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Xfinity Premieres New Device WiFi Speed Look up Tool

Internet

October 09, 2019

Did you know that an iPhone X’s WiFi capability is about 12 times greater than an iPhone 4S’s?

Did you know that, with the same amount of WiFi, newer devices are capable of much more speed than older devices?

You’ve probably noticed that the further you are from your router, the slower your WiFi speeds get. That’s because WiFi gets absorbed by walls and other objects in your house. However, not all consumer devices are created equally when it comes to WiFi. A fast device could mean the difference between watching your favorite show without issue, or buffering for what seems like forever (especially when you’re on the edge of your WiFi coverage area).

Luckily, there’s a new fearure on our internet speed test that allows you to look up the distinct WiFi capabilities of your personal devices. To look up your device’s capabilities, simply enter the make and model at speedtest.xfinity.com/devicespeed. You can also compare your device’s expected speed to those of similar devices and see how it stacks up.

The tool will also autodetect most mobile phones, tablets, and other portable devices, giving you information about your specific device within moments.

Device speeds explained

Ever wonder why your internet speed test result is lower than your plan speed?

This speed test tool doesn’t measure the speed coming into your home, but the speed on the device running the test (like your phone, or your laptop).

Xfinity’s plans are built to support the needs of many bandwidth hungry devices at the same time – sometimes too much bandwidth for a single device to handle. Think of it like a network of highways: one super highway connects the Internet to your home (this is the speed you buy from Comcast), and from there it branches off into smaller highways that lead to your respective devices. 

speed to device

*The Xfinity speed test is measuring the “smaller” highway (device speed), not the “super” highway (plan speed), so results are often lower, and will vary by device.

With that in mind, if you run a speed test from a device with an expected WiFi speed that is lower than your plan, the results will be limited to roughly your device’s expected WiFi speed.

A speed test result that is below the expected WiFi speed of your device normally points to a coverage issue; try moving the device closer to the gateway then running the test again to see if speeds improve.

For the fastest Internet speeds, hardwiring is still your best bet. For the best measurement of the “super highway” speed, try running a speed test from a laptop that is hard wired to the gateway.

Ready to learn more? Need to test how your 5g connection is working? Find out how much speed your device can handle using our new device lookup tool, and enjoy a more positive browsing experience with your enhanced knowledge of your device’s relationship to your home WiFi network.

Find Your Device's Wifi Capabilities

Find Your Device's Wifi Capabilities

The Xfinity Speed Test site has a new feature to look up the WiFi capabilities of your personal devices.

Find Your Device Speed
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