wifi at college and public places eats up battery - AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 5

why does my battery die so quickly when i am on public networks or on my school's network? each of these networks has an authentication process, though my school's network automatically authenticates. i know it's the public networks that are eating my battery because at home i get several more hours of screen time and nearly twice the total battery life with the same type of usage.

skiier54 said:
why does my battery die so quickly when i am on public networks or on my school's network? each of these networks has an authentication process, though my school's network automatically authenticates. i know it's the public networks that are eating my battery because at home i get several more hours of screen time and nearly twice the total battery life with the same type of usage.
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I don't know, but are the types of wifi networks the same? 5ghz vs 2.4ghz? 802.11ac vs n vs g vs b?
I would also question how much activity the device receives from the public/school networks vs at home - where i'd expect it to be a more "quiet" network.
Have you profiled how much awake-time (not screen on time) changes?

I've run into the same thing at the college where I work. The WiFi is secured, and the AP is right outside my office. I was thinking my battery drain was due to the lack of a cell signal, building is basically a Faraday cage, no cell service inside. My nice boss got us a microcell, so I now have great cell reception. And my battery dies even faster. My data is always turned off.
Nobody has a clue, but everyone else here has the same problem, batteries just seem to hate schools.
BTW; at home, battery life is great, even when out on long walks with the dog. I pick up Xfinity WiFi, no noticeable battery drain. Plugged my phone in Friday night, Sunday it was down to about 60%, no charging in between.

So it's probably a combination of network load and the authentication process. At least I know it's not my phone's OS/battery since you guys have the same problem. Thanks.

Related

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.
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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...
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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.
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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?
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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
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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.
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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

High battery drain on *some* WiFi networks

I'm having a strange issue with my Exhibit . I'm running CyanogenMod 11 20140714-UNOFFICIAL although I think I saw this earlier too. When I'm home on my WiFi, battery use it great. Under 2%/hour. When I'm at work on the WiFiit is pretty bad, around 6-7% per hour. If I turn off WiFi, it gets much better (maybe 3% per hour). Same thing if I forget the WiFi network at work. Sometimes in my battery use graph I can see it get flat for and hour and then get bad again -- I think this is losing the WiFi connection for a bit and then reconnecting.
Work recently moved and the results didn't change enough though my data service strength changed a lot. So I'm pretty sure it has to do with the WiFi network. Other people at work don't notice a drain when using WiFi, so I'm guessing it is a combination of the work WiFi and the phone.
The work WiFi is running tomato 1.27, which I administer. I sniffed the WiFi traffic with my laptop and saw a lot of ARP requests for 'who has address' for address not on the WiFibut on our unsecured network. So I separated that with a VLAN and that helped a bit but not a ton, and the ARP requests are much lower (maybe a ~1 / minute). Signal strength is as good or better at work than at home and at home there is way more congestion of neighbor's WiFi.
I know it isn't my phone usage as I would reboot my phone and not touch it for 3 hours and look at the battery drain at both work and at home and see these differences.
Any ideas on what makes the WiFi at work with a tomato router (vs some netgear wifi router) worse on battery than my home network. Work has maybe 7 clients connected at a time, vs probably just the phone at home. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot / debug. Packet sniffing on the WiFi didn't show anything that stood out.
Thanks!
exhibit679 said:
I'm having a strange issue with my Exhibit . I'm running CyanogenMod 11 20140714-UNOFFICIAL although I think I saw this earlier too. When I'm home on my WiFi, battery use it great. Under 2%/hour. When I'm at work on the WiFiit is pretty bad, around 6-7% per hour. If I turn off WiFi, it gets much better (maybe 3% per hour). Same thing if I forget the WiFi network at work. Sometimes in my battery use graph I can see it get flat for and hour and then get bad again -- I think this is losing the WiFi connection for a bit and then reconnecting.
Work recently moved and the results didn't change enough though my data service strength changed a lot. So I'm pretty sure it has to do with the WiFi network. Other people at work don't notice a drain when using WiFi, so I'm guessing it is a combination of the work WiFi and the phone.
The work WiFi is running tomato 1.27, which I administer. I sniffed the WiFi traffic with my laptop and saw a lot of ARP requests for 'who has address' for address not on the WiFibut on our unsecured network. So I separated that with a VLAN and that helped a bit but not a ton, and the ARP requests are much lower (maybe a ~1 / minute). Signal strength is as good or better at work than at home and at home there is way more congestion of neighbor's WiFi.
I know it isn't my phone usage as I would reboot my phone and not touch it for 3 hours and look at the battery drain at both work and at home and see these differences.
Any ideas on what makes the WiFi at work with a tomato router (vs some netgear wifi router) worse on battery than my home network. Work has maybe 7 clients connected at a time, vs probably just the phone at home. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot / debug. Packet sniffing on the WiFi didn't show anything that stood out.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try adjusting some of the settings in the wireless advance settings also make sure your wifi is using the least crowed possible channel and 1,6,and 11 can overlap without interference. easy way to find the best channels is to use an app on a laptop or smartphone with wifi.
Android Wifi Analyzer Free in app store
windows insidder 3 free
Linux LinSSID free
*NOTE too much interfernce may cause network delays which in turn force rechecking connection due to lost packets. also it after trying the above the second thing it could be is possible routers wifi is slowly going out. I've had a linksys router do that. new ping was awesome for e.g playing league of legends 81 when wifi notice her wifi connection kept droping. rebooted router and it worked fine for a a while then did it again and slowly became more frequent ping also increased to 106. replaced router with a new one and ping dropped to 73 and 0 wifi drops or slow downs. hope this helps
I'm pretty sure it isn't interference. At home there are 15 strong WiFi stations across all channels. At work, there are only 2 other WiFi stations and mine is at a channel far from them, so the X-talk from WiFi is way better at work. Also when work moved, I saw no change (although WiFi wasn't crowded at only location either) so I think it has to do with the WiFi network and not the environment.
did you test to make sure wifi isnt dropping packets either as well as check routers wifi intervals
did you test to make sure wifi isnt dropping packets either as well as check routers wifi intervals
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How would you test if wifi is dropping packets? Just a ping on my phone? I can ping wireless consistently from my desktop, but that is over ethernet.
What do you mean by "wifi intervals"? Is that a setting I should see on my tomato firmware? "Beacon Interval" is set to 100, but I don't claim to understand that. "DTIM Interval" is set to 1.
Thanks,
exhibit679 said:
How would you test if wifi is dropping packets? Just a ping on my phone? I can ping wireless consistently from my desktop, but that is over ethernet.
What do you mean by "wifi intervals"? Is that a setting I should see on my tomato firmware? "Beacon Interval" is set to 100, but I don't claim to understand that. "DTIM Interval" is set to 1.
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes that is correct for wifi intervals in the tomato firmware. look at This for better info for what each setting is for. the 3 main ones i would be adjusting as needed is Beacon Interval , Fragmentation Threshold and Interference Mitigation.To test pack loss anything thats on wifi and can ping router. So yeah your phone will work. just make sure you ping the routers ip address e.g for linksys 192.168.1.1
I haven't changed any of the wireless settings yet, but I do have more data. My phone sometimes is on the wifi and has normal (low) battery usage. Today from 9:30 - 12:30 it was great, but after 12:30 there was a discontinuity in the battery vs time graph as the slope decreased by over a factor of 3. Not sure what changed -- I don't see different devices on the wireless or higher wireless utilization. I'm thinking something in the wifi trips a setting or something on the wifi isn't completing on the phone and is draining the battery.

Wifi Calling & Battery

Let's settle this once and for all because No one has any clear indication not even T-Mobile
Does WiFi calling use more battery (to even have it enabled) vs it not being enabled?
I would say YES. Because if you're Wifi Calling icon is showing, your WiFi is enabled. So yes, it would be using more battery. Does it mean you're day is cut in half? Most likely not.
In my experience, using WiFi uses significantly less battery than LTE. The science behind it is that the WLAN radio has significantly lower output power than the cellular modem and therefore uses less battery. My real world experience is this:
I text frequently, check FB and IG, receive push mail from 3 Exchange accounts, and spend an average of 20 minutes on the phone each work day. I do not have a desk phone or home phone.
WiFi on with calling: I can usually go to bed at 2200 with 60-70% battery remaining
WiFi on without calling or mixed in/out of office: I usually will have around 40-50% at 2200.
WiFi off (usually only happens when travelling): I usually arrive back at the hotel with 20-35%, which means I need to charge before I leave the hotel for dinner.
madmike23 said:
I would say YES. Because if you're Wifi Calling icon is showing, your WiFi is enabled. So yes, it would be using more battery. Does it mean you're day is cut in half? Most likely not.
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i keep hearing this misnomer that wifi uses more battery, if you have it on searching and not connecting i can see how, but if you are connected to a good wifi signal, it will be much easier on your batt than LTE
The question is does the feature itself end up using more battery?
dc/dc said:
In my experience, using WiFi uses significantly less battery than LTE. The science behind it is that the WLAN radio has significantly lower output power than the cellular modem and therefore uses less battery. My real world experience is this:
I text frequently, check FB and IG, receive push mail from 3 Exchange accounts, and spend an average of 20 minutes on the phone each work day. I do not have a desk phone or home phone.
WiFi on with calling: I can usually go to bed at 2200 with 60-70% battery remaining
WiFi on without calling or mixed in/out of office: I usually will have around 40-50% at 2200.
WiFi off (usually only happens when travelling): I usually arrive back at the hotel with 20-35%, which means I need to charge before I leave the hotel for dinner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So wifi without wifi calling uses more battery? am i interpreting this properly?
<WiFi on with calling: I can usually go to bed at 2200 with 60-70% battery remaining>
<WiFi on without calling or mixed in/out of office: I usually will have around 40-50% at 2200.>
WiFi is the issue not WiFi calling.
masri1987 said:
i keep hearing this misnomer that wifi uses more battery, if you have it on searching and not connecting i can see how, but if you are connected to a good wifi signal, it will be much easier on your batt than LTE
The question is does the feature itself end up using more battery?
So wifi without wifi calling uses more battery? am i interpreting this properly?
<WiFi on with calling: I can usually go to bed at 2200 with 60-70% battery remaining>
<WiFi on without calling or mixed in/out of office: I usually will have around 40-50% at 2200.>
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Click to collapse
Ya it probably would use more battery. If WiFi is on but not the calling feature then it would still rely on the cell tower and modem inside the phone to send texts thus using more battery. But of course with all of this YMMV.
dc/dc said:
I can usually go to bed at 2200 with 60-70% battery remaining
WiFi on without calling or mixed in/out of office: I usually will have around 40-50% at 2200.
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Click to collapse
Who goes to bed that early?
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
masri1987 said:
So wifi without wifi calling uses more battery? am i interpreting this properly?
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Click to collapse
Correct, for the reason GriffenD mentioned. I sometimes turn it off when I have text issues with my girlfriend, who has Verizon now. Sometimes messages just disappear into the æther.
BACARDILIMON said:
WiFi is the issue not WiFi calling.
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Click to collapse
What issue? There is no issue with WiFi.
darekz said:
Who goes to bed that early?
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Click to collapse
People that get up at 0630. I like my beauty rest. LOL
dc/dc said:
Correct, for the reason GriffenD mentioned. I sometimes turn it off when I have text issues with my girlfriend, who has Verizon now. Sometimes messages just disappear into the æther.
What issue? There is no issue with WiFi.
People that get up at 0630. I like my beauty rest. LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue with WiFi is it searches /scans none stop and that drains the battery. Everyone seems to have the same issue.
BACARDILIMON said:
The issue with WiFi is it searches /scans none stop and that drains the battery. Everyone seems to have the same issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to argue, but that is not totally correct. Those scans are not constant, they are on a schedule, and generally have a negligible effect on battery life. They can have an impact if a user has attached their device to many networks and the device has a huge list through which to scan. Power users, I would hope, clean out their network list, making it essentially a non-issue. Once the device is attached to a network, as it would be in the instance referenced in this thread for WiFi Calling, then it scans even less often.
dc/dc said:
I don't want to argue, but that is not totally correct. Those scans are not constant, they are on a schedule, and generally have a negligible effect on battery life. They can have an impact if a user has attached their device to many networks and the device has a huge list through which to scan. Power users, I would hope, clean out their network list, making it essentially a non-issue. Once the device is attached to a network, as it would be in the instance referenced in this thread for WiFi Calling, then it scans even less often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess my phone is bad cause I am locked in on a great signal and if I put the phone down every 30 seconds phone does a scan even if I clear all the networks. When it scans it adds thems back and continues the scan.
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