PS5 downloads slower than your phone? Check these five things

Same room, same Wi-Fi, a tenth of the speed. It's almost never the plan, and usually not the console either.

Published · 2 min read

In this guide
  1. 1. Where the console sits
  2. 2. Which band it's on
  3. 3. What else is using the line
  4. 4. The other end
  5. 5. The distance
  6. The fixes, in order
  7. Compare the TV corner with the rest of the room

It's one of the most common console complaints: the phone shows hundreds of megabits and the PS5 next to it downloads at a fraction of that. Before you call your provider, check these five things in order.

1. Where the console sits

The phone was tested in your hand, in the open. The console is inside a cabinet, behind the TV, near the floor. That alone can explain a large gap: see PS5 or Xbox in the TV cabinet. Run the phone test again with the phone resting on the console.

2. Which band it's on

A console left on automatic can end up on 2.4 GHz, which carries far less than 5 GHz. On the PS5 you can choose: in the network settings, on your saved Wi-Fi network, press the Options button and pick the frequency band. If the router is in the same room or the next one, pick 5 GHz. Further away, test both: see 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz by room.

3. What else is using the line

A phone test takes ten seconds. A game download takes an hour, during which someone starts a 4K stream and a laptop backs up photos. The download isn't slow, it's sharing.

4. The other end

Not every slow download is your home's fault. Game servers are busiest on release days and in the evening, and the same download can be several times faster the next morning. If the speed changes a lot with the time of day while your Wi-Fi tests the same, the bottleneck isn't in your house.

5. The distance

Speed falls quickly as the link gets weaker, well before the connection drops. A console two rooms from the router may show a perfectly usable connection and still download at a tenth of what the line can do: see how far Wi-Fi reaches indoors.

The fixes, in order

  1. Move the console into the open.
  2. Set the band by hand.
  3. Use a cable, directly or from a mesh node near the TV: see Wi-Fi for a game console.
  4. Start big downloads when the household is quiet.

Remember that downloads and online play are different things. A console can download slowly and play fine, or the reverse: see latency and jitter.

Compare the TV corner with the rest of the room

Measure with WiFi Heatmap at the sofa and then right at the console. If the corner by the TV is clearly worse than the middle of the room, you've confirmed cause number one, and the fix is free.