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I'm doing some initial research regarding buying a new phone. One of the things I've heard about all of the 4G Android phones is that 4G sucks the life out of the battery. However, reading the specs on the phone doesn't seem to indicate that, though I wouldn't expect it to either. Also, I'm really going back and forth as to whether or not I even really need 4G. I ran SpeedTest on a Revolution in a store, so I do know how much faster it is, but I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice halfway decent battery life for it.
What has your battery life been like in general? Is it as bad as the Verizon store people warned me? For comparison sake, I'm coming from a Touch Pro 2. It also has the extended life battery, so I realize that has spoiled me.
Also, I read in another thread that 4G can be disabled. I just wanted to be sure about what exactly that meant. Does that mean you can actually force a "downgrade" to 3G only data, or does that mean you can either have 4G data or no data (turn it off)?
Does disabling 4G (assuming it's possible) even help with the battery life?
Thanks in advance for any responses!
4G Greatly Reduced Battery Life!
It is true that 4G Data can suck the life out of your battery. 4G Speed Test have been extremely fast, especially in a 5 bar service area. I'm at the Colorado Springs Airport today and all ten speed tests resulted in speeds above 31 Mbps! The highest was 38 Mbps!
Before 4G came to my area I would get 12-16 hours of battery. Afterwards my phone gets 6-8 hours of battery life. I recently got the extended battery and am getting 14-16 hours of battery life.
You can choose 3G mode or 4G mode in settings. Your phone will reboot after changing the mode.
LG REVO, Stock non-rooted.
OMG those speeds are insane!!! When I said I knew how much faster it was, I apparently didn't! I was getting 6 mbps download speeds and I thought THAT was good! Wow, this does change things.
And on top of that, I just learned that the two existing dual core handsets are not yet rootable, and the devs have been running into issues in doing so.
I'm wondering if it's better to go with one of the 3 existing phones, overclock, and be done with it...
Thanks for the info!
schick79 said:
OMG those speeds are insane!!! When I said I knew how much faster it was, I apparently didn't! I was getting 6 mbps download speeds and I thought THAT was good! Wow, this does change things.
And on top of that, I just learned that the two existing dual core handsets are not yet rootable, and the devs have been running into issues in doing so.
I'm wondering if it's better to go with one of the 3 existing phones, overclock, and be done with it...
Thanks for the info!
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If you are not in a 4g area, you can disable the settings, to cdma only. 4g is insane, and with some mods by developers here, its even slicker. I don't know anything about the other 4g phones offered, The Charge, and the Thunderbolt. But I know, LG was unlocked in 2 days, rooted in 5 and with in 2 weeks we had a rom. It's been getting better and better since. I told my friends when their contract came up to get the LG, but they thought the slide out qwerty Moto 3 would be better. Well, he has been having issues with his. She is happy, but that's cuz I slapped a better launcher on there. It's not as slick and fast as my phone, it's not as user friendly, it's a bit heavier, bulkier than mine.
I may be a bit biased, but I love my phone, and I love what has been done to improve it. And I know, there is more to come.
I am in a 4G area, so considering data plans cost the same regardless of what speed you're getting it at, I'm now leaning towards 4G to be able to take advantage of it.
Besides, if I can disable 4G, or go with the bigger battery, it sounds like the battery concerns all go away anyway.
My only original remaining concern was the dual core processor. However, I've been wavering on that topic now as well. I played with the X2 and all three 1GHz phones in the Verizon store. Granted the dual core phone was faster, but only slightly. Even the Quadrant benchmarks weren't that far apart. And, the Revolution's benchmark was the best out of all three 4G phones.
Plus, given the non-root status of the X2 and D3, I assume the Bionic (my original front-runner) won't be rootable, and $100 more expensive.
I just don't know if it will be worth it.
Don't forget Bing!
I personally like my REVO but it would be much better if Bing Search was not default. It would also be nice if the Car Home App didn't use Bing Maps and VZ Navigator as default. The only thing I haven't been able to make work the way I want it by installing other apps is the capacitive search button. If you are going to root then I'm pretty sure you could uninstall or freeze Bing Search and could set Google Search to open when the search button is pressed.
Also, at this time with the latest OTA, I don't believe the current rooting methods work.
djembeman said:
I personally like my REVO but it would be much better if Bing Search was not default. It would also be nice if the Car Home App didn't use Bing Maps and VZ Navigator as default. The only thing I haven't been able to make work the way I want it by installing other apps is the capacitive search button. If you are going to root then I'm pretty sure you could uninstall or freeze Bing Search and could set Google Search to open when the search button is pressed.
Also, at this time with the latest OTA, I don't believe the current rooting methods work.
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With the Revolt Rom, you get root, you get alot of the updates, and a faster overall performance. Check it out in the development area. There are a couple snags and snaffoos, but Mtmichaelson is working diligently to fix them, or help people fix them. I have seen a couple fc's but nothing major.
If you get an extended battery you can easily get over twelve hours of use while leaving it on 4g and leaving the auto sync on
Sent from my VS910 4G using XDA App
I'm currently tracking how much data I typically go through in a month for home use and considering the idea of dropping my cable internet for an LTE hotspot.
Assuming I can get a sufficient amount of data for a similar cost, an LTE hotspot seems like it should be a better option. At the very least, the LTE connection is faster than my current internet. At least it should be.
I tested the hotspot feature as well as USB tether on the Bionic tonight and I can't say I was very impressed. I think 7 Mbps was about the best result I got with either of those. A quick search showed that others were having similar results, as well as some issues with maintaining a connection. Needless to say, using the Bionic as a hotspot to replace my home internet isn't sounding like a great idea so far. That said, I'm very satisfied with the speeds the Bionic is able to achieve on LTE.
What I'm wondering is if anyone can provide more insight about any problems I could expect with frequent use of the hotspot feature on the Bionic. I know that it's a serious drain on the battery and can generate some heat. Would there be long term issues that would result from this? Does anyone know if I could expect better performance from a dedicated hotspot device? Any other particular benefits to using the dedicated device? I'm still researching info on the success with the dedicated devices and there seems to be a fair bit of info available. The main reason I'm posting here is to see if anyone can point to any specific problems for frequent hotspot use on the Bionic (or any cell phone, for that matter). I am, admittedly, still working on researching the idea, so I'm far from set on the idea and not even sure if it's as reasonable as I'm thinking it might be.
I would be seriously skeptical about the idea of replacing my home internet with a MiFi device of any kind. I used 298GB last month on my home FiOS- paying $50 for 5GB seems ludicrous.
That said, I wouldn't really recommend any of the LTE phones for their hotspot feature. With the stock charger it's actually quite possible to drain your battery faster than it will charge.
The 4510 is cheap, has decent battery life, and as a dedicated device you're not tying up your phone while simultaneously getting faster speeds. That would be my recommendation.
EDIT: I just got off the phone with VZW and the rep was under the impression hotspot for phones with unlimited data was also not capped... I don't remember this being the case, but if anyone could confirm that for me... that would sway my opinion in favor of using the phone, since a MiFi would have its own contract and thus be subject to the new $10/GB pricing. It's still limited by the potential of throttling in cases of extreme use- and I think my use would be extreme if I had to completely replace my home internet- but it's an interesting possibility regardless.
MillionManMosh said:
I would be seriously skeptical about the idea of replacing my home internet with a MiFi device of any kind. I used 298GB last month on my home FiOS- paying $50 for 5GB seems ludicrous.
That said, I wouldn't really recommend any of the LTE phones for their hotspot feature. With the stock charger it's actually quite possible to drain your battery faster than it will charge.
The 4510 is cheap, has decent battery life, and as a dedicated device you're not tying up your phone while simultaneously getting faster speeds. That would be my recommendation.
EDIT: I just got off the phone with VZW and the rep was under the impression hotspot for phones with unlimited data was also not capped... I don't remember this being the case, but if anyone could confirm that for me... that would sway my opinion in favor of using the phone, since a MiFi would have its own contract and thus be subject to the new $10/GB pricing. It's still limited by the potential of throttling in cases of extreme use- and I think my use would be extreme if I had to completely replace my home internet- but it's an interesting possibility regardless.
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As long as you're grandfathered in, you can enable the $30 tethering option on your account at any time and you won't be subject to a data limit.
quentin0 said:
As long as you're grandfathered in, you can enable the $30 tethering option on your account at any time and you won't be subject to a data limit.
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This. Confirmed.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
That's a lot of data... I know for sure I'll never be getting anywhere near that much data.
I started tracking my data a few days ago and the program I'm using already showed some stats for what I've used this month... I'm not clear on exactly how far back that goes or how accurate it is, but that initial total made it seem possible to have a reasonably priced plan. That said, I've been watching it and it seems like that initial number might have been deceiving, so it might not be a good idea at the current pricing.
Obviously my biggest concern would be going over the data plan's limit. I used to do a lot more gaming and downloading, but I mostly just do typical internet browsing and some video streaming. The problem is, I seem to have sporadic downloading habits, so I might run the risk of being safe on most months but face overages on some months. If they did data rollover for unused data, I might be able to get away with it, but that's the problem I'm facing. Like I said though, my initial estimates of data usage might have been inaccurate and this idea might be crazy.
The battery drain was a concern and one of the reasons I was thinking the bionic/phone tether just wasn't a reasonable plan. It would be great if they offered some sort of shared/packaged plan for multiple data devices on the same plan... like a better value on 10 GB split between 2 devices.
can anyone who had used this model and the standard int model tell me if there is much difference in the day to day and poweruser performance of both models.
I have the I9300 and somene wants to trade his 19305 for my second phone, the iphone 4s, although if there isn't much difference (I'm not bothered about lte) if prefer to make a similar trade for a nexus (or perhaps a Lumia).
any info would be welcome cheers
I have owned both and don't really notice a performance difference. LTE is amazing and really fast, so that's a network performance gain i guess. there is twice the RAM which is nice for multitasking, but you don't get any actual performance gains from it
ah that's good then... Turns out the phone was still a. I9300 even though it was from "Orange and EE" :s lol I'm glad I checked up.
4g must be blazing, I'm sure I'll love it on my next generation of phone. I can still live on 3g so I won't upgrade until I'm getting a huge jump
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omniwolf said:
I have owned both and don't really notice a performance difference. LTE is amazing and really fast, so that's a network performance gain i guess. there is twice the RAM which is nice for multitasking, but you don't get any actual performance gains from it
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How would you compare battery life between the two?
if you disable 4G, then it's comparable. With CPU and GPU undervolting i get about 40 hours 100% -> 1%, and almost 4h30m screen on time. that's with wifi on all the time (and probably connected 70% of the time), a bunch of push and pull accounts, no games
i didnt notice too much of a difference.i did notice a note worthy one in multitasking and what not. for instance when im at home in the evening updating roms and apks , customization of themes or what ever it held up quite well with little to none hiccups at peak levels.
I'm on Arman's infinirom right now, and it is absolutely amazing in terms of performance and stability. However, I'm still falling to see any battery life improvements. Right now the best screen time I can get is 4 hours screen on over the course of two days. No gaming, just flipboard, music, and web browsing. I've tried to emulate everyone's settings on here, but to no avail. I did realize that I'm in a rural area with very weak signal. Not just data, but actual phone signal. Would this happen to be the issue?
Here's a shot of how weak signal is here :
Sent from my XT890 using xda app-developers app
Your phone is always hunting for a signal, and the weaker or more unstable the signal is the harder it’s going to work to find and keep latched on to it.
It’s for this reason that if I’m on a long train journey across open country I put my phone in to flight mode until I reach urban areas to conserve the battery. One thing I don’t like about the RAZR i is that it doesn’t hold a 3G signal anywhere near as good as any of my previous Nokia's. I’ve used Three’s network for many years with no problems until I bought the RAZR, and as Three doesn’t have a back-up 2G network sadly I’ve had to switch carriers because otherwise I’ve been extremely happy with them.
Hope this helps.
I have been using my N6 for the past couple of days and the battery life has been quite disappointing for me so far. It seems the biggest culprit for me is the poor signal in my area leading to a huge amount of drain from Cell Standby. Even when idle, my battery drains quickly. I lose 1% every few minutes without even turning my screen on and about 10% over an hour. As of now, my device has been on for 2h 49m and 24% of that time has been without signal.
I understand that poor reception is causing the radio to constantly look for a signal but my Moto G and Nexus 5 are in the exact same environment and fair much better when it comes to battery life. Anyone else experiencing this insane battery drain? At this point I'm debating sending the device back, getting a refund, and dealing with the bloated and Touchwiz filled Note 4. It's a bummer because I absolutely love this phone otherwise. The screen, build quality, WiFi signal strength, and audio experience make this phone an absolute delight but the battery drain might be a deal breaker for me. Thankfully I still have a couple of weeks to make up my mind on whether or not I'll be keeping the phone or returning it and going for another phablet. Thanks to the N6, I can no longer return to a phone with small display.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not having this issue with my Moto G or Nexus 5 and both devices have excellent idle battery life.
Battery stats: http://i.imgur.com/Qmx3vkh.png
Detailed Battery stats: http://i.imgur.com/Qmx3vkh.png
Cell Standy: http://i.imgur.com/gvSbxLp.png
I have noticed the same thing with my device. Might not be to the extent you are experiencing because the cell coverage is a little better but cell standby is one of the main causes of my battery draining.
dleonard1122 said:
I have noticed the same thing with my device. Might not be to the extent you are experiencing because the cell coverage is a little better but cell standby is one of the main causes of my battery draining.
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This seems to be an issue with Lollipop and people with the Nexus 5 are also experiencing this. There is a thread over at /r/android discussing this issue.
I absolutely love this phone and I will be holding out for a patch as long as I can. This phone is so awesome though.
I don't have this issue with my new N6 or my N5 on lollipop. I have very strong signal though in my area.
I would like to point out though it's not that bad considering your without service for over 20% of the time at that point.. From that it looks like you'll have a12 hour day.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
godsafk said:
IAnyone else experiencing this insane battery drain?
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Yes, my N5 running LRX21O has the same since I activated my N6. In my case (Wi-Fi only) I can just turn off the mobile radios.
I actually already started a thread about this. At first I thought it was a sprint issue turns out to be widespread.
TwelfthMan said:
I actually already started a thread about this. At first I thought it was a sprint issue turns out to be widespread.
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Thanks for letting me know about your own thread discussing the same issues, I have posted there as well. :good:
This cell standby drain reminds me of eclair and froyo days. I believe the temp solution for this was to briefly put it into airplane mode. Then turn mobile network bank on. It would sort of reset the existing bug. Anyone remember this from way back when?
posted while using my note 3
hasbrobot said:
This cell standby drain reminds me of eclair and froyo days. I believe the temp solution for this was to briefly put it into airplane mode. Then turn mobile network bank on. It would sort of reset the existing bug. Anyone remember this from way back when?
posted while using my note 3
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I remember it well I had the Eris. But I think it's different today. I think it's a reporting issue not a signal loss issue. Imo
Ahh... memories, I had the eris as well. Actually 5 of them, ha ha. Man android has come along way.
posted while using my note 3
Just a thought.. try changing it from LTE preferred to 3G. I'm not saying to use this as a permanent solution but just try it out. I was in the -90 to -103dB range in signal on LTE and it would randomly crap out entirely for a few seconds every couple minutes (at best). I have no idea why - didn't have that issue on my older galaxy S3. Anyway, switching to 3G suddenly gave me fantastic reception (at least in terms of signal strength).
If it helps you - that might be the cause of your battery drain: poor signal.
Me too I've switched to 3g and I'm my nexus isn't constantly looking for a 4g signal
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
I just did 12 hours in a hospital where my S3 couldn't make it much past lunchtime. I'm at around 15 hours now and have 70% left. Full time on 4G.
pifsworld said:
Me too I've switched to 3g and I'm my nexus isn't constantly looking for a 4g signal
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Did this too which helped a ton.
Also flashing the latest modem in fastboot also appeared to help.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/ref-nexus-6-modem-collection-t2969380
Like others have mentioned, forcing it to a specific network mode will typically save power, especially when you kill something as power hungry as LTE.
From the regular system menu, you only have the options to set "preferred" LTE/3G/2G, but this does not actually disable LTE or 2G when you select 3G.
From the dialer, enter *#*#4636#*#*, select phone information, scroll down to "set preferred network type" and choose "WCDMA only". With this, it will actually turn off the LTE and GSM radios.