Curious about problem with PBP Wifi

[kendew]

This is not a problem per se with PBP.  Recently my ISP's modem has been acting up and I'm waiting on a new one.  Before it started acting up, PBP connected to wifi just fine, but now it won't connect.  Curiously, my Android based smartphone connects fine, as does an 8 year old Lenovo ThinkPad.  I've been trying to share the connection with the smartphone via bluetooth with less than perfect results.  The old Lenovo is running Fedora 32 and this PBP Fedora 33.  Perhaps I should mention, though irrelevant to the PBP that ethernet hardly works at all.
With inxi I just get 

Code:

inxi -N
Network:
  Message: No ARM data found for this

which doesn't give me a whole lot of info to work with.

Hopefully soon my ISP will fix the situation but I'm curious.  My question is, why would the PBP not be able to connect to wifi while the smartphone and old laptop can?  Is there a remedy?
Kendew

[Arwen]

We have a WiFi trouble shooting section on the Wiki. Give it a look:

Wiki - Pinebook Pro - Troubleshooting Guide - WiFi issues

As usual, feel free to correct, improve or comment, (good or politely bad).

[tkudog]

Similar question.  Is the PBP just not 'real good' in terms of wifi range?  At the one corner of my house, PBP is intermittent with wifi, but my MacBook and iPhone are rock solid.  A few feet 'closer' and the PBP seems to be 'better'.  Is this normal?

[clover]

Similar question.  Is the PBP just not 'real good' in terms of wifi range?  At the one corner of my house, PBP is intermittent with wifi, but my MacBook and iPhone are rock solid.  A few feet 'closer' and the PBP seems to be 'better'.  Is this normal?

Pinebook Pros use mediocre stock hardware (card itself and antenna) plus mediocre firmware. Will this get fixed in the future with the work currently being done on the nutcracker challenge? maybe.

Most laptops, like MacBooks, use a pair of antennas up in the display assembly. Pinebook Pros, however, have a single antenna in the main body. On top of that, it is theorized that the magnesium body of the PBP noticeably weakens the signal coming through to the antenna.

tl;dr PBP wifi is far from optimal, and many people report bad signal strength.