WiFi Speeds (iPhone 12 Pro Max)

No, that's standard for DOCSIS 3.1 Gigabit cable Internet; it's officially 1250 Mbps down, 40 Mbps up, but I don't have a router that can handle 2.5 GbE, so its limited on the wire to about 950 Mbps down, and a bit over 40 Mbps up as Comcast over-provisions slightly. For users with 2.5 GbE routers, they usually see around 1400 Mbps down, 42 Mbps up on this service tier.

With 802.11ac on phones, that translates to the mid-500s Mbps down.

Dogcow-Moof,

What Router/AP are you using that you don't have these issues?

I myself am using Unifi Equipment. Unifi NanoHD AP connected to UDM-Pro and I do not get the speeds you show. I get 400 down & 20 up from my ISP. I realize I will not get more than 400 but I can verify that I am connected to the AP via 5 Ghz.

I can only get 200 Mbps down. Up is fine as it registers 23 Mbps.

My modem firmware is 1.80.02 running on the latest iOS 14.7

Ubiquiti UAP AC HD or Apple Time Capsule (802.11ac)

Also not seen on various flavors of Cisco gear used by various companies.

Have you confirmed via a computer if you have one that you see greater than 200 Mbps down connected to the same Ethernet switch as your NanoHD and that your router isn't the source of the slowdown?

I have been wondering why my new iPhone 12 Pro max seems to be slow even when I connect to wifi...simple test last night in the same spot in my house.

Test conditions:

Netgear Orbi RBR50, latest firmware

IPhone 12 pro max, latest iOS

Galaxy S21, latest firmware

Both devices connected to my home wifi with a strong signal, 25ft away from the node.

Results...iphone 12 pro max: varies 40-100 mbps

S21: 250+ mbps

I tried airplane mode with wifi connection, low data more, forget network and reconnect, privacy>system>network services off...none of them improves the network speed.

In a general sense it appears that my iPhone 12 prefers the connection to the slower 2.4ghz vs the faster 5ghz even though both signals are good. There is no setting to force it to connect to the faster frequency so I'm stuck with a new device that prefers a slow network. We won't see any improvement until Apple acknowledges the issue and fixes it in a future iOS update.

BTW, this is such a 2017 problem...didn't think I'd see it in a 2021 flagship phone.

Not an issue per se.

Apple's Wi-Fi drivers take a wide variety of factors into account when deciding which access point to connect to. It's not just the speed of the connection but a complex calculation involving the speed of the connection, the noise on the connection and signal levels.

Just connecting to the strongest signal, or the fastest connection wouldn't necessarily provide the optimal customer experience.

The easy way to work around this is to make your 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz SSIDs different from each other, then you can connect to the precise frequency that you want.

I had the same issue. Bought 2 new iPhone 12 Pro Max. 1 of them have me 550 Mbps (normal) while standing in front of my wifi router, other was capped at 260 Mbps no matter what. I tried it on Speedtest to start with and then checked with Wi-Fi sweet spot to rule out router/modem and ISP. It was clear that This particular iphone had the issue. I fixed it with this:

settings > Wi-Fi > disable private address

right after that issue was fixed. I enabled it again and didn’t get the issue back… so it seems to be a big with private address feature which needs to be toggled as a workaround.

Exactly, it didn’t make any change to my router, it did toggle wifi settings on 1 out 2 new iphone 12 pro max which had the issue. Same wifi ssid/router worked fine at the same distance for other iphone and other devices earlier as well. Clearly it’s a problem with iPhone and not the router unless you have an explanation on how can the same router work well for everything else at the same time and without making any changes to the router, problem gets fixed for the problem phone.

Before I contact Apple support directly, I looked around here and found so many people with same problem. So yes, if the issue repeats next step would be to contact Apple support.

I don’t see any Routing issue in picture here as when I tested with wifisweetspot, I tested the speed between iPhone and router i.e., point to point connection with no Routing. Anyway, thanks!

August 2021, Iphone max i am having this problem, 50% slower than a google pixel phone, i have had to separate my wifi bands, its not acceptable apple, the phone gravitates to the 2.4ghz signal, there should be a software update by now to allow us to turn off 2.4. wifes iphone 12 always goes for 5ghz, it has to be a modem issue, those with routers that wont let you separate bands must be very frustrated, waited years for 600mbs fibre, totally wasted with iphone 12 max

Mesh systems are particularly difficult to diagnose as one phone may be connecting to the router itself and another to the mesh point.

You may also want to check if band steering is enabled on your network.

https://help.amplifi.com/hc/en-us/articles/219132457-Configuring-Band-and-Router-Steering

hi dogcow . I find it very interesting that so many of us that have 500-1000mbs internet rarely see any speeds where they should be (in the 480+MB’s range) especially when even the other devices on our net work that have slower processors like iPhone 10 iPhone 11 and Apple TV , even dell laptop are able to get those rates . So why do so many pro max 12s report they are unable to get them? And I don’t think reception issues are limited to WiFi. The other iPhone 11s in our household get better lte than 5G service on 12 pro max, using our same provider when we are traveling in same car trying to do same functions. I’m pretty sure mine is a lemon with no way to prove it since it’s only half impaired . I use the Apple leather case and have tried removing . Worked with Apple support for months gave up trying to collect evidence. Since we were in middle of pandemic with little chance of trying any other 500mbs+ networks - there are a lot of public high speed options to prove its not your home router

There are a lot of factors involved, but as I showed earlier, it's not the phone itself that is the limiting factor, it's usually a router issue or something else on the network.

As an example, the Apple Time Capsule 802.11ac can't pass route data to/from the Internet any faster than about 540 Mbps even via a wired connection, the internal hardware isn't fast enough, and even then you are still limited by how the remote site is connected to the Internet and traffic between them and you.

As far as cellular signals, support for different LTE frequency bands may be all the difference.

For example, for the iPhone 12 Pro:

FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)

For the iPhone 11 Pro:

FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 66, 71)

So as an example, if you have an iPhone 11 Pro, you may see no issues whatsoever using the 11 Pro but no signal with your 12 Pro if the base station controller assigns your iPhone 12 Pro to use FDD-LTE band 28 or 32 and the tower isn't properly configured/optimized for them.

Not sure if this is mentioned in all the responses but I've been fighting speed issues and the ability to run multiple apps at the same time. My phone is on the AT&T cellular network when I'm not at home - which is important. After two weeks I found the problem - I have the AT&T VPN app on my phone. One I go into Settings and turn of their VPN then everything works like it did the day I got the phone.

I have the same issue. I am getting almost the half wifi speed compare to my iPhone XS Max and three other Mac book pros.

I have not changed any settings at all. Anyone who can explain this?