laptop vs tablets wifi

[tony85]

So a curious question here regarding wifi.

Why is it on tablets wifi speeds seem inconsistent when comparing to laptops. Laptops wifi is stable and never drops and will stream anything flawlessly. As for tablets on the same connection in same location even loading youtube videos can be choppy as far as downloading. And as far as streaming online videos the connection is so unreliable compared to a laptop.

 

[mrjohnnyglass]

So a curious question here regarding wifi.

Why is it on tablets wifi speeds seem inconsistent when comparing to laptops. Laptops wifi is stable and never drops and will stream anything flawlessly. As for tablets on the same connection in same location even loading youtube videos can be choppy as far as downloading. And as far as streaming online videos the connection is so unreliable compared to a laptop.

Wireless chips in laptop are a lot stronger. Tablet chips tend to be super-optimized for battery life, which include AC-like switching which can cycle and cause that choppiness you speak of.

 

[Robyr]

Generally it boils down to the chipsets used in the devices. A laptop is generally going to have a full Intel or Broadcom regiment where as ARM tablets are likely to use very low power chipsets. Then you get to the fact that x86 is a far more well known platform, and drivers are generally more competently written.