed as all three.

 

[Piggie]

My new iPad has the same wireless performance as my laptops, both my MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Running speedtest.net resulted in the same speed.

My iPad 1 also achieved the same speed as all three.

Thanks for that.
So for you, Both your MacBook Pro and Air offer no faster WiFi connection speed than your iPad1

That is interesting as it flies in the face of postings I read a long time ago when people were comparing their Macbooks to the iPads WiFi Speeds.

May I ask what WiFi speeds you get on your iPad and what apps you are using to test it?

Thanks.

 

[Smithey1981]

Don't think it does as I have a 50mb line and this is what I get

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

If your router supports it, log into the admin screen and make sure that QOS (Quality of Service) remains unchecked. Once I did that, my iPad 1/2/3 speeds went from lethargic to screaming fast. There's literally thousands of posts about this (and the fix described above) on Apple's support forums.

 

[Piggie]

If your router supports it, log into the admin screen and make sure that QOS (Quality of Service) remains unchecked. Once I did that, my iPad 1/2/3 speeds went from lethargic to screaming fast. There's literally thousands of posts about this (and the fix described above) on Apple's support forums.

Thank you for that suggestion.

I have had 3 routers since buying my iPad1. Two Dlink models and now a Netgear one.

The best speeds I personally have seen on my iPad1 are similar to those in the picture above. Just under the 30mbps type of number at very best with me in a good position, not too many brick walls in the way.

 

[spiderman0616]

I get roughly 20 Mbps consistently on my iPad 3---it has been the same story on 2 different routers. I had a LinkSys Wireless N router and when it fried, I bought an Airport Extreme. Both gave me terrific performance on my iPad, even two floors up from where the router is sitting. So my point is, I've had good quality signal on both Apple and non-Apple routers.

 

[winterny]

iPad 3 can achieve a maximum link speed of 65 Mbps. Typical 802.11n implementations in laptops can achieve 150,300, or even 450 Mbps.

Does it matter?
It depends on how you use your device I suppose, but 65 Mbps is plenty for streaming 1080p video, and is faster than the maximum speed of most users Internet connections as well. Even if you have faster speeds, it's unlikely the iPad can even save data to flash faster than 65Mbps due to other limitations.

In my opinion, it's a moot point in a properly designed network. The one consideration for network purposes is since it communicates at a slower spe, it will take more airtime to transmit the same amount of data, potentially causing more congestion for laptops on the same wifi network, if you are normally achieving data rates faster than 65Mbps on your laptops. For example, running a time machine backup on your laptop at the same time as streaming a 1080p video on your iPad may cause the backup to slow down unnecessarily.

I personally run my iPad / iPhone on 2.4ghz, and my laptops on 5ghz, so this is a non issue for me.

 

[scaredpoet]

Thank you for that suggestion.

I have had 3 routers since buying my iPad1. Two Dlink models and now a Netgear one.

The best speeds I personally have seen on my iPad1 are similar to those in the picture above. Just under the 30mbps type of number at very best with me in a good position, not too many brick walls in the way.

Let's just go ahead and answer the real question here: No, you shouldn't buy another iPad.

 

[Piggie]

iPad 3 can achieve a maximum link speed of 65 Mbps. Typical 802.11n implementations in laptops can achieve 150,300, or even 450 Mbps.

Does it matter?
It depends on how you use your device I suppose, but 65 Mbps is plenty for streaming 1080p video, and is faster than the maximum speed of most users Internet connections as well. Even if you have faster speeds, it's unlikely the iPad can even save data to flash faster than 65Mbps due to other limitations.

In my opinion, it's a moot point in a properly designed network. The one consideration for network purposes is since it communicates at a slower spe, it will take more airtime to transmit the same amount of data, potentially causing more congestion for laptops on the same wifi network, if you are normally achieving data rates faster than 65Mbps on your laptops. For example, running a time machine backup on your laptop at the same time as streaming a 1080p video on your iPad may cause the backup to slow down unnecessarily.

I personally run my iPad / iPhone on 2.4ghz, and my laptops on 5ghz, so this is a non issue for me.

Thank you.
At last a sensible answer.
So 65 Mbps for an iPad3? Well that's a good double what my iPad1 can get on my 100 mb cable connection.

I'm glad to hear finally the newer model has improve this aspect, which was my question in the 1st place before all the silly talk started

Thank you.

 

[winterny]

Thank you.
At last a sensible answer.
So 65 Mbps for an iPad3? Well that's a good double what my iPad1 can get on my 100 mb cable connection.

I'm glad to hear finally the newer model has improve this aspect, which was my question in the 1st place before all the silly talk started

Thank you.

65 Mbps is the link speed. It's exactly the same on the iPad 1,2,3.

Wi-Fi link speed is the theoretical maximum half-duplex speed. In the real world, a single download running with no other interference/transfers might achieve a maximum speed of around 50 Mbps -- I really would not be banking on getting more than you are seeing with your previous generation iPad. If you do, it will be because the processor is faster in the iPad 3 (versus iPad 1), but not because of any changes to the Wi-Fi chipset or antenna.

What are you doing that you really care about the difference between 30Mbps and 60Mbps on an iPad anyway?

 

[winterny]

On my iPad 3 ... Looking back over my own SpeedTest.app results, the best speeds I've ever seen are about 36 Mbps over WiFi. Theoretically my internet could be capable of twice that, but I'm really not sure why I would care on my iPad.

I'm not trying to start a pissing contest here, but I'm a network engineer at a large ISP, and have had 1000 Mbps at my work pc for years. I could understand why you might want faster than 30Mbps on your desktop (torrenting? large downloads?) but I'm really not seeing the issue on the iPad.

 

[Night Spring]

I'm not trying to start a pissing contest here, but I'm a network engineer at a large ISP, and have had 1000 Mbps at my work pc for years. I could understand why you might want faster than 30Mbps on your desktop (torrenting? large downloads?) but I'm really not seeing the issue on the iPad.

Well, HD movies from itunes could be pretty large, in the 1-2 GB range. So it'd be nice if those did download a bit faster. Other than that, I've always been satisfied with the network speed on my iPad. Ok, so sometimes graphic intensive pages might take a few seconds to load, so that might annoy people who visit graphics heavy websites often. But personally, it's never bothered me.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Never owned the original iPad but I've used iPad 2 and own an iPad 3 and both of those have no trouble getting upwards of 30mbps down and 11mbps up on my 50/15 home network and 70+mbps down and 20mbps up on my 150/50 college network. In fact, my own iPad 3 reaches speeds as good or better as my 2011 MBP when connected to the same network.

 

[bri1212]

I own all three models of the Ipad, Ipad 2 and 3 are faster than I pad 1. That being said, I was never really held back by Ipad 1 speeds on the internet.

 

[winterny]

Never owned the original iPad but I've used iPad 2 and own an iPad 3 and both of those have no trouble getting upwards of 30mbps down and 11mbps up on my 50/15 home network and 70+mbps down and 20mbps up on my 150/50 college network. In fact, my own iPad 3 reaches speeds as good or better as my 2011 MBP when connected to the same network.

Screenshots / proof ?

The iPad 3 links up 802.11n using only 20 Mhz channels, and only one stream, which is limited to a theoretical 65 Mbps ...

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Screenshots / proof ?

The iPad 3 links up 802.11n using only 20 Mhz channels, and only one stream, which is limited to a theoretical 65 Mbps ...

The most I ever got was 70.xx mbps but that was only once. I did, however, get up to 66-68 mbps in a few tests. I don't have screens for it though

 

[takeshi74]

In this case, it's spelled 'troll' not 'trawl'.

Trawl is perfectly fine in the context of the sentence in which it was used. He's referring to going back and digging through threads or trawling (a metaphor) for answers. What you're referring to is what you perceive as his trolling in this thread. Two different things.

 

[Carouser]

Trawl is perfectly fine in the context of the sentence in which it was used. He's referring to going back and digging through threads or trawling (a metaphor) for answers. What you're referring to is what you perceive as his trolling in this thread. Two different things.

Yes, I wasn't actually correcting his spelling, congratulations for figuring it out?

I figured it was obvious that I was describing the original post as more of a troll post than any effort to trawl for actual content and evidence. Seriously - who comes up with this nonsense about "broken iPads and WiFi problems that Apple was obliged to fix"? It's total FUD, plain and simple. Just look at the stuff about how the iPad was built 'on the cheap' by Apple. Piggie's been doing this for ages.

"Has Apple fixed the WiFi problems and the slow iPad speeds?" is as loaded as "Do you still beat your wife?".