Laptop can only see a couple of networks

I have a new Lenovo T540p that can see, connect to and use the networks created by my router, but can not see the networks created by other routers.

If I walk away from my router (outside), I lose the link and the laptop says that no connections are available. My phone, placed right next to the laptop, can see 10+ connection options from neighbors. When I walk back to my router, the laptop auto connects to the network again.

I have tried removing my WiFi driver and reinstalling it, as well as installing updates from Lenovo System update.

Any idea what is happening here?

Solution 1:

Some possibilities:

• Your laptop has a 2.4GHz-only Wi-Fi card, but your phone is dual-band (2.4 and 5GHz), so your phone sees 5GHz networks that your laptop can't.
• Even if both support the same bands, maybe your laptop supports a different set of Wi-Fi channels than your phone does. Maybe your phone and laptop were designed for different countries. For example, Europe allows channels 1-13 in 2.4GHz, but the USA only allows 1-11. The USA and Europe also have different 5GHz channels that each supports or doesn't support.
• Your laptop's Wi-Fi antennas aren't connected correctly or are damaged, so it can only see networks it's very close to.
• Maybe your laptop Wi-Fi UI chooses not to show you Wi-Fi networks whose signal strength is so low that you can't get a good connection, whereas your smartphone OS shows you everything, even stuff you'd most likely fail to connect to because the signal is extremely weak.