Low throughput on mobile client

[gsture]

Is it a bug?

• I know this is an issue with the app, and contacting Mullvad support is not relevant.

I have checked if others have reported this already

• I have checked the issue tracker to see if others have reported similar issues.

Current Behavior

I want to report that the mobile client is having much lower throughput then expected. I tried to change the MTU but that didn't make a difference. I know that some phones might have some cpu limitations but the CPU does not seem to throttle while doing these speed tests. I also did the same test on a 5 year old Samsung S10 and speeds where about the same.

Phone (WIFI) with VPN:

Expected Behavior

Phone (WIFI) without vpn:

Laptop (ethernet) without vpn:

Laptop (ethernet) with vpn:

Android version

GrapheneOS 15 (AP3A.241005.015)

Device model

2 x Pixel 8 & Samsung S10

Mullvad VPN app version

2024.8

Additional Information

• All tests are done when connected to the same Mullvad server and to the same speedtest server
• No obfuscation, no DAITA and MTU on default.

[Rawa]

We've somewhat been able to reproduce the issue. Does the performance change if you select another relay or is it roughly the same?

[gsture]

We've somewhat been able to reproduce the issue. Does the performance change if you select another relay or is it roughly the same?

It's practically all the same.

Here is Frankfurt:

Even 40gbit malmo server does not go higher:

Both servers reach 800+ on desktop.

Side note: I don't expect to always reach 800mbit+, it's really awesome and i don't think many vpn providers offer this kind of throughput but this report is just about the throughput difference between desktop and mobile client.

[Rawa]

Thanks for the clarification. 🙏 If you are able to test if the Wireguard yeilds the same performance or better it would be of great help. https://download.wireguard.com/android-client/ Otherwise we'll do it when we look closer into this issue. You can create a scannable QR-code for the wireguard profile under WireGuard configuration by generating a new device and then selecting a configuration.