Is Weak WiFi Signal Strength is normal on Acer Helios 300 (PH317-56)

Elgeweily

I noticed that WiFi signal strength is pretty weak on this device, sitting with the router in the same room, around 3 meters away, I am getting -64 dBm on 5 GHz (ch 36), whereas my Oneplus 7T pro is getting -48 dBm in exactly the same location as the laptop. Does this seem normal?

Note: Bluetooth signal also seems weak, as earphone audio glitches a few meters away from the laptop. This is not a major issue though, but WiFi is.

[Edited the thread to add issue detail to the title]

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/714992/acer-helios-300-ph317-56-weak-wifi-signal-strength

Hi, your Oneplus is an Android Smartphone that uses hybrid cellular 6G networking, you cannot compare that with Windows networking protocol: When I can't connect to our LTE-A (4G) network in the Philippines my wife with her iPhone 13 Promax is blasting away on FB (we are on the same mobile router). 99% of Wi-Fi issues here are caused by the service provider (PLDT, state phone company) never any of my Windows laptops (I have 3 different brands). Contact your phone company, check your data plan if it is capped, run the Ping command: ping -n 10 community.acer.com If that returns high ping (>50ms) and high latency (>10% lost packets) complain to your ISP.

Elgeweily

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1305934#Comment_1305934

I am not comparing network speeds, actually the speed is good on both the laptop and the phone, since I am very close to the router….I am just comparing the signal strength in dBm, which should only depend on the WiFi module/antennas inside the device….when I am in a cafe and the router is far away, the difference in signal strength will be significant and start affecting the Network speed, i.e. the phone will have much higher download speeds than the laptop.

Elgeweily

Status Update:

So I opened up the bottom cover to investigate the issue. When I tested the signal strength with the cover open I got at least 10 dBm more, so I think the issue lies in those 2 x conductive foam thingies in the cover, (images: 3 & 4) which are supposed to touch the actual antennas on the motherboard (images: 1 & 2), and act as an extension to the antennas and improve the coverage, I believe they are not touching the antennas properly, which is causing them to do more harm than good, obstructing the signal instead of strengthing it.

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