Related
Okay, so WiFi is usually better than 3G when it comes to battery life; but what about WiMax? I don't have a stable signal yet so I can't reliably test the two. What are ya'll experiences (for those within a reliable 4G area)? Better, the same, worse, or a lot worse?
Award Tour said:
Okay, so WiFi is usually better than 3G when it comes to battery life; but what about WiMax? I don't have a stable signal yet so I can't reliably test the two. What are ya'll experiences (for those within a reliable 4G area)? Better, the same, worse, or a lot worse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have reliable 4G in my area, but I notice that even turning on the wimax 4G radio dramatically drains my battery. Don't know if its becasue its constantly searching for signal or just becasue the radio is turned on. My 2 cents, but I know it's not very thorough..
Any time you have a radio turned on and do not have a signal it will drain the battery trying to find a signal.
If you go to an area with poor 3g service, your battery will drain crazy.
They are testing 4g in my area, so it is up and down a lot, so I cannot test.
From reading other posts, I believe 4g may take slightly more battery.
Since Froyo has been released, the 4G battery drain isn't nearly as bad as it was on 2.1. I've noticed that the speeds have substantially increased as well as better battery management as well.
infamousjax said:
Since Froyo has been released, the 4G battery drain isn't nearly as bad as it was on 2.1. I've noticed that the speeds have substantially increased as well as better battery management as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's why I wanted to see how things are now. We all know how 4G got slammed by reviewers for killing the battery, but the new radio might have changed that. I'm just curious at how it compares to 3G now under ideal conditions (good signal).
I have full 4G coverage where I live and to be honest when 4G is on, the battery drainage difference is not much, when compared to 3G.
I have 4G in my area as well, but I leave it off because it goes back and forth from being connected to not being connected. I did notice last night that my battery went from 70% to 5% over night... Anyone know what could cause that?
pscalett said:
I have 4G in my area as well, but I leave it off because it goes back and forth from being connected to not being connected. I did notice last night that my battery went from 70% to 5% over night... Anyone know what could cause that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. I'm in the Baltimore area and the 3G/4G switches back and forth. I figured out that when the phone isn't in 4G, it searches for a 4G connection, but you can put it to 3G only (with an app called Phone Info) until Verizon is done with their 4G coverage.
4G uses more power than 3g, which uses more power than wifi.
4g<3g<wifi.
it's significantly worse on 4G, so much so that I have an extended battery and I still don't use it.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
AvatarOfFrost said:
I have full 4G coverage where I live and to be honest when 4G is on, the battery drainage difference is not much, when compared to 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is something wrong with your phone then, maybe it's not sleeping. you should be noticing a huge difference.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
I have always wondered when the 4g sign gets the little zzz on top of it replacing the little wifi type sign, does it mean that the 4g is temporary disabled or that there's no data being transfered over its connection.
In short, is it equivalent to the arrows on the 3g sign being grayed out instead of colored in?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
yes, in other words its sleeping
Does that mean it's not draining my battery like it does on tha Evo ? Because they tell me to turn tha toggle off on my Evo if im not in a 4g area.I hope I made any sense.thx
Pito2k6 said:
Does that mean it's not draining my battery like it does on tha Evo ? Because they tell me to turn tha toggle off on my Evo if im not in a 4g area.I hope I made any sense.thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a good question. I want to know the answer to that myself. If your not in a 4g area then it will use up more battery because your device will be searching for a 4g signal. But if your getting 4g signal I don't really know if it uses more battery by keeping it on.
I keep my 4g on all the time. My battery life was crappy before using 4g and it just as crappy after using it.
Silent25r said:
That is a good question. I want to know the answer to that myself. If your not in a 4g area then it will use up more battery because your device will be searching for a 4g signal. But if your getting 4g signal I don't really know if it uses more battery by keeping it on.
I keep my 4g on all the time. My battery life was crappy before using 4g and it just as crappy after using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i imagine that the radio for 4g uses more then 3g radios but thats because the tech is new.. so will it eat more battery idling then 3g? i imagine so
No, while ur 4g is on it pretty much drains the same amount of battery power, my advice is if ur not in a 4g area just b safe and cut it off...but the zzz's aren't really saving power if u wanna save power ull actually have 2 turn 4g off
I'm not an expert on 4G but I *think* the Zzz indicates 4G connected in sleep mode which keeps your mobile IP session up. This in turn gives the spectrum back to the tower you're on to use for active connections. If traffic originates on either side (e.g. from your mobile device or from the internet) the mobile IP session is still active so your device is addressable by IP, traffic can be routed to or from, and the tower base station controller (BSC) allocates some spectrum/RF to your device for the traffic to begin flowing. In theory, the base station controller could allocate multiple WiMax frequency bands if you needed the bandwidth, but that would depend on how the BSC is configured, the load on that specific tower (both on RF and backhaul), and what the demand was like. It would save some battery being in Zzz/sleep, but not as much as turning the 4G radio off entirely when you don't need it.
I'm on Quantum ROM 1.5 which is a Froyo Beta build - I've noticed I have enough battery life with this ROM to turn on 4G on all day if I feel like it, but frankly I'm around WiFi 95% of my day - so I don't bother with 4G unless I really need speed on the move (away from home/work).
shabbypenguin said:
i imagine that the radio for 4g uses more then 3g radios but thats because the tech is new.. so will it eat more battery idling then 3g? i imagine so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're right shabbypenguin. CDMA EVDO chipsets have been around for awhile and fairly mature. WiMAX chipsets are available from a few different vendors and haven't been around as long, hence probably not fully optimized for performance and power use/battery life.
My girlfriend and I both have Nexus S 4G's so I decided to update mine and leave hers at 2.3.4 until I ran some tests. Here is what I concluded after about an hour of testing at home:
Signal strength was improved by around 10db
3G download speeds were 60% faster
3G upload speeds were 40% faster
It's important to note that the Speedtest.net app does not work properly on the Nexus S 4G. To get accurate results, you should use the Speakeasy Speed Test through your phone's web browser, or, tether your computer to your phone and run any speed test from your computer.
I haven't had a chance to test 4G but I am anticipating a big improvement.
Marco
PS. Sorry for the crappy photos taken on my old Evo 4G
It's impossible to rate 3G speed performance increases based off a radio update accurately. Sprints 3G network is such a pile of crap you could get 1mb a second one minute
and this garbage the next.
I tested it a few times over an hour period and got the same results. Beyond that I don't have the time to waste running further tests.
Sorry to hear you get crappy speeds.
did you do any testing on wifi signal strength?
I was getting 2.6 mbps dl at home before update. 60% of that would be crazy. Im on miui atm and idk if im going to update if it blocks tether.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
I didn't test Wifi and unfortunately I just updated her phone to 2.3.5!
Most importantly, how is the signal acquisition? One severe problem I faced is that signal is extremely patchy in areas that should not be patchy at all
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
i know it stuffed all sorts of baby unicorns into 4g speeds, previously id average 1.4 down and up.. now i get 2.6 down and 1.7 up
I installed the update via this forum and I have zero signal bars and my airave is 20 feet away if that. My wifi signal indicator jumps around from weak to strong but is mainly weak. I don't know what the deal is, I'm not trying to scare anyone. Its just annoying me.
Is there anyway I can remove this update? I've never done any kind of rooting on my nexus s 4G
Sent from that Nexus S 4G via Tapatalk
krisnicaj said:
I installed the update via this forum and I have zero signal bars and my airave is 20 feet away if that. My wifi signal indicator jumps around from weak to strong but is mainly weak. I don't know what the deal is, I'm not trying to scare anyone. Its just annoying me.
Is there anyway I can remove this update? I've never done any kind of rooting on my nexus s 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK so I did some playing around with my phone. It seems like everytime I start to make a call I immediately get 2 or 3 bars. Kinda strange.
Sent from that Nexus S 4G via Tapatalk
krisnicaj said:
OK so I did some playing around with my phone. It seems like everytime I start to make a call I immediately get 2 or 3 bars. Kinda strange.
Sent from that Nexus S 4G via Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the older airave that is only 1x data? If so, it's displaying the 3G bars when not using 1x (either sms or call). You'll never miss a call due to signal if that's the case. It used to be that way for me when I had the older unit (just got the newer 3G airave, and now it's full bars all of the time).
mwalt2 said:
Do you have the older airave that is only 1x data? If so, it's displaying the 3G bars when not using 1x (either sms or call). You'll never miss a call due to signal if that's the case. It used to be that way for me when I had the older unit (just got the newer 3G airave, and now it's full bars all of the time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I do, thanks
Sent from that Nexus S 4G via Tapatalk
3G signal has become worse for me on the new Radio. I'm now stuck on 1X in my home when I used to be decent 3G.
This sucks.
I'm running rooted 2.3.5 with Matrix 4.0 kernel.
Before update:
WIFI was 4.9 down 4.3 up
4G was 3.6 down 1.5 up
3G was 325 kps down 100 up
After Update:
WIFI is 7.2 down 1.5 up
4G is 4.5 down 1.5 up
3G is 550kps down 100 up
I ran each test a few times.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
My 3G speeds before were around 100kbps before the update, and around that now. Sprint is the worst carrier in the whole damn planet. I just check my Evo and it has around 300kbps tops... pathetic. Sprint if you are reading this, you ****ing SUCK
I just got 2.16 megs on my airwave. I used the speakeasy test. Before I could hardly get .8 mbps.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G
marco0782 said:
It's important to note that the Speedtest.net app does not work properly on the Nexus S 4G. To get accurate results, you should use the Speakeasy Speed Test through your phone's web browser, or, tether your computer to your phone and run any speed test from your computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is that the case?
2.3.4
3G 300kbps-1000kbps depending on location
4G max 5.5Mbps
Wifi max 6Mbps
2.3.5
3G 500kbps-1200kbps depending on location
4G max 7.5Mbps (!!!)
Wifi max 8Mbps
It seems like to me that one person says it helps and then the next says it sucks so I think I'm just going to leave well enough for now because i have mine on Boost and really don't feel like setting up data and mms again...wouldn't be hard but from the looks of things it really doesn't look like its worth it.
droptothetop said:
Why is that the case?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are both built by ookla labs i'm with you on this one, if everyone uses speedtest app its clearly going to show any changes.
Okay guys, I'm running CM9 on my phone with modem UBLE6, and for whatever reason, my phone doesn't seem to "switch" to 3g mode when on idle. My first thought was an app is running and using data. I've check BBS and Bad Ass Battery and niether show anything with wakelocks and data usage. I flashed CM9 as soon as I got my phone, so I don't have any info about stock, but if it comes down to it, I could always flashed back to stock if needed. Is there anything else that could be cause this, or something I should look for? I feel I'm getting decent battery (about 1% drain per hour) but I'm sure it could be better if my phone would actually idle in 3g. If I switch to use only 2g it goes to edge fine if that means anything. Any help is appreicated.
K Rich said:
Okay guys, I'm running CM9 on my phone with modem UBLE6, and for whatever reason, my phone doesn't seem to "switch" to 3g mode when on idle. My first thought was an app is running and using data. I've check BBS and Bad Ass Battery and niether show anything with wakelocks and data usage. I flashed CM9 as soon as I got my phone, so I don't have any info about stock, but if it comes down to it, I could always flashed back to stock if needed. Is there anything else that could be cause this, or something I should look for? I feel I'm getting decent battery (about 1% drain per hour) but I'm sure it could be better if my phone would actually idle in 3g. If I switch to use only 2g it goes to edge fine if that means anything. Any help is appreicated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3G/H are different from H+.
There is no difference in 3G and H, H is just a better connection of 3G from my memory.
I always thought the "H" symbol came up when data is being sent and the "3G" symbol came up when data is idle. Right now, my phone almost constantly displays "H" by the signal bars.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
K Rich said:
I always thought the "H" symbol came up when data is being sent and the "3G" symbol came up when data is idle. Right now, my phone almost constantly displays "H" by the signal bars.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means you have a solid connection to 3G. ATT phones will report 3G, 4G and 4G LTE separately. But H+ = 4G, and H is just 3G.
The Galaxy Nexus does this, but I have yet to see the S3 do this.
Also, 3G, H, and H+ are all 3G.
I guess I'm just used to my S2, whenever it was idle, it usually displayed "3G". If you both agree all is well, I won't worry about it
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
H is 3.5g really
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
K Rich said:
I guess I'm just used to my S2, whenever it was idle, it usually displayed "3G". If you both agree all is well, I won't worry about it
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said, you had an ATT branded S2, they did not tell you when you had 3G or H, only when you flashed custom ROMs, developers would fix this annotation.
3G/H/H+ all = the same thing at different data rates.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Is h+ really 4g?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA
Its constantly switching from edge to hspa when it switches to h I have two bars then goes to edge I wanna force it to stay on h and stick how can I do that?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
You on 4.2.1 or 4.2.2?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
You cant force it to stay on hspa+ all the time. Same thing applies to a WiFi signal. You can't force a WiFi device to stay connected to WiFi all the time when you're out of range. When you are out of range you will lose the signal and it will try to reconnect.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
twolfekc said:
You on 4.2.1 or 4.2.2?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4.2.2
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
scream4cheese said:
You cant force it to stay on hspa+ all the time. Same thing applies to a WiFi signal. You can't force a WiFi device to stay connected to WiFi all the time when you're out of range. When you are out of range you will lose the signal and it will try to reconnect.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this on my gs2 it had an option WC DMA only that's what I'm looking for here.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
You can change WCDMA preferred to WCDMA only in the *#*#4636#*#* menu... It doesn't mean signal will magically reach your phone though, it could just be the the N4 isn't as good at picking up a weak-ish 3g signal as your old device. I can't imagine they will have set it up to band-hop unless the signal on wcdma is somewhat marginal.
Azurael said:
You can change WCDMA preferred to WCDMA only in the *#*#4636#*#* menu... It doesn't mean signal will magically reach your phone though, it could just be the the N4 isn't as good at picking up a weak-ish 3g signal as your old device. I can't imagine they will have set it up to band-hop unless the signal on wcdma is somewhat marginal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I won't magically get signal I know I have signal it just keeps switching even tho I have signal in h. I thought it switches when it gets really weak I get really good speeds with two bars I don't consider that weak.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
horr1blek1tten said:
I know I won't magically get signal I know I have signal it just keeps switching even tho I have signal in h. I thought it switches when it gets really weak I get really good speeds with two bars I don't consider that weak.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It switches in response to demand from the device. If your phone is idle or at the very least not using network intensive applications it will ramp the radio down to 3G/Edge. Once your phone detects that you're running applications that demand more network allocation it will adjust appropriately to HSPA+. This is a feature not a bug and if your phone was always using it's HSPA+ capabilities then your battery wouldn't last half a day. I don't even think you can force enable HSPA+ always on anyway, I may be wrong though. If you get it though remember to carry your charger with you.
ian577416 said:
It switches in response to demand from the device. If your phone is idle or at the very least not using network intensive applications it will ramp the radio down to 3G/Edge. Once your phone detects that you're running applications that demand more network allocation it will adjust appropriately to HSPA+. This is a feature not a bug and if your phone was always using it's HSPA+ capabilities then your battery wouldn't last half a day. I don't even think you can force enable HSPA+ always on anyway, I may be wrong though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might have misunderstood your post a bit, but EDGE does not run on 3G. EDGE works on 2G networks. HS(D/U)PA(+) works on 3G networks. The phone should try to hold on to a 3G (WCDMA, whether that be using HSPA or not) network in preference to a 2G (GSM, whether using EDGE or not) network as long as a strong enough signal is available. Although it was not worded as such, I think the OP was enquiring as to why the phone was dropping to 2G when 3G signal is available, not concerned by whether that 3G signal was HSPA or not and asking if it was possible to switch to 3G only, and I explained how to do that. No modern smartphone automatically drops from 3G/HSPA to 2G/EDGE to save battery, I don't think modern modems draw that much more power when talking to a 3G network. The device will automatically fall back to 'normal' 3G data to save power when the data connection is not in use, but that's a different matter.