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TP-Link Archer MR400 vs iPhone 13 Pro Max?

simonpSPRvw4bDi

Casual Member
I've just switched to home 'mobile' broadband with EE having been an EE phone customer for a while and seeing the great 4G speeds we have locally compared to the rubbish traditional broadband (around 20mb).

The EE guys suggested just buying a router and getting a SIM only unlimited GB mobile broadband so I bought the TP-Link Archer MR400 from Amazon as it seemed to have good reviews however whilst the speed I'm getting through it is good (and nearly three times what I was getting with Sky Broadband) I'm still getting considerably faster from my iPhone 13 Pro Max (both in the same room indoor).

Any ideas?
 

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Yeah... you're comparing devices with dramatically different specifications.
Most cheap 4G routers can be thought of like mobiles phones released in 2014/2015 - their wireless capabilities, while function, are not the latest and greatest.

The MR400 is only a CAT4 device, so it is not capable of aggregating multiple 4G bands together to provide a wider total bandwidth - its limited to 20Mhz (150Mbps maximum theoretical - much lower in practice - as you're seeing - due to signal conditions and current load on the network as you're sharing the capacity with everyone else).
Your iPhone 13 is CAT20 so can combine up to five 4G bands together and provide up to 120Mhz total bandwidth (maybe(?) 2Gbps maximum theoretical)

Additionally, the MR400 can only support 64QAM and 2x2 MIMO, whereas your iPhone can do 256QAM and 4x4 MIMO. In those specs the MR400 only supports half the capacity of what the iPhone can.
 
Yeah... you're comparing devices with dramatically different specifications.
Most cheap 4G routers can be thought of like mobiles phones released in 2014/2015 - their wireless capabilities, while function, are not the latest and greatest.

The MR400 is only a CAT4 device, so it is not capable of aggregating multiple 4G bands together to provide a wider total bandwidth - its limited to 20Mhz (150Mbps maximum theoretical - much lower in practice - as you're seeing - due to signal conditions and current load on the network as you're sharing the capacity with everyone else).
Your iPhone 13 is CAT20 so can combine up to five 4G bands together and provide up to 120Mhz total bandwidth (maybe(?) 2Gbps maximum theoretical)
Additionally, the MR400 can only support 64QAM and 2x2 MIMO, whereas your iPhone can do 256QAM and 4x4 MIMO. In those specs the MR400 only supports half the capacity of what the iPhone can.
Thanks Gavin that’s really useful (and disappointing!)

Do you have any recommendations for a better 4G/5G home router?
 
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Generally the higher the CAT the better as they are more capable than lower CAT devices.

The first thing to try understand is what 4G frequencies the mast you are connected to supports - personally the best (crowdsourced) source of that is cellmapper.

Does your MR400 give you any detailed stats/info regarding things like CELLID, NodeID or anything similar? With that you can find out which mast it is connecting to and on cellmapper what other frequencies have been identified on it (though with the data being crowdsourced, it may not be complete or it might be a little outdated).
Failing that, you could search by map/postcode and try guess which local site is 'yours', but obviously that would give us less confidence to know what is deployed at your site and what specific frequencies and aggregations are required.
 
Thanks Gavin that’s really useful (and disappointing!)

Do you have any recommendations for a better 4G/5G home router?
Huawei CPE Pro 2, Huawei B818, Netgear Nighthawk M1/M2, Huawei B628 (in that order in my opinion). Alternatively tether off a cheapo 5G smartphone (such as second hand Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite), as it can be cheaper, but also more fiddly.
 
Huawei CPE Pro 2, Huawei B818, Netgear Nighthawk M1/M2, Huawei B628 (in that order in my opinion). Alternatively tether off a cheapo 5G smartphone (such as second hand Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite), as it can be cheaper, but also more fiddly.
Huawei CPE depends on the expected deployment of 5G in the area - if its not expected in 2-3 years then feels excessive if the premium is high.
In 2-3 years there'll be other options, with newer capabilities - somewhat similar to how MR400 is now 'old' in capability terms.

Also, I don't think the Nighthawks are designed for permanent use - I'm sure I've seen posts somewhere about overheating and/or they don't like being permanently on charge (I think people run them without batteries installed).

For 4G I think the B818 or B628 are good, though again depends on band deployment and if/which cover the aggregations needed.
 
Generally the higher the CAT the better as they are more capable than lower CAT devices.

The first thing to try understand is what 4G frequencies the mast you are connected to supports - personally the best (crowdsourced) source of that is cellmapper.

Does your MR400 give you any detailed stats/info regarding things like CELLID, NodeID or anything similar? With that you can find out which mast it is connecting to and on cellmapper what other frequencies have been identified on it (though with the data being crowdsourced, it may not be complete or it might be a little outdated).
Failing that, you could search by map/postcode and try guess which local site is 'yours', but obviously that would give us less confidence to know what is deployed at your site and what specific frequencies and aggregations are required.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the MR400 doesn't seem to have any of that sort of data available.

However the cell mapper sites seems really useful. This is me:


If I understand correctly I have '16949' which is on an electricity pylon about 100m behind my house (which explains why my signal is so good for rural North Wales!)

Does that help?
 
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I think it might be - there's some (thin) looking antennas (usually thin ones are old) just above the horizontal T piece (which holds the electricity cables), plus that tower seems to be on the a ridgeline, so its in a good position.

Cellmapper doesn't show any other sites around, but that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any, just that no-one has contributed/collected data for them.
 
Huawei CPE Pro 2, Huawei B818, Netgear Nighthawk M1/M2, Huawei B628 (in that order in my opinion). Alternatively tether off a cheapo 5G smartphone (such as second hand Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite), as it can be cheaper, but also more fiddly.
The Huawei CPE Pro 2 seems like it might do the job (we've lots of 5G around here so expect it to be here soon) but only supports 16 devices via wifi? I'm sure I have more than that (with light bulbs, wifi plugs, etc) so that's no good right? Or have I misunderstood?
 
The Huawei CPE Pro 2 seems like it might do the job (we've lots of 5G around here so expect it to be here soon) but only supports 16 devices via wifi? I'm sure I have more than that (with light bulbs, wifi plugs, etc) so that's no good right? Or have I misunderstood?
Screenshot_20211011-111331_HUAWEI HiLink.jpg


I have the 5G CPE Pro 2, and I currently have 22 devices connected, it supports 64 connected devices Simon.
 
How big is your house mansion Wee Bear? Two car parks??
Hey Gavin stop being so nosey lol, I assure you it's not a mansion. :ROFLMAO:
Just checked the 4G CPE Pro 2 and it's 64 devices too Simon.(y)
 
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Denon, Sonos, Apple TV? Someone's got the ££. :-D
If only Lucian, they are all very old now, and you stop being so nosey too. 😅;)
 
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