I would like to know the differences in battery life 3g vs Wifi. I also would like to know if the focus automatically cuts out 3g to use wifi; as i understand wifi is more efficient and usually faster bandwith rate. How do people have there settings configured wifi and data on, wifi no data, or data and no wifi?
wi-fi uses less battery and faster in general than 3G when actively transmitting data. Wi-fi uses more battery than 3G when your phone is standby and not transmitting much data.
Wi-fi will automatically cut off 3G when it is activated. However, if your phone is not plugged in, wi-fi will automatically be turned off when phone screen turns off.
I have data toggled off, and wifi on, I am revceiving text messages when the screen is turned off. Would that mean wifi hibernates and wakes up when someone is trying to contact the phone or that the wifi is on even when the screen is off?
Text message does not use wi-fi or Cell data. It is the same as voice calls.
You can tell that your wi-fi is off while sleep when you turn the phone on and look at the wi-fi icon.
There is really no reason the manually turn off the cell data unless you don't want to use it at all. Just remember to keep the phone plugged in when you have wi-fi access.
For me its pretty much the opposite. Having wifi on drains my battery very fast, even if I hardly use the phone. My battery is totally dead with very light usage by the end of the day. Turn off wifi and I'm still at 50% by the end of the day with the same usage. It's bad enough that I just don't use it anymore.
willp2 said:
For me its pretty much the opposite. Having wifi on drains my battery very fast, even if I hardly use the phone.
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That's exactly what I have posted above. Nothing is opposite about what you have experienced. If you don't use data much, wi-fi ends up use more battery than 3G. If you use a lot of data, e.g. browsing internet for hours, 3G uses more battery than wi-fi.
You guys might want to read this... http://www.istartedsomething.com/20...mance-discrepancy-battery-and-agents-tidbits/
Michael.
Michael, awesome article so officially wifi uses less than 3g. furthermore, if you use wifi and your screen goes off the wifi rests until your screen is back on using even less battery.
Power (mW) 3G (700) vs. Wifi (650)
Related
Something strange since my upgrade to 1.66 - when the phone's in standby it appears to be establishing an active 3G connection, and when i wake (unlock) the phone, you can watch as it reconnects to the current wifi connection again. Is this some sort of energy saving strategy, which could theoretically run your 3G bill up? (dont matter to me as mine is unlimited, but not all are).
Anyone else notice/know about this?
By default, Wifi is disabled during standby to save power. So if a program requests an internet connection, for example outlook if you configured it to check mail automatically, the phone will connect the data connection.
You can search for "wifinostandby" to find a fix that disables auto wifi power off.
But beware that current consumption with wifi on is substantially higher than when it's off, by 10 times (current draw is about 50mA vs 5 for "true" standby), meaning you get at best 30h standby life if doing nothing else.
Also, dont forget that the top bar shows you the connetion being offered by your network, it doesn't necessarily mean it's doing anything. If you disable the wifif you see the same 3g icon regardless of what data is doing. So as said above, you go to standby, wifi is disabled so the wifi icon vanishes, then if you have your phone in 3g mode (personally mine stays in gsm mode, so i see an E not a H) when you wake it up it will display the H before the wifi kicks in and the icon changes back to wifi again.
When I'm at home I use WiFi and the 3G icon is off. As long as I'm actively using the phone this seems to be the case.
I've noticed on more than one occasion that when I unlock the phone after a prolonged "sleep" it is connected to 3G and switches back to WiFi!
Anyone else seen this?
Is there an explanation?
I have noticed this too and I have my WiFi sleep policy set to Never (check yours perhaps).
A little bug I would say.
Unless you've adjusted the wifi sleep policy, this is normal behaviour.
By default, when the screen switches off, so does wifi.
The Jones said:
I have noticed this too and I have my WiFi sleep policy set to Never (check yours perhaps).
A little bug I would say.
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HA! Another Advanced settings menu under the WiFi settings menu.
My WiFi sleep policy was "When Screen Turns Off". Sneaky.
Changed it to "Never". Let's see what happens.
With SYNC ALWAYS for e-mail/facebook/twitter, which uses more power/drains battery faster: WiFi or 3G?
I'm pretty sure Wifi is nicer on the battery than 3G, at least from what I've read and my own experience.
It depends on your signal from both (which equals required trasmitting power), I'd say.
WiFi power is pretty much constant, 3G/HSDPA can vary and get much higher than WiFi.
I have read that when you are connected to WiFi, it is always slightly better for power (I am sure range and signal strength do come into play though).
When you are not connected to WiFi, then the wireless uses loads of power trying to hunt a network down.
Is it my imagination or do apps that use my wifi connectivity seem snappier when the data network mode is deactivated (from menu after long press on power button)? It seems like they are pulling the data faster. I am wondering if they stop to look at 3g/4g before going to wifi when data network mode is activated?
honestly, i always turn off my 3g when I'm close to a wifi connection. saves battery & its way faster
Juice Defender for the win #FTW
Y'know, I've never tried this and think I may. Wonder if it does make a difference since I'd hope WiFi would override it anyhow. I don't see the icon for it on WiFi much of the time anyway, but is that proof? Thanks.
I am curious also? So you are saying if you disable mobile data, your wifi will pull data in faster because it doesn't have to check if 3G is on?
That would be cool, cause I am on wifi almost 90% of the time - although I would probably forget to turn my 3G back on when I got to my wifi zones.
mouseglider said:
I am curious also? So you are saying if you disable mobile data, your wifi will pull data in faster because it doesn't have to check if 3G is on?
That would be cool, cause I am on wifi almost 90% of the time - although I would probably forget to turn my 3G back on when I got to my wifi zones.
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That was just a guess. It could be nothing more than my imagination - but it did seem a bit quicker to start pulling data.
I have never turned my 3g off and have noticed at times it is slow and other times it is really fast. It mostly has to do with the transmissions and receiving of packets from your attennas
The phone automatically disables 3G and 4G data when on wifi.
After some time with my G2 I've resolved all my wakelocks and I've been getting about 3 days battery life with moderate usage. Which is great.
However, I've got one issue that's been unresolved. During deep sleep, I lose about 13% per night when connected to Wifi. If I am connected with 3G I lose 2-3%. Can anyone else confirm this?
Wifi should be a lot more power efficient, no?
I think this pretty much depends on the WIFI reception - if the mobile has to search for the WIFI signal frequently and the connection is unstable then it's logical that the turned on WIFI will drain the battery.
stetre76 said:
I think this pretty much depends on the WIFI reception - if the mobile has to search for the WIFI signal frequently and the connection is unstable then it's logical that the turned on WIFI will drain the battery.
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The signal is strong, router in the same room as the phone. No more than 5m distance.
hmmm that's strange then...
have you checked these two settings in the extended WIFI settings:
- turn WIFI off when signal is weak > make sure tu turn this off
- turn WIFI off ehen no internet connection
just guessing, but maybe these settings let your Mobile search for a (stronger) signal more often, even though it wouldn't be necessary....
stetre76 said:
hmmm that's strange then...
have you checked these two settings in the extended WIFI settings:
- turn WIFI off when signal is weak > make sure tu turn this off
- turn WIFI off ehen no internet connection
just guessing, but maybe these settings let your Mobile search for a (stronger) signal more often, even though it wouldn't be necessary....
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Click to collapse
It is strange. I don't get it.
I've already tried those extended wifi settings but to no avail.
Is anyone here using Leandroid to turn off wifi, GPS, Bluetooth and drop from 4g to either 2g or 3g connection when the screen is off? I had tried on OOS Andrew on CarbonROM but can't get the data connection to change from 4g.
Anyone had any success with this or could point me to another app that does the same?
There's no point in changing from 4G to 2G, it won't save battery. In fact it will likely make it worse since the radio will be active for much longer during the sync process, especially if there's a fair amount of data to sync. Only thing that would really help is turning off WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, or mobile data all together.