wifi vs 3g battery drain - G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

when you have the choice between wifi connection or regular 3g whats the better one when it comes to battery drain/time?? Any test/experience?
Thanks.

wifi drains quicker...

Yea, wifi's a killer

Wifi will make you want to cry... the only time I really use it is when I need to download a LARGE file on the go (e.g. a ROM or something like that). Otherwise stick to 3G

Related

Is there an App to switch to 2G when Idle/sleeping?

hi,
i was wondering if there is an app which will automatically switch from 3G to 2G when i turn of the display. When the phone is in my pocket there is no need for the 3G eating my battery.
that would be an amzing app BUMP BUM BUMP
It indeed would be. I'm on it.
EDIT: Then again, switching from 3G to EDGE and vice-versa is resource/battery heavy in heavy and will probably leave you without network for a while. I'm actually going to say it's not worth it. If I create it, I'll post an initial version up here for you guys to decide (no 3G frequencies for me).
Edit: it seems as though there's nothing in the api about switching network state. Looks like a root app (if it's even possible) would be required..
Edit2: This is probably impractical. For example, if you answered a call, you would be disconnected from the call immediately. Besides, the G1 is rated as having more sleep battery life under 3G than GSM.
How does being on 3g even waste battery when your on idle? what Syncing with gmail? i would think the constant switching would waste more battery
I guess you could do it with Tasker. I got that app in ADC2 and it's amazing what you can do with it.
I guess it would be very impractical if you would get disconnected everytime you answer a call from a sleep state. I havent compared the battery consumtion between 3G and "g yet, but i imagine you could save quite some. m not only talking about the Synching, but mainly Chat clients which run in the background. There is no need for them to run over 3G.

3g vs 2G battery life - way too varied

I have a ATT type Nexus One (not Tmobile), unrooted, with latest froyo.
The life of the battery in 3G mode vs. 2 G mode is astonishing...pretty ridiculous.
I'm searching but can someone tell me if there's been any fixes or advancements in regard to this problem?
When at home I use wifi as much as possible. I leave it on 2G but really, I can't take the slow speeds of 2G, but 3G setting is suuuuuuch a drain on the battery that it seems unreal.
i've had nokia's and more in 3G, my wifes iphone is 3G... and all of them had nearly more than double the battery life.
I hate the voice quality of 2G, I'd love to be able to just leave at 3G, but it's merely hours before it's nearly drained set on 3G. it's got to be a problem (and one that hopefully can be fixed).
Why would 3G setting be sucking THAT much power (decent-strong signals too here)?
Love my nexus1 and I'll live I guess but this problem...it's a bit much.
Any news on this issue, or other things I can consider or change/try to help this? (3G)
thanks
Set your WiFi sleep policy to NEVER. Even thought you're using WiFi at home, whe nthe screen goes off the WiFi shut off and 3G kick in.
Menu>Settings>WiFi settings>Menu>Advance>WiFi sleep policy>Never.
baseballfanz said:
Set your WiFi sleep policy to NEVER. Even thought you're using WiFi at home, whe nthe screen goes off the WiFi shut off and 3G kick in.
Menu>Settings>WiFi settings>Menu>Advance>WiFi sleep policy>Never.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh very sorry, I should have said I did set this to never and saved changes.
In fact, I think I've set it 1000x now btw, over some time it STILL always disconnects from wifi (might be router disconnecting though, perhaps I should set an IP manually to solve this??).
GPS and BT are always turned off until needed as well (used very rarely anyways btw).
But when I'm away from home for example, I turn wifi off and test the difference2G vs. 3G and the difference is waaaaay too much, 3G just CHEWS at the battery no matter strong signal or medium.
I find it hard to believe 3G really has to eat up that much battery when set compared to 2G on a Nexus. A little bit to nominal ...sure, but not like this (say like 4-6 hours if i left it 3G for a day with little usage).
What's really happening here? Nothing from google/HTC on this matter?
Heh, i get just the opposite... out in the farmland of west toledo, im getting 2G but typically GPRS and that rapes my battery where as 3G i could go on standby for days if i didnt touch it...
What radio are you running? if your phone is constantly looking for a signal then that may be your problem...
I have the same issue on 3g. Home on WiFi is ok but when I go out during the day on 3g it just kills my battery.
The reason is because android OS keeps the data session open at all times where other OS's close it down when not in use. It's just the nature of how they designed android.
As a test, one day turn off your data connection but stay on 3g and see how good your battery life is. This is how some other OS's work normally.
It's a trade off we have to make for being always connected on android.
For example voice actions need to reach out to Google's servers to work. So in the interest of speed of having to open the data session each time, the OS just keeps data open on hand at all times. But that kills battery quicker.
That's what I've found anyway.
JHaste said:
Heh, i get just the opposite... out in the farmland of west toledo, im getting 2G but typically GPRS and that rapes my battery where as 3G i could go on standby for days if i didnt touch it...
What radio are you running? if your phone is constantly looking for a signal then that may be your problem...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because the phone is always on the lookout for a 3G signal, if you know you aren't going to get one, just set it to 2G only and your battery life will massively improve.

[Q] Battery drain: Wireless vs local 3G

I live in an area with poor mobile signal and consequently use a Vodafone Suresignal box. This creates a a micro cell that allows my mobile to recieve a good signal. As you know these boxes rely on a broad band connection to make things work.
What this means is that the distance to the Suresignal box and the broadband modem differs by about 6 inches. For this reason I am perplexed at the significant difference in battery drain with and without WiFi on.
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S using onecosmics release 4.2 of ICS with the devils 14.2 rom.
If WiFi is swithced off then I get about 8-12 hours of battery life in idle. I.e. the phone is connecting with the Suresignal box by 3G.
If I switch WiFi on then I get over 2 days of battery life with the phone in idle.
I have tested this several times and the result is consistent.
Why would this be the case? I would have expected that WiFI would have been the battery burner not vice versa.
Does this observation help anyone? Is there a techincal explanation for the above observation?
My cell phone with Team ICSSGS RC 4.2 behaves that way too. Is it normal that wifi is more economical than 3g?
ROM: Team ICSSGS RC 4.2
Kernel: Semaphore ICS 0.8.1
Modem: JVU
I believe wifi is a little less battery hungry than UMTS. I always keep an eye between the two whenever I change roms (Stock/CM7/MIUI/ICS) as I am a heavy data consumer. Also note that Wifi policy may have been set to turn off when the phone is idle, or never. If former, it will turn wifi on if your screen is on and will essentially not putting wifi to sleep and loose connectivity.
Here's how I scale the consumption, with topmost is the least battery hungry
1. E (edge data connection)
2. Wifi
3. 3G (UMTS/WCDMA data)
4. H (HSDPA/HSUPA)
JVU the modem is very heavy in battery, the modem JPY is less greedy. It depends on the modem. But 3G or HSDPA will always be more hungry than the wifi.
Indeed, WLAN is less consuming than 3g.
As a suggestion, when you are not using WLAN or you are not in range of it, you may switch to 2g connection ( Edge ). Although it's loading way more slower than 3g, if you use it mainly for emails and not for browsing, you will not see any difference at all.
slaycock said:
If WiFi is swithced off then I get about 8-12 hours of battery life in idle. I.e. the phone is connecting with the Suresignal box by 3G.
If I switch WiFi on then I get over 2 days of battery life with the phone in idle.
I have tested this several times and the result is consistent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same results
offcourse 3G has more battery drain
Wifi is better on battery than 3g, if you are connected to 3G and not using Wifi Turn off the Wifi, because your phone keeps looking for a wifi signal and that drains battery faster. But if you are in a wifi range always use Wifi over 3g.
i had DesireHD i9000 i9001 in my hands to play with ... 3g is always the biggest consumption regarding internet connection.

power consumption of 3G vs. WiFi

Hey all,
assume that I have 3G flatrate with no extra cost. I wonder myself, if WiFi or 3G consumes more power of my battery? If WiFi would consume more power, than I would switch to permanently use 3G also at home.
Hope to get some helpful answers from the pro's here.
Thanx
3G, by far.
3g>wifi>2g
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA
Sloop said:
I wonder myself, if WiFi or 3G consumes more power of my battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3G consumes more power of your battery than WiFi.
thanks to all. So I will keep WiFi enabled at home
It depends on CDMA or GSM. CDMA is pretty battery efficient and IMO Rev. A EVDO is the best for battery. If you have a strong 3G signal where you live and get good speeds then you may get better life than wifi, but that is rare. More than likely wifi will be better. Now on GSM 3g will be worse but EDGE will be amazing.
Sent from my XT862 using XDA
MrObvious said:
It depends on CDMA or GSM. CDMA is pretty battery efficient and IMO Rev. A EVDO is the best for battery. If you have a strong 3G signal where you live and get good speeds then you may get better life than wifi, but that is rare. More than likely wifi will be better. Now on GSM 3g will be worse but EDGE will be amazing.
Sent from my XT862 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right on. Signal strength is the real key. If your phone is constantly polling on 3G to get a signal lock, it'll drain the battery quickly. With a decent signal, it doesn't drain as fast. Same goes for Wi-fi. With a good signal, definitely better if you're downloading a lot of data as it takes much less time. However, if you're out of range or at the edge of it, it struggles to keep a signal lock and wastes battery. So, if you're at home just lounging around, have a strong 3G signal and aren't downloading much, it's best to go with 3G. If you have a bad signal, or download a bunch, go for Wi-fi. It's more just a balancing act than anything to get the best battery life. Also, make sure the wifi is turned off when you're not connected, or it will be constantly searching for a connection which also will lead to battery drain.
linuxgator said:
Right on. Signal strength is the real key. If your phone is constantly polling on 3G to get a signal lock, it'll drain the battery quickly. With a decent signal, it doesn't drain as fast. Same goes for Wi-fi. With a good signal, definitely better if you're downloading a lot of data as it takes much less time. However, if you're out of range or at the edge of it, it struggles to keep a signal lock and wastes battery. So, if you're at home just lounging around, have a strong 3G signal and aren't downloading much, it's best to go with 3G. If you have a bad signal, or download a bunch, go for Wi-fi. It's more just a balancing act than anything to get the best battery life. Also, make sure the wifi is turned off when you're not connected, or it will be constantly searching for a connection which also will lead to battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, not in my experience. I live in an area which is well-blanketed with EVDO 3G, I literally have never been anywhere in the normal course of work or home that has less than 4 bars and 3G lock. Also, my house is covered with wifi, not as thoroughly but plenty to maintain a connection wherever I am in the house, and full signal in the rooms where I spend the most time for sure. Also, until recently, I had wifi at work, they just locked me out of it in fact (because they're facists).
In my experience, I always get FAR BETTER battery life using wifi over 3G as much as possible, even though I have great 3G signal strength 100% of the time and not-so-great wifi coverage. It seems like that wasn't the case with other smartphones I've owned in this same situation, with both Verizon and AT&T in the same locations and with roughly the same coverage (much worse with AT&T, though, of course.) But, with this Droid 3 running the stock ROM rooted, just a few apps like IM and BluetoothDUN frozen, with great 3G and less-great wifi coverage, I always get much better battery life from a day of being connected to wifi versus a day being connected to 3G.
Now, I manage my wifi switching very well too, though; I use Timeriffic to turn mine on and off every work day on a schedule, meaning it's never searching for wifi networks unless I'm geographically in a place where I know there is one I have the connection credentials for. If I left it on searching (and not connected to) wifi all day, I'm sure I'd get a battery life hit, which if I wasn't paying attention like I do would look like wifi eating the battery.
Ciao!
You may have a good wifi router. Mine sucks so that may make a difference. We have a Motorola SBG900 modem and I am always losing signal.
Sent from my XT862 using XDA

What is using more battery - 3G or Wi-Fi?

When internet access (either idle or during active use) is necessary, what is the better option for battery life?
Does Wi-Fi drain more battery, is it the other way around or is it the same?
Best option for bettery life is to leave wifi on when your in wifi area
Sent from my GT-N7000
Moved To Q&A​
Please post questions in the Q&A section​
Wifi use less batt
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA
Wifi saves more battery than 3g.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA
yes I agree Wifi drains less battery than 3G if you have a good wifi connection, but not if your phone is scanning for new wifi connection when you travels.
To be clearer, wifi is the best option at home or hotel room compare to DATA transfer (3G).
Thanks, I always thought that 3G needs more battery juice. Every day you learn something new.
Damn me to i always taught 3g would use less. Thr note battery still needs to be inproved.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA
But if you are at home , WIFI is on and the screen off - actually this happens the most time.
I marked the option in the advanced WIFI-settings that turns the WIFI off when the screen is off.
What happens then? Does it do all network stuff with the 3G connection or is there a WIFI-wakelock for apps like Whatsapp?
If it uses the 3G network would't it be better to change to 2G?
Iam not sure this helps something but iam acutally doing it like this. Always on 2G (because at home and at work i have WIFI) and only when i need 3G when iam not in a WIFI-Network range i switch to 3G.
Does someone know how Android works?
Wifi is always better than 3g
Saves battery
saves money
And in many cases faster speed than 3g
So I will go with wifi
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

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