Battery life on GPRS vs UMTS/HSDPA - 8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General

Hi all,
Could anyone clarify that running on UMTS/HSDPA data drains the battery faster than on GPRS/EDGE?
Personally, I do feel the difference. Pls correct me if I am wrong about this.
Cheers,
Mark

Hi Mark,
Although the manual says there is a difference and on paper UMTS does require more processing power and therefore battery usage than 2G (HSPDA more so again but it's only active when browsing on an HSDPA network) in real life use you will probably not be majorly effected.
It can also be down to the location you use the phone. If it's a weak UMTS signal then the phone will be working harder to 'decode' the UMTS signal or if you are near a location area boundry your phone might be switching between location area A and B and transmitting location update massages alot which in turn will use more battery again.
I tend to charge my phone overnight and not once have I ran out of battery - infact I don't think I've seen it bellow 60% and I'm connected to UMTS most of the time.
Gav.

Related

Battery with 3g

Has anyone experienced the drain on the battery with 3g, as my Battery does not last a night when using 3g, but I was in the 3g free zone (gsm only) during the weekend and the battery lasted the whole weekend.
My battery will drain 50% quicker when in a 3G area, Somtimes I set the device to use standard GSM frequencies to keep the battery alive.
I'd guess it is the switching that causes the battery drain (at least this is the case with most 3G phones ) if you spend a lot of time (i.e. your workplace or home) on a "borderline" area your battery will get sapped pretty quickly
Setting the phone to use one band and stick to it (practically , this has to be GSM / 2g for a constant signal ) is the best soloution , until such time as blanket 3G coverage
Pain in the neck really
shark1 said:
Has anyone experienced the drain on the battery with 3g, as my Battery does not last a night when using 3g, but I was in the 3g free zone (gsm only) during the weekend and the battery lasted the whole weekend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same with me, i need to plug in the charger every ~40 hours. i live i 3G area, also using web'n'walk often...
I get way less than this. I have push email enabled, which keeps the internet connected constantly. However in my house I only get one-bar of 3g - often flipping to full four-bar GPRS
I only get about 24 hours between charges!
I have got serious 3G battery draining problems too.
How do I set up the TyTN to only use 2G ??
Thanks,
Martin
- Tap the phone icon on the top menu bar;
- Select settings;
- Select band;
- For select your network type: select GSM
- For select your GSM/UMTS band: select Auto
This setting works great for me on Cingular on an old AT&T SIM in and around Washington, DC. THe battery life is also very good. Also remember as posted on another thread in this forum that even if you do not have 3G yet in your area, if you get EDGE, you will see faster speeds on the TyTN. The TyTN has a new feature called Extended TBF Release which improves the overall throuput.

turn ON/OFF HSDPA

hi all,
Can anyone tell me how can I turn on/off HSDPA?
As HSDPA drains my battery like hell compare to a normal UMTS network.
What I need to do is to turn off HSDPA when I need to remain connected for a long period of time such as agilemessenger. HSDPA can drain my battery from 100% to zero within less than 3 hours. I strongly believe a normal UMTS (without HSDPA) can last the battery a lot longer.
Pls tell me if you have any suggestions or correct me if my thought is wrong.
Mark
Hello,
You can do it with fit4cat hermes tweaker.
I attach this ZIP file.
Good use
can anyone comment on whether this indeeds help with battery life? I need my data on all the time so any help on that front would be cool. And if so how much does it conserve?
thanks
NOOOO ... dont use the fit4cat update for this .. it's not supposed to be used on production devices that have their HSDPA enabled already ..
best option will be to apply the reg hack to enable the phone band settings on the Cingular 8525 (Cingular wisely decided to disable this, look on the wiki for this reg update) .. and select GSM to back down to GSM network ...
Depending on your usage of UMTS the device might get hot .. so using the GSM bands will definitely be helpful if the 8525 is getting hot ..
i had also created a cab for the band selection
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=283797
gravejoker said:
NOOOO ... dont use the fit4cat update for this .. it's not supposed to be used on production devices that have their HSDPA enabled already ..
best option will be to apply the reg hack to enable the phone band settings on the Cingular 8525 (Cingular wisely decided to disable this, look on the wiki for this reg update) .. and select GSM to back down to GSM network ...
Depending on your usage of UMTS the device might get hot .. so using the GSM bands will definitely be helpful if the 8525 is getting hot ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your suggestions.
If you have read my thread clearly, I am not intending to downgrade my network back to GSM.
I am intending to disable HSDPA only, I still want my UMTS connection.
Mark
gui62112 said:
Hello,
You can do it with fit4cat hermes tweaker.
I attach this ZIP file.
Good use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your attachment. I have successfully installed the tweaker, however, failed to run it.
Other than this tweaker, any other method to switch off HSDPA??
Again, I still need my UMTS, just want to turn of HSDPA (3.5G) only.
Mark
my bad ... didnt understand your first email properly ... And personally, I havent seen any such hacks to disable just HSDPA (UMTS still working) so far for the TyTN ... Maybe pof or Sleuth255 know something ...
Question tho - How do you know that HSDPA drains more battery than just UMTS?
gravejoker said:
my bad ... didnt understand your first email properly ... And personally, I havent seen any such hacks to disable just HSDPA (UMTS still working) so far for the TyTN ... Maybe pof or Sleuth255 know something ...
Question tho - How do you know that HSDPA drains more battery than just UMTS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Made a simple experiment.
As I have tried between 2 carrier SIM cards.
Carrier A supports HSDPA, it drains my battery from 100% to zero in less than 2.5 hours with MSN or agile Messenger connected.
Carrier B supports only normal UMTS, my battery managed to survive around 8 to 10 hours with messenger connected as well.
I think this can pretty much prove that HSDPA drains the battery much worse compare to a UMTS network.
Mark
IMO that does not necessarily mean that HSDPA network sucks up more power than UMTS .. it's possible that Carrier A might have a really bad data network where your handset is timing out while trying to make a data connection and is constantly re-trying .. this could be a real drain on the battery ...
Anyways .. just my 2c ..
I have the opposite problem. I get much better battery life at home on the HSPDA network than I do at work on a UMTS network...
I charged my phone Friday night and used it for maybe 30 minutes on Saturday/Sunday (voice) and an hour and a half of streaming radio on Saturday and was still at 30% early this (Monday) morning.
A lot of folks get similar battery life with just HSDPA/UMTS usage...
In idle mode it is always UMTS signaling ( even you see HS ) hence if you are not in a data session the battery usage is the same
In dedicated mode, Uplink is always UMTS but the downlink is HS. It is normal that the battery consumption increases with higher bandwidth. Notice that if you remain iddle for say t sec ( set by the operator) the system will downgrade you to UMTS.
markyeungcy said:
Made a simple experiment.
As I have tried between 2 carrier SIM cards.
Carrier A supports HSDPA, it drains my battery from 100% to zero in less than 2.5 hours with MSN or agile Messenger connected.
Carrier B supports only normal UMTS, my battery managed to survive around 8 to 10 hours with messenger connected as well.
I think this can pretty much prove that HSDPA drains the battery much worse compare to a UMTS network.
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this could be caused by carrier A's tower being farther away, causing the phone to transmit at a higher power level. the data transmissions will make the power draw even higher, and you'll see extreme differences in battery life between the two.
hsdpa is slightly less power efficient than umts for a number of reasons (processor overhead, different transmit power and channel management protocols) but i seriously doubt it's an 80% reduction in battery life. i can't see many manufacturers buying into hsdpa technology if such incredibly poor power management was a side effect.

Battery Life

I just switched over from an Artemis which had really great battery life. 2-3 standby is not uncommon with heavy usage (calls and GPRS). The Trinity however is dire! My day starts at 0800 and by 1800 battery is down to 20%, this is with network set to automatic, which means 3G most of the time.
Anyone having poor battery performance on their Trinity or do I have a bad battery?
Processor makes a big difference, I found my 200mhz Wizard lasted a lot longer on heavy usage than my Trinity.
With that said, I also find that 3G is a real battery hog at least on the Trinity. Not sure if it's just a case of the Trinity or all 3G devices but when I'm connected to a UTMS network my phone dies a lot quicker, so much so that for most of my usage, I keep it forced on GSM
shoey5 said:
Processor makes a big difference, I found my 200mhz Wizard lasted a lot longer on heavy usage than my Trinity.
With that said, I also find that 3G is a real battery hog at least on the Trinity. Not sure if it's just a case of the Trinity or all 3G devices but when I'm connected to a UTMS network my phone dies a lot quicker, so much so that for most of my usage, I keep it forced on GSM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It always has been that way with UMTS (3G) phones. My SE K610i lasted much longer with UMTS switched off. Just try to turn it off on the trinity.
saminegm said:
It always has been that way with UMTS (3G) phones. My SE K610i lasted much longer with UMTS switched off. Just try to turn it off on the trinity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I loaded this little app. called BandSwitch. It makes my Trinity stay on GSM Edge unless I really need the speed of 3G. It turns the data off at night to save even more battery. This program has dramatically increased my Trinity's battery life. http://commmgrpro.com/_wsn/page3.html
I also have HSDPA turned off all together because my network won't allow a call to be connected while HSDPA is active. You can change that setting with HTweakC found at the Hermes Wiki.
What battery improvements have you seen?

Problem with HD2, anyone else had this issue

This morning my phone stopped working. Screen went off, couldn't wake it up and couldn't charge it. None of the buttons did anything. I decided to try a soft reset as a last resort and it's working again now. HAs anyone else had this issue, and is it something that occurs a lot? I'm not happy about this
Morning,
Search is your friend. Look on here for a thread started by Beards. Has all the info and solutions you need for this.
Use this to search as XDA search is a bit hit and miss..http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=+site:http://forum.xda-developers.com&hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all
WB
wacky.banana said:
Morning,
Search is your friend. Look on here for a thread started by Beards. Has all the info and solutions you need for this.
Use this to search as XDA search is a bit hit and miss..http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=+site:http://forum.xda-developers.com&hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all
WB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't find anything on XDA search to be honest. I tried that link you sent, but I can't find it on that either, any hints as to what keywords I should be using?
I also tried searching by members list, and finding all posts by beards, but I just get this long list, any idea which one he/she is?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/memberlist.php?&order=asc&sort=username&ausername=beard
try searching the site for standy screen of death.
Its a problem that has afflicted many HTC devices and seems somehow related to the phone moving between 2G and 3G in areas of poor 3G signal
rumpleforeskin said:
try searching the site for standy screen of death.
Its a problem that has afflicted many HTC devices and seems somehow related to the phone moving between 2G and 3G in areas of poor 3G signal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that hint, found lots of info on it now. This is going to show how really clueless I am, but apart from 3G being a lot faster I'm not sure what the difference is between 2G and 3G. Also, is the 2G and 3G just related to data usage/transfer, or is it calls as well?
If it's just data transfer then I may as well set it to 3G only as I'm too impatient to wait for the internet etc on 2G. If it responsible for the connection of calls as well I'm going to have to leave it on both as I quite frequently go from3G to 2G areas, and I don't want to keep losing signal for my phone.
Snerkler,
Take a look at this thread...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=596484
WB
> If it's just data transfer then I may as well set it to 3G only as I'm too impatient to wait for the internet etc on 2G. If it responsible for the connection of calls as well I'm going to have to leave it on both as I quite frequently go from3G to 2G areas, and I don't want to keep losing signal for my phone.
GSM (2G) handles all the voice traffic and SMS in UK, plus basic GPRS speed at up to 56Kbps. Where available it also includes (E)dge connections for data up to about 100Kbps (technically can go much higher, but this is the practical limit)
3G and HSDPA (Also termed UMTS and WCDMA) are data only and can allow 330Kbps and up to 7.2Mbps respectively though you'll generally see around 200Kbps and 1-1.5Mbps as usable maxima. These protocols are also used for video calling and MMS media content. However if a device is set for WCDMA only, it can still make/receive voice and SMS services.
If all you do is use email, voice, SMS and basic web page browsing, there is an advantage in constraining the connection to GSM only, as the battery life will improve by up to 25%. For occasional higher volume web browsing it may still be worth staying on GSM, but switching to Auto or WCDMA when needed.
For frequent web use, then it's best to stay on Auto and take the battery hit. Don't select WCDMA only- the 3G service in UK is still patchy and if you go out of a 3G area, you;ll get no signal at all with this selection.
You may also see a few posts on here relating to auto-disconnecting the data signal after a timeout. In general this is not a good idea with current 'connected' devices as it prevents all the 'push' updating of email, Facebook etc. The programs to allow this were originally produced to prevent unwanted data charges when data was expensive, or when roaming. A lot of users are now utilising this in an effort to improve battery life- this is a little futile as the data connection itself uses the normal phone signal service channels and therefore negligible battery power, unless the 3G service is switched off at the same time.
wacky.banana said:
Snerkler,
Take a look at this thread...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=596484
WB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for this, read through to page 8 so far, will read the rest later. WHy can't I find the threads I want when I search?
I may as well just PM you everytime WB lol
NeilM said:
> If it's just data transfer then I may as well set it to 3G only as I'm too impatient to wait for the internet etc on 2G. If it responsible for the connection of calls as well I'm going to have to leave it on both as I quite frequently go from3G to 2G areas, and I don't want to keep losing signal for my phone.
GSM (2G) handles all the voice traffic and SMS in UK, plus basic GPRS speed at up to 56Kbps. Where available it also includes (E)dge connections for data up to about 100Kbps (technically can go much higher, but this is the practical limit)
3G and HSDPA (Also termed UMTS and WCDMA) are data only and can allow 330Kbps and up to 7.2Mbps respectively though you'll generally see around 200Kbps and 1-1.5Mbps as usable maxima. These protocols are also used for video calling and MMS media content. However if a device is set for WCDMA only, it can still make/receive voice and SMS services.
If all you do is use email, voice, SMS and basic web page browsing, there is an advantage in constraining the connection to GSM only, as the battery life will improve by up to 25%. For occasional higher volume web browsing it may still be worth staying on GSM, but switching to Auto or WCDMA when needed.
For frequent web use, then it's best to stay on Auto and take the battery hit. Don't select WCDMA only- the 3G service in UK is still patchy and if you go out of a 3G area, you;ll get no signal at all with this selection.
You may also see a few posts on here relating to auto-disconnecting the data signal after a timeout. In general this is not a good idea with current 'connected' devices as it prevents all the 'push' updating of email, Facebook etc. The programs to allow this were originally produced to prevent unwanted data charges when data was expensive, or when roaming. A lot of users are now utilising this in an effort to improve battery life- this is a little futile as the data connection itself uses the normal phone signal service channels and therefore negligible battery power, unless the 3G service is switched off at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fI'm reading this right, you need 2G to make and receive calls, therefore if you select 3G only then you can't make and receive calls?
snerkler said:
I fI'm reading this right, you need 2G to make and receive calls, therefore if you select 3G only then you can't make and receive calls?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No- if you select 3G only you can make/receive calls and exchange fast data- but only if you are in a 3G coverage area. Out of 3G coverage and there's nothing
GSM only: Voice, SMS, Data wherever theres a signal. Good battery life. Slow data
3G only: Voice, SMS, fast Data, but nothing at all out of 3G coverage. Higher battery drain
Auto: Switches between the 2 above, but favours 3G where available so again, higher battery drain especially in marginal 3G signals where it will continually switch between protocols, potentially using a lot of battery power.
NeilM said:
No- if you select 3G only you can make/receive calls and exchange fast data- but only if you are in a 3G coverage area. Out of 3G coverage and there's nothing
GSM only: Voice, SMS, Data wherever theres a signal. Good battery life. Slow data
3G only: Voice, SMS, fast Data, but nothing at all out of 3G coverage. Higher battery drain
Auto: Switches between the 2 above, but favours 3G where available so again, higher battery drain especially in marginal 3G signals where it will continually switch between protocols, potentially using a lot of battery power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, thanks for clearing this up. If I want to improve battery life, am I best to have it set to 2G, unless I want to use internet/email, and if I want to do that then swap it to 3G for this (assuming I don't want push mail)?
Also, most of the time I'm hooked up to wifi, so I'm assuming in this case I don't need 3G at all?
snerkler said:
Ok, thanks for clearing this up. If I want to improve battery life, am I best to have it set to 2G, unless I want to use internet/email, and if I want to do that then swap it to 3G for this (assuming I don't want push mail)?
Also, most of the time I'm hooked up to wifi, so I'm assuming in this case I don't need 3G at all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even email (polled or push) is fine over 2G unless you are receiving large attachments.
When you are on WiFi, data should take that path so you are correct- 3G won't be needed.

Wifi's effect on Battery life.

So, is it harder on my battery to be connected to wifi or not? TIA
No offense, but you start question threads on a development forum that are easily answered with google. A thread should only be started when all resources have been exhausted and the answer can't be found elsewhere.
Wifi effect on Battery life with android
good day.
No, it's not. 3G uses more battery, especially when the signal is fluctuating all over the place.
I'm actually a perfect candidate for this, as in my apt, 3G signal is rather weak. I'm gonna leave the wifi on and see what happens.
I've been getting GREAT battery life with stock Voodoo and no wifi at all, just GPS turned off except when Im using it, and now I'm gonna try with wifi on at all times at home, and at work, and see what happens.
I'll report back tomorrow after work.
I can verify that having wifi on in low 3g areas helps tremedously. At work I get 1 bar and it fluctuates between 1x and 3g so I have wifi enabled all the time. After being in the office a majority of the day for about 8 hours I'm down to about 75% when I leave. If I leave wifi disabled and rely on 3g I'll leave with about 49-55%. It's the same at home except it is 1 bar of 3g so battery drain isn't that bad. I use a program called y5 that enables and disables wifi according to location. It uses Cell towers instead of GPS so not too bad of a strain on battery. YMMV
jv
johnnyv5 said:
I can verify that having wifi on in low 3g areas helps tremedously. At work I get 1 bar and it fluctuates between 1x and 3g so I have wifi enabled all the time. After being in the office a majority of the day for about 8 hours I'm down to about 75% when I leave. If I leave wifi disabled and rely on 3g I'll leave with about 49-55%. It's the same at home except it is 1 bar of 3g so battery drain isn't that bad. I use a program called y5 that enables and disables wifi according to location. It uses Cell towers instead of GPS so not too bad of a strain on battery. YMMV
jv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll go further than that. Even with a strong 3G signal at work having Wifi on uses less battery then 3G only on my stock (waiting for the right Froyo) Fascinate. With my crappy 3G signal at home there is no question like previously stated.

Categories

Resources