LTE faster than WiFi? How so?

[QwerkyPengwen]

OK. So my question is different than what others are asking. I understand that if my own home internet speeds are slower than what my cell service provides then obviously I'm going to have slower connection on wifi.

I have a home internet line that is 60mbps down and my question is simple enough.

How is it that on a fairly mid to high end smart phone that my wifi connectivity can be slower than my LTE? On LTE I get anywhere between 45 and 60mbps down averaging 50-55mbps but at home I get up to 30mbps down on wifi.

I would understand if the wifi chip in my phone was only 802.11 b/g like on my iPod touch but my phone sports 802.11 b/g/n just like my laptop which is much older than this phone. I get the full connectivity on my laptop so I would like to understand how a newer wifi chip using wireless N can't get the same speeds as the LTE chip in my phone? Is it because of the smaller form factor? Does that play a part in the speeds that the chip can handle?

 

[kanewolf]

Your WIFI is limited by both the client (phone) and WIFI source (router). What router do you have? What link rate does your PC show?

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I just said what my connectivity on both devices was. I don't see how knowing what brand my router is will answer the question.

But whatever.
Every device in my house gets up to 65mbps down averaging 50-55mbps with the exception of my iPod touch 5 (which doesn't connect at wireless N speeds)
My new ZTE Zmax Pro has wireless N capable chip in it but doesn't seem to connect at wireless N speeds but at wireless b/g speeds. All of my other wireless devices have wireless N capability and connect at wireless N speeds. What I want to know is why this is. Is it because of the smaller form factor of the chip that it doesn't get as fast of speeds as a laptop chip? Not seeing how that is a thing when a mobile network chip of similar size and functionality gets faster speeds.
My router is a fairly recent Netgear if you must know.

I guess the most basic form of the question would be:
How or why does my Zmax Pro which has wireless N wifi capability and is connected as such not get the same speeds as other devices that are connected in the same way with the same technology? I find it hard to believe that it's somehow a restriction of functionality caused by the form factor (size) of the chip.

Can anyone clarify what is going on technologically that this happens?

 

[kanewolf]

You didn't say what your connectivity was. You said what your throughput was. Those are totally different things.

All wireless "N" is not created equal. Wireless "N" covers a range of speeds and features. The Zmax Pro, since it is a low cost phone has probably had to cut corners somewhere. One of them is definitely the WIFI. It is not a dual band (2.4 and 5Ghz) phone from what I can read. It is probably also only a single stream (150Mbit -- 75Mbit throughput MAX) WIFI. They may have put lower gain antenna in it also.

This is why I asked the question about LINK SPEED. That tells something about the underlying WIFI hardware on both the router and the client.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Ok. I can understand making it wireless N to keep connection compatibility with newer router connection settings but going cheap on its throughput. I can understand that. Well I may not be able to download files on it at 7mbs downloading at 4mbs isn't bad. Thanks for the info.