Wi-Fi performance and your device
Information on how the age of your device can effect Wi-Fi performance
How does your personal device impact Wi-Fi performance?
Even though you may subscribe to a high speed TELUS Internet plan, your Wi-Fi device may only achieve a portion of the maximum speed of your plan.
Newer or higher-end devices are more likely to outperform older or lower-end devices. Since not all devices are created equal, you might notice that some of your devices perform faster when connected to your Wi-Fi network.
Wi-Fi speeds may be slower on older devices, such as early generation smartphones, tablets and iPads. These same devices may also be impacting the performance of your whole Wi-Fi network, slowing down other devices in your home. All Wi-Fi devices have to communicate with your modem, the legacy devices communicates slowly with the modem and every other device will have to wait longer until this device finishes thus slowing the experience on the newer devices.
Understanding the capabilities of your personal devices
Wi-Fi can propagate on 2 different frequency bands: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Wi-Fi on 2.4GHz travels farther but slower than 5GHz. Older devices mostly operate on 2.4GHz band, while newer devices operate on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. If a device is capable of 2.4GHz and 5GHz, this is considered a dual band device. To learn more about dual band Wi-Fi networks, read the related article below.
Pro tip: Wi-Fi operating on 2.4GHz band provides coverage over a larger area, while 5GHz covers a smaller area but can provide faster Wi-Fi speeds.
What are examples of maximum speeds my personal devices can achieve?
You might be wondering how fast your smartphone, tablet or laptop are over Wi-Fi. We ran some real life tests***** with a few popular devices to provide some examples:
| Personal devices | Maximum device downstream speed (Mbps) | |
| 2.4GHz | 5GHz | |
| Older and lower-end tablets 2013 Apple iPad Air 2013 Samsung Tab 8 | 50 25 | 210 - 250 55 |
| Older and lower-end smartphones 2014 Apple iPhone 6 or older | 65 | 180 - 250 |
| Newer and higher-end smartphones 2017 Samsung Galaxy S8 2016 Apple iPhone 7+ | 95 95 | 430 - 490 430 - 490 |
| Older and lower-end laptops 2013 MacBook Pro 10.2 2014 HP Elitebook | 120 65 - 90 | 240 135 |
| Newer and higher-end laptops 2015 MacBook Pro 12.1 2016 Acer Aspire V15 | 125 105 | 395 - 470 475 - 525 |
Device Wi-Fi speeds are dependent on the supported Wi-Fi technology standard (ex. 802.11n, 802.11ac), the number of antennas in your personal device and other factors found within your device specifications.
How to improve your device performance?
If you are looking for help to tackle a range of complex fixes, upgrades, advanced settings and security issues on your device, check out Tech Support Plus.
Pro tip: Newer Wi-Fi adapters are capable of delivering improved performance. If you are tech savvy, you may want to upgrade your computer’s Wi-Fi adapter.
Here are some other ways to improve your device performance:
| | Factors that impact Wi-Fi speed | Ways to improve |
| Device specific | Older devices that operate only on 2.4GHz band | Upgrade to a newer device that is also capable of operating on 5GHz |
| Running a large number of applications at the same time | Close inactive applications | |
| Software version is outdated | Install the latest manufacturer software for fixes and updates | |
| Viruses or malware that impact your security | Install TELUS Online Security | |
| General Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi band that you are connected to | Enable Smart Wi-Fi on your Advanced Wi-Fi modem |
| Distance is far from your modem | Operate your device closer to your modem Consider adding TELUS Boost Wi-Fi | |
| Large number of devices using Wi-Fi at the same time | Disconnect inactive Wi-Fi devices or connect them by ethernet | |
| Low speed plan | Upgrade to a higher speed plan | |
| Interference from nearby electronic devices | Avoid using your devices near devices such as microwaves, baby monitors or cordless phone stations |
Related articles
Wi-Fi performance
Wi-Fi speed and coverage
Dual band Wi-Fi networks
* Tested with the TELUS Advanced Wi-Fi modem on 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands in real homes on Gigabit Internet (which was validated to achieve 950 Mbps download speed tests using wired connection). The results in this table were measured using speedtest.net over Wi-Fi. Individual results may vary depending on the construction materials of your home, location and configuration of your Wi-Fi modem, location and capabilities of Wi-Fi devices, number of nearby Wi-Fi networks, number of active Wi-Fi devices or other factors.