Simples power usage question - Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello ppl,
Simple question: what eats up more battery, Wifi or 3G/HSDPA? What would be, for the battery, the best wifi sleep policy?
Regards,
Thiago Souza

based on several posts in this forum, 3G kills it faster which is something I find odd/surprising.

Wifi tends to use less power because its a steadier signal, in general.

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newbie question about android

i just got my nexus, digged around, updated to cyanogen, rooted.
i have a problem that on my old touch hd i didnt have:
the data connection is always on?? doesnt android know to close it when not in use so it will save battery charge?
thank you
on the nexus one it works a little different, it shows the 3G icon but that does not necessarily mean its doing anything. only when you see the two up/down arrows lighting up and flashing is there 3G data activity going on.
i guessed that, but, it keeps the data connection open? even without transfer it still uses power, doesn't it?
it is always connected in a way, all it does is ping the cell tower every 10 minutes to have an established point on reference. this by its self does not draw to much from the battery as you would expect, only when data is requested does the radio kick in to full power, so no worries that it will drain your battery. The thing that will kill your battery the fastest is that beautiful screen. try to bump it to 60% thats i nice brightness but yet saves on battery. also keep in mind the battery needs to go through 2 or 3 battery charge cycles for you to get the most out of your battery life.
average real world battery life should get you about a day and a half of bettery.
cobrax2 said:
i guessed that, but, it keeps the data connection open? even without transfer it still uses power, doesn't it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how all modern smartphones work nowadays. They all keep the connections "on" 100% of the time.
It's funny because I asked this question a few years ago
The answer I got was that it actually uses MORE battery to turn the connection on and off all the time manually, than to just let it sit idle.
Also, the N1 is useless without a data connection
i see. then ill just let it open and search for an app that will tell me which app uses the most bandwidth. i only found some that tell me the total usage, not by application...

battery life question

There is a lot of conflicting info about Wifi vs 3g.
Which is better to use in term of saving battery?
Does Signal strength of either affect battery life?
IF using wifi, should you have it to always on ( when in wifi zone of course) or should you have it set to sleep when screens off?
I've done testing on that and I've noticed that when using the phone in long intervals, its better to disable connections but when using the phone in frequent bursts it's better to just leave it on. But this is when you are in wifi range the entire time.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I typically have my wifi (and 3g) disable itself when the screen goes off. It seems to restore very quickly. I use Juice Defender (in market) to manage this, which I believe does a pretty good job improving battery life.
wbcollins said:
I typically have my wifi (and 3g) disable itself when the screen goes off. It seems to restore very quickly. I use Juice Defender (in market) to manage this, which I believe does a pretty good job improving battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completely agree, some people say juice defender drains your battery, but don't believe them haha
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
with the whole jD controversy. I'm assuming it has to do with how often the phone is coming out of sleep. If your using your phone every 5 or ten minuets a day then JD probably is going to use more battery then not having it vs lets say you let your phone sleep for half an hour or hours at a time...
Turning a car on and off ( im assuming) takes more gas then letting it run for a few minuets ( correct me if im wrong, but its just an analogy ;] ) but leaving your car run for a hour because your going to use it ina bit isnt effective at all.
Agreed that turning off networking when not needed (Wifi or 3g) will help battery life.
Signal strength of 3G and Wifi will impact battery life, as both protocols will adjust the power when the signal strength is high - low. Your phone will also crank up the power when the signal for basic voice service is weak to keep you connected.
I think over the course of a day at work, juice defender pays off. You can use it in lots of different ways, though the interface is a little clumsy. It also helps me, with help from juice plotter, to determine if my data connections are indeed staying off when I want them to or consuming more energy than they should. When my phone is in my pocket, I don't want it doing much.
can anyone get into more detail about the question at hand?
as in what is better then what .
2 wifi bars better then 2 3g bars?
which uses LESS power ?
IMO, i would say wifi uses less power since the signal doesn't need to travel far to get to your access point vs a 3G signal that needs to go a mile to get to the cell tower. But I'm not an electrical engineer so take it for what it's worth. I leave wifi enabled and use JuiceDefender to turn it on and off as needed. I'm more concerned about data usage since for me wifi is unlimited and 3G is not.
most ISPs limit Bandwidth to 250GB a month. so its not unlimited... so try to stay under that ;]
My experience, turn off wifi is better for bettery life. The battery level almost constant when the wifi is off. The level drop about 2-4% Per hours if wifi is on.
Sent from my cappy.
If you leave wifi on when you're not connected, it drains a lot of battery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

HD7 on Wifi - Is it really draining battery?

I know this was an issue an issue in the past for older phones. With the recent high tech phone/smartphones/battery, I am just wondering if this is still an issue today.
The reason I am asking, I experimented and let my HD7 stand still without using it with the wi-fi on then and wi-fi off for almost a day for both and appears that I have the same battery remaining. I wish I could see the percentage use but looking at the icon itself appears the same to me.
Any other thoughts?
So, a pretty nifty thing about this phone/OS, is when the screen turns off, it automatically kills the WiFi. When you turn it back on, it connects again.
This is how they're able to conserve battery life. The only downside, is if you were downloading say a big game, via WiFi, and the screen times out, WiFi dies and so does your download unfortunately. I was able to get the download to resume once, but usually not.
gasanpride said:
I know this was an issue an issue in the past for older phones. With the recent high tech phone/smartphones/battery, I am just wondering if this is still an issue today.
The reason I am asking, I experimented and let my HD7 stand still without using it with the wi-fi on then and wi-fi off for almost a day for both and appears that I have the same battery remaining. I wish I could see the percentage use but looking at the icon itself appears the same to me.
Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think wifi doesnt consume any battery at all when its "just connected", only when a upload or download is going on , you might find the difference...
sumedh_vsk said:
i think wifi doesnt consume any battery at all when its "just connected", only when a upload or download is going on , you might find the difference...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you are wrong. Even stay disconnect, the Wifi Module will keep searching for the new wifi spot and it kills the battery a lot. Than why i usually switch my Wifi Off (both my HD7 and my old HD2) when i am not going to use it
For the first time with a smartphone I've been leaving the Wifi on all the time, since it doesnt seem to really impact the battery that much. I'd only turn it off if I know I'm going to be a day or two out of Wifi coverage, just to save me having to grab a charger.
With my TD2, having Wifi on all the time not only shagged the battery but also slowed down the UI and made the phone hot as hell.
With Android I would have to keep my Wifi off because it would kill my battery but on my HD7 I leave my Wifi AND bluetooth on all day and I still get pretty good battery life. I only charge once at the end of the day.
the wireless radios, bluetooth & wifi, are so much more polished and refined as compared to the those in WM5/6. With WM, used to flash new radios posted on xda to acheive better reception/power consumption performance. WP7 does it right out of the box...
btw, you can set 'notify when new networks found' to off. If not needed by you, probably save some juice.
cheers
HD7 hw0002
aquanaut88 said:
the wireless radios, bluetooth & wifi, are so much more polished and refined as compared to the those in WM5/6. With WM, used to flash new radios posted on xda to acheive better reception/power consumption performance. WP7 does it right out of the box...
btw, you can set 'notify when new networks found' to off. If not needed by you, probably save some juice.
cheers
HD7 hw0002
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe the only thing that changes is that it doesn't tell you when it finds new networks, but it's still always on and searching. So it shouldn't make much of a battery difference on or off.
That being said, this is the first phone where I have left Wi-Fi on at all times and I get awesome battery life. Actually, my battery period has just been great. No complaints about how long the phone lasts. Much more than any Android or Windows Mobile phones I've used in the past.

[ROM]DebusROM G1 [23/04/11][XWJVB] Gingerbread - very battery hungry

Hi!
As I do not have enough posts to add this to the roms thread, I have to post my problems here...
I am not very happy with this Rom.
Under Wifi conditions, the roms is excellent!! Very heavy usage, lots of wifi internet etc. but very less power consuming.
Today, the first time under normal business life, I have extreme battery drain.
I had to switch to 2g as 3G/HSDPA as it uses soooooo much power, I can watch the power dropping. Also the mobile gets very warm.
But also with 2g it is very battery hungry
The apps/widgets/settings are same under conditions.
O2 carrier Germany, CSC not changed roms default
Anyone with same result?
Thanks
URBANsUNITED
OK, got it!
It was Trillian which sucked my battery empty
What is the best alternative for Trillian?
Best regards
URBANsUNITED

[POLL] Keep WIFI On During Sleep - What Do You Do?

Tons of threads throughout the forums (S6 and others) regarding the battery impact of keeping WIFI on during sleep. Some suggest that keeping it on always actually results in the least battery impact while others suggest that never keeping it on is the best battery bet (at the expense of increased data usage).
Take the poll and let us know which side of the 'WIFI always on' fence you stand and feel free to comment below on your individual observations between this setting and battery life.
For me, before coming to the S6E, I've always "always kept WIFI connected during sleep" but since coming here (from an S5) and dealing with the dreaded cell standby issue and battery drain, I've been keeping it "on only when plugged in". It seems to be having a positive impact on battery life, although I've done a few other things at the same time to combat the drain issue: shut off Samsung Email App syncing, froze Amazon and a few others, etc.
Under WIFI > More > Advanced > Keep WIFI On During Sleep . . . which radio button did you select?
WiFi toggling really hasn't mattered in years. Location is what will get you as we have tons of apps these days that will do background location polls. Tinder, Uber, and many others will destroy it if you don't completely quit the apps. Google services also has it's own fair share of draining battery life with location on.

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