Mobile v 4g router massive difference

Been using three for BB for since September as my fixed line VDSL is naff (roughly 25mb)

Using the AI cube and 3 deco M5 mesh wireless network.

Speed in generally good, between 50-70mb most of the time. But when testing with a mobile standing in the same spot right next to the AI cube I can get 120mb+ on speedtests.

This was tested with my old OnePlus 3T and my new MI mix 3 5G. Mast is only 2x2 Mimi which I checked with network signal guru.

CA is locked on the AI cube to bands 800&1800.

Obviously tried the ai cube own WiFi just to rule out the decos slowing things down but still can not get close to what mobiles can do.

Any other ideas or is it just a case mobile chip/modems are better?

mobile phones tend to have much newer chips that pretty much all the 4G routers.

Perhaps your phone is connecting to band 32 and band 3? (1500mhz) I think the AI cube can connect to band 32 but only when aggregated to band 20 ( 800mhz) but unable to test that theory myself without the mast supporting it. I think Three are refarming their 3g 2100mhz spectrum as well for 4g. Perhaps your're aggregating to B3 and B1 which the AI cube doesn't support. Or what Jchamier said.

Mast only supports bands 3 and 20

"mobile phones tend to have much newer chips that pretty much all the 4G routers."

I must admit I've noticed my phone (Honor 8x with LTE CAT12 603 Mbps is quicker connected on the same mast, same band at the same time than my B535-232 CAT7 300mbps router, though I wouldn't expect either to reach anywhere near over 100 Mbps in reality.

Is there any real reason for that, in this day and age though?

Why would the mobile provide higher bandwidth?

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Why would the mobile provide higher bandwidth?

The "CAT" category is more than just speed. It also affects HOW the mobile device and the mast (base station) interoperate.

Kinda makes even new 4g routers pretty pointless if you can just tether to your 2 year old mobile and it provides a faster, better connection don't it?

Heat/battery life/charging frequency.
Edit: And useless in the house if anyone there when you go out.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 21-Feb-20 23:05:03)

What I mean is, if you've got a mobile that's a few years old, the likelihood of it providing a better signal and overall web using experience than a mobile router is such that it'd be far better to just leave it plugged in without a battery.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Heat/battery life/charging frequency.

Seen this mentioned a few times. When I charge my S8+ it produces zero heat once charged (actually once over 80% and it starts charging slower for the last 20) and will just trickle charge when needed after that. So heat and charging shouldn't be an issue as far as I can tell. It's not going to constantly charge when not needed, phones haven't done that for a long long time.

Edited by Ewok (Sat 22-Feb-20 10:23:40)