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Batterylife, 3G vs. 4G

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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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there is something wrong with your phone then, maybe it's not sleeping. you should be noticing a huge difference.
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3G vs wifi. Better battery life?

Which is better for battery life? O have both good 3g and widow connection are work.
Will using wiring be better for battery or just 3g?
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Yo.
3g = 3 - 5 MBits/s
WiFi = 10 - 120MBits/s
And yes we have WiFi N in our phone.
Do the math on how much longer 3g will last.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

3G sucks down the most juice. It's just a fact. 2G will drain the battery less and if you have WiFi, your battery life will increase even more. I can leave my phone on overnight with WiFi on while sleeping and it will still have 80% when I wake up (5-6 hours)

Today was the first day I have ran wifi all day and I would say me battery use appears to be about the same as having 3g coverage all day. I would have figured wifi would drain more, but I haven't noticed a difference. Again this is just 1 day experimenting (I have my wifi set to never go to sleep with the screen off too). I have been connected to wifi 90% of the time. As a bonus wifi is a lot faster than the 3g speeds I get, so I think I'm going to leave wifi on all the time now.

Thanks for the opinions guys.
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If I leave wifi on at night I lose about 8% or so in ~8hrs.
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When I'm on wifi I normally turn all mobile data off. There's a widget that comes with Juice Defender that allows you to do that with one press. You can still get emails and texts, so the only thing you can't do is stuff that requires a cell connection, like Market. It really saves a ton of battery to turn off both 2G and 3G radios.

As others have said, Wifi is better for the battery. If you're connected for most of the day it'll also help to disable the Vibrant's wifi sleep policy.
Settings>Wireless and network>Wifi settings>Menu>Advanced>Wifi sleep policy>Never

vapotrini said:
As others have said, Wifi is better for the battery. If you're connected for most of the day it'll also help to disable the Vibrant's wifi sleep policy.
Settings>Wireless and network>Wifi settings>Menu>Advanced>Wifi sleep policy>Never
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Stupid question but why? Wouldn't that eat battery? Or does it just male the phone stay on wifi rather than when it sleeps and comes back the wifi doesn't re-iniate?
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fnakfhe said:
Yo.
3g = 3 - 5 MBits/s
WiFi = 10 - 120MBits/s
And yes we have WiFi N in our phone.
Do the math on how much longer 3g will last.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App
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your logic is wrong.
3G actually uses more battery, so if you turn 3G off, wifi will save your battery.

battery life of 3g vs wifi

I have a very good 3g signal when I am at home but was wondering what was easier on the battery while at home, 3g or wifi? Thanks

DMC78 said:
I have a very good 3g signal when I am at home but was wondering what was easier on the battery while at home, 3g or wifi? Thanks
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wifi uses less.

my battery life is alot longer on wifi

Thanks for the feedback.

Battery saving idea

I've had my sgs2 for a week now and I'm very satisfy with this phone. No problem what so ever. Anyway, I know the phone has this battery saving feature, the data 3g stays at 3g and only change to H only when we download data. So I was wondering if it is possible to get the phone to stay at 2g then goes to H when data is in use? Maybe 1 of the developers here can do this?
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That b something id like to have.
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Nurra said:
I've had my sgs2 for a week now and I'm very satisfy with this phone. No problem what so ever. Anyway, I know the phone has this battery saving feature, the data 3g stays at 3g and only change to H only when we download data. So I was wondering if it is possible to get the phone to stay at 2g then goes to H when data is in use? Maybe 1 of the developers here can do this?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
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There's an app for that. Maybe Juice Defender? Or something like that, it's one of those. You can set it to only use 3G when the screen is on, and then tell it to go back to 2G when the screen is off, so it isn't as power hungry, and slower data will come in, but it's worth it.

Last night I go to sleep around 1:00 and the battery was 94%. This morning in 10:00 the battery is 90%. I doubt, you can save more then 1% using such app. The only thing that I did is to disable wifi in sleep mode.

Juice defender turn off 3g data when you put the phone to sleep. When you turn it back on, the phone stays at 3g. What I'm try to say is maybe some sort of app that force it to 2g then automatically turn 3g when data is in use. So lets say, I open a web page at 3g speed. after I've found an article I'd like to read, the phone automatically turn to 2g.
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By the Way is it possible to only use H+ and to deactivate 3g completely ?

Come on dude 1% is a little right? My sgs2 also has this great battery life when put to sleep. But the problem with our android phones is when we use it continuously. Now obviously from what you are saying, I can tell that your gs2 is in sleep state most of there time. Imagine you spend 30mn reading some threads at xda, watching a movie our listen to music or sending emails..... how much battery life we can save if the phone was in 2g mode?
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(•.•) said:
By the Way is it possible to only use H+ and to deactivate 3g completely ?
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No, 1st it will suck your battery dry. 2nd you don't have H+ coverage everywhere.

battery dropping quick HELP!!

i have a fully charged battery and it was at 80% and few minutes later, it just dropped to 12%. anybody have this kind of issue or similar? any help would be appreciated

What rom are you using.
try fully charging your battery, wiping battery stats, and see if the problem persists.
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I have noticed this in my DX. I was wondering if my battery was on it's way out.
Another thing to consider is that if you're in a poor 3G reception area, it seems to keep pinging away trying to find a good signal. I basically disable 3G and WiFi in some circumstances. But I still see this from time to time.
I'm currently on Liberty ROM v3.

mikecico said:
I have noticed this in my DX. I was wondering if my battery was on it's way out.
Another thing to consider is that if you're in a poor 3G reception area, it seems to keep pinging away trying to find a good signal. I basically disable 3G and WiFi in some circumstances. But I still see this from time to time.
I'm currently on Liberty ROM v3.
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The same goes for if your in a bad general service area. Putting your phone into airplane mode will significantly save battery life.
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