Wifi or Cellular data (which has greater power consumption)? - General Questions and Answers

I was always under the impression that WIFI (802.11x) would take chew through more power than cellular data however after running some tests, it seems to be the other way around.
My results are:
GPRS data: ~300 mA
HSDPA data: ~490 mA
Wifi (802.11g data : ~200 mA
My tests were carried out using acbTaskMan which is a freeware application available here
I just wanted to share these results and maybe get some feedback in regards to the accuracy of these results and if thats really what I am supposed to be getting.

Interesting... Wish we had more info on this.. I'd assume those values could change a lot based on signal strength of various connections (such as in a basement next to the Wifi router, where you get little cell phone coverage) and from out front/back of the home, 50-75ft away from the router (weaker signal)...
I know this is an old post, but wanted to bump it back up rather then make a new one.. I am very interested about this myself.. I use my phone *constantly* for data.. just want to see if it's worth the trouble to turn on wifi when i'm at home / a hotspot.. I know wifi is almost always faster.. but I wasnt sure how the power consumption compares...

Related

Sprint TP uses 200-400mah w/ data conn, fast drain, defective?

I have a sprint touch pro, it was fine for the first day or so including active sync always connected.
Then I noticed it would get really warm and the battery was draining very fast, long story short but on a hard reset with only CMP battery monitor installed (which was not installed when the problem first presented itself) the unit uses between 0-100 mah normally but if I have activesync on always connected or even no active sync profile but manually enable the data connection it goes to 200-400 (average around 300 mah) causing it to heat up, super fast battery drain, etc.
One thing I noticed is that it is flipping between EVDO and 1x a lot too I am not sure if this is the cause?
I have several other phones (mougl, 6700 etc) all which would stay on EVDO without a problem here. Is it a defective unit?
Also to note my battery can train from about 100% to dead in a few hours when the data connection is active, vs day+ without.
I also am having a similar problem as the thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2851168
where basically while in a strong evdo area it will rarely connect over evdo and if it does it generally will break the connection within a few minutes and default back to 1x. I think this may be the cause but it still doesn't explain why this is happening.
Mine seems to be having the same sort of issues, my battery, on average is only lasting me about 6-8 hours, I keep bluetooth and wifi turned off. I just got the phone less than a week ago, so it is seeing abnormally heavy use, but I'm really trying to make it last me a day and this isn't looking good so far.
Keeping background programs closed (except glight and gyrator)
Signal for this area is strong, 3g everywhere. I used to be on Helio (using Sprint's network), and my 3g signal never dropped. This phone, when sending a text message, the box switches to 1x, the text sends, then it goes back to Ev. It's the same for making calls. I'm not "dropping" 3g I guess, it's just switching off to make a cell transmission. Browsing sites or using data keeps it connected to 3g.
ROM version: 1.03.651.3
Radio version: 1.03.15F
Now, you think us Sprint Touch Pro users will possibly see a new ROM and Radio soon? I want to try reflashing the ROM, but don't know where to get another stock Sprint one, and I'm positive a GSM radio won't work.
If only the touch pro had 1/3 the following the Diamond seems to :/
Yea I don't think that its due to any programs, at this point I run a hard reset with nothing loaded but the battery monitor and no wifi/bt. As for sprint roms nuechem will be releasing a new rom tonight (see is blog at nuerom.com ) you can flash over.
I think the problem is related to the network however as in 3 different locations now as soon as I go to use a very good strength evdo signal it will drop to 1x for an unknown reason.

Loss of 3G?

Did anyone else with a media max plan suddenly lose 3G signal where you used to have it before? Mine switch to edge today at 4:30 and won't get the 3G signal back.
mrspawn99 said:
Did anyone else with a media max plan suddenly lose 3G signal where you used to have it before? Mine switch to edge today at 4:30 and won't get the 3G signal back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be a local tower problem, congestion or it could just be a display problem on the phone. Yesterday my phone was displaying both "G" and "E" over the course of 3 hours, but the WM field test app showed I wasn't connected via GSM and when I did a speed test it came out to ~400 kbps. That's 3G speed, so I think the Fuze indicator was just incorrect.
For a good way to confirm, type in *#*#364#*#* into the phone dialer. A field test app will come up. Scroll down to "Band". If you see "850" or "PCS", you are connected via GSM/EDGE. If you see <unknown>, you are connected via WCDMA (3G).
Speaking of which, is there a version of WM's field test floating around somewhere that will show correct power, band and channel info for WCDMA?
Good call on that one, it was just displaying the wrong icon. I thought I had goten caught in that whole Media Net vs. PDA plan BS.
Incidentally, does anyone know whether they can limit your data usage like that. e.g. throttle you down to egde service when you have a 3g enabled device but still provide an internet connection?
mrspawn99 said:
Good call on that one, it was just displaying the wrong icon. I thought I had goten caught in that whole Media Net vs. PDA plan BS.
Incidentally, does anyone know whether they can limit your data usage like that. e.g. throttle you down to egde service when you have a 3g enabled device but still provide an internet connection?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes sooner or later .. THEY WILL eventually catch up to you and you might end with a huge bill if they can prove that you were using media max on a pda ... just blowing winds of caution

3G data performance

Hi All
I changed from a SE p1i to a HTC Touch Pro. In terms of phone easiness and functionalities I lost a lot but in terms of HW I though I gained a lot. However I started to realise that although it has HSDPA and HSUPA the internet over 3G was very, very slow. I sent it to repair and come exactly the same. The best speed I can get is 61Kbps DL when 3G provides 384Kbps and HSDPA 7.2Mbps. Since the latency is very very high, I cannot get the complete rendering of a complex page if the http server gives time-out too early. Using the PC with the VPN is a nightmare.
A friend of mine that is a radio engineer in Nokia told me that this is a "well know problem of Windows Mobile that cannot cipher/decipher the 3G radio packets in real time". I searched on the internet and couldn't find nothing however I tried several HTC and Samsung phones with Windows Mobile, on several operators and countries and all are very very slow. And comparing them with the SE pi1 that worked like a clock... until it broke :-D
Henrique
I think you will find you are getting 61 kiloBYTES per second which equates to 488 Kbps, I use it with VPN and it's great, how are you connecting your PC to your phone, hopefully not via internet connection sharing or it will fail the VPN security check and boot you off quickly
Hi Everyone,
I too was noticing speed issues and they are for sure there. People on these boards have been seeing upto 2Mbit downloads speeds so it can be done. As my sig shows I got 1.7Mbit with 1-2 "H" bars.
I loaded a new radio on mine and that seemed to almost double my bandwidth, I was using the standard .32 radio and was getting around 600 to 700Kbit and then switched to the .28 radio and was getting 1100 to 1300Kbit. Only do your speed tests by tether unless you feel you have a good mobile website to do your testing. I was using www.dslreports.com/mspeed but the results are junk, theirs servers are not able to supply enough bandwidth for a good test.
Secondly I installed a new ROM, specifically I am using NATF's 2.3. This will make the phone way faster in terms of performance. It also allows me to tether via the USB and use my VPN without any problems.
I have an AT&T data card for my laptop (it's a work thing) and I get equal coverage/speed on the fuze as I do on this dedicated device, that is without the radio change that is.
Give the above items a try, the information for making the changes can be found in the ROM development area
Thanks All
Thanks for the feedback guys.
I used GoToMyHelp.com to make the test and provide me the results in both Kbps and KBps... 7.6KBps they said... GPRS speed.
With 3G only the results vary from 17Kbps to 60Kbps, when I turn HSDPA on I always get 61Kbps... looks like the phone cannot handle more than one major WCDMA code with the most robust and slowest modulation code...
But if people reported higher speeds then it means I really have an HW problem and so I have to insist with the service centre... I guess...
Henrique
But...
Although from the comments received looks like the problem is more acute on my device I tried a Samsung with Windos Mobile 6.1 and it is as slow as mine... I think it is too much coincidence.
Does anyone has any information regarding the so called "well known limitation of the cipher/deciphering in real time of windows mobile?
Thanks for any feedback...
Henrique
i get from 800kpb - 1000
never tested upload.
is tehre another test?
I only trust speedtest.net through a hardline tether (not bt) for speed test results. This moves as much processing power as possible from the phone to a full fledged computer, reducing such variables as screen drawing speed, free memory, cpu utilization, etc.
I find the fuze to perform almost exactly in line with my 881u (best speed ive seen on that is just over 2400 down, 900 up) - the only discernable difference is latency, slightly better on 881u (which is to be expected as there isnt ICS running as a proxy in such a situation)
As to the fastest speed you'll see on the device itself, I have not been able to clock over 1700 on speedtest.net running in flash lite 3.1 in opera mobile on my wifi, where i score 5500+ on the computer, so i think testing via phone's browser is not a very good measurement.
I don't know, I just switched my Settings > Phone > Band to GSM to see if it saves substantial battery, opposed to the 3G and even further "H" icon HSxPA I was using before.
The "E" icon GSM-Edge doesn't seem to slow down my Google Maps updates very much.
Thanks
Thank you all for sharing your experience.
The tests I made were using the phone as a modem via USB, so the processing on the phone was at a minimum.
The site I indicated before, GoToMyHelp.com, is used by a Firefox extension I have. After trying several sites this was the one that always gave me the best perceptible match between the browsing experience and the measured figures...
Now comes the hard part to convince the customer services that the phone has problems...
Henrique
I think I have the same problem. I am getting crazy low speeds on G and H, 30Kbit/sec and 60 Kbit/sec respectively. I have tried various tweaks found on the forums, I've flashed a couple of cooked roms and various radios but can't get it any higher. I've tried the SIM in the wifes iphone so I am sure that it's not a problem with that.
Let us know how you get on, are you going to call HTC direct or go through the company you bought it from?
chrisrich said:
I think I have the same problem. I am getting crazy low speeds on G and H, 30Kbit/sec and 60 Kbit/sec respectively. I have tried various tweaks found on the forums, I've flashed a couple of cooked roms and various radios but can't get it any higher. I've tried the SIM in the wifes iphone so I am sure that it's not a problem with that.
Let us know how you get on, are you going to call HTC direct or go through the company you bought it from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im getting 820kb/s in a suburaban area. It works great. Did you enable HSPDA. AT&T turns HSPDA by default (probobly to save bandwidth). All you have to do is fix it...im not sure how search the forum. I am using DA_G Clean fuze rom and it has it built into the ROM
OMG i just tethered my PC and I got some crazy speeds
And that was the lowest one. It went all the way up to 1900..obviously it flutuates a lot but it is still leveling off around 15k....which is crazy because I only have TWO bars!
this is my home
Its crazy that my phone gets speeds half as fast as my DSL and it only has two bars and im in the suburbs!
i tried iphonespeedtest.com on 1.07 proven and got about 400 at highest
tried it when i used his 1.08 i got 1200 kbps
its sick
Northern VA area
Is it possible that while tethered the phone is capable of more data throughput that isn't possible while browsing on the phone? Similar to the problem of encrypted WiFi being slow due to the processor load of encrypting and decrypting data.
From a technical standpoint when you're tethered all the phone does is pass data from the 3G connection to the USB port. The only processing needed is basic lower level networking to re-address the data packets to a new port, thus the processor has a low load and can dedicate more cycles to simply moving data. The phone can focus all of it's power on getting the fastest connection with the 3G tower.
But when you browse on the phone the processor needs to terminate the data packet and unload it into a program. On top of that even more processor power goes towards running the program itself that is using the data. Since the processor is busy multitasking by running a program, terminating data packets, and trying to maintain a connection with the 3G tower, it's more likely to drop packets or lose it's connection.
This would also explain why you lose that weak 3G connection and drop to EDGE when you open a program that has high processor demands.

Wifi Issues

When I move into my room, my laptop gets 90%-100% signal strength from my Wifi, my phone however randomly looses signal completely and especially when I take up the phone to use it. It's very frustrating. Plus when I'm on 3G, it constantly switches from 3G to H too.
The 3g H switching is normal if you are on tmo us and running the eu roms and has been discussed quite a bit
not sure what you mean by losing signal, but i get diff bars diff places in my house. never lose the whole connection as in not being able to dl or browse web
did you run speed tests at these diff locations in house
rugmankc said:
The 3g H switching is normal if you are on tmo us and running the eu roms and has been discussed quite a bit
not sure what you mean by losing signal, but i get diff bars diff places in my house. never lose the whole connection as in not being able to dl or browse web
did you run speed tests at these diff locations in house
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you misunderstood his post. His primary problem is that the wifi on his phone doesn't come close to the signal strength his laptop has when in the same room.
The secondary problem was the 3g/4g switching.
OP -- I have no idea what to tell you.
no, i understood. just saying my phone wifi bars fluctuate even if my laptop has good signal. may just be the way they both display strength readings
i think op should run speed tests btw the two at same time. however both devices are splitting signal so may not be as good as only one running at a time
his speeds may be fine even though bars don't show it
rugmankc said:
no, i understood. just saying my phone wifi bars fluctuate even if my laptop has good signal. may just be the way they both display strength readings
i think op should run speed tests btw the two at same time. however both devices are splitting signal so may not be as good as only one running at a time
his speeds may be fine even though bars don't show it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in Jamaica, no T-mobile. I'm not sure if I'm running an EU rom. My problem is that I loose connectivity to Wifi totally randomly in my room with even little motion. I mentioned my laptop for reference... it's like there's poor signal in my room. The phone'll just bit sitting on my bed, I hear an alert and pick up the phone to realize I've lost Wifi.
Speed is not the problem, I've been able to run a speed test to confirm I get the speed I'm supposed to get. Other times though, the speed test could not complete because I moved a little and lost connectivity.
HTC One S wifi
HTC One S wifi
Make sure that your SIM access cover is snapped in place.
It happened to me with the WiFi signal - The phone was losing signal, and had low signal 1 foot away from the router.
I 'pinched' the top-right corner of the access cover (thumb on the glass, index finger on the back cover) - I heard a 'click' and suddenly my WiFi was at full strength. I believe that the WiFi antenna is not connected unless it snaps together.
ok, not sure what to suggest. you could try turning airplane mode on and of and see if that helps
maybe router settings with the phone if you always had the issue
under settings/wifi/ tap on wifi then the 3 dot menu--Advanced. See if Keep Wi-Fi on during Sleep is Always. If not tap on it and change to Always
Also at bottom of Advanced menu is a DLNA setting, you could toggle that
barring that or someone else's ideas--maybe hardware and needs replaced
Try turning on Best Wifi Performance in Wifi, advanced settings.
Sent from my HTC VLE_U
Turning on best WiFi performance totally killed my battery life, but that may just be me.
If you're losing signal on one device but not another, I'd recommend changing the channel on your router. Interference on certain channels can cause weird issues with some devices. There are apps on the market that will show you which channels are congested in your area.
ptweasel said:
Turning on best WiFi performance totally killed my battery life, but that may just be me.
If you're losing signal on one device but not another, I'd recommend changing the channel on your router. Interference on certain channels can cause weird issues with some devices. There are apps on the market that will show you which channels are congested in your area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... I'll try that. So far turning on DLNA and Best Performance hasn't made any difference. I'll try changing the channel when I get home later and post the results. I REALLY hope h/w is not the problem.. it's gonna be a hassle sending this back.
It might be worth gently cleaning the contacts exposed when you remove the SIM access panel. As District noted, good contact is necessary for wifi (and probably other features). Dust or a fingerprint may be problematic.
Anything to bear in mind when trying to clean it or adjust it? I'm really paranoid I'll mess it up.
make sure you use electrical cleaner
radio shack sells it, comes in spray can
if you haven't had sim card out or phone long, probably not issue. but, worth try
if you have another router, you can always try that
Nothing seems to work... I'm using channel 11 @ home which doesn't seem to be crowded. I have the same issue @ work with our router. I've been having this problem from I got the phone last week. This is after I initially removed the back cover to first insert my SIM.
I'm going to try and see if I can secure a cleaner... I tried blowing on it mean time. Also turned on DLNA and best wifi performance and all.
DLNA auto-IP setting worked for me.
Hi OP,
I had the exact same wifi issues on my One S. I tried the router at work, the router at home and my mates router with the same results.
Mine seems to work now, with no disconnections or manually connections. What seems to have worked for me -- Wifi - Advanced menu -- DLNA auto-IP setting - toggle on. Then restart, making sure the setting is still set after reboot. Seems to have fixed my wifi issues.
HTH.
Darren.

[Q] Edge and GPRS data connections abysmally slow on Moto G

I've been testing out the data speed connections with my Moto G on Tesco Mobile. When it is showing a HSDPA connection (H+) or UMTS (H, I think) or 3g (3G) data connection speeds are what I would expect.
But as soon as it drops to Edge (E) or GPRS (G) I get speeds so slow that practically no data is being passed - even with a full 4 bars of signal.
And I am well aware that Edge and GPRS are significantly slower than 3G and its superior data connections, but I'm talking less than 0.03Mbps speeds as measured by the Speedtest app. The speed is so slow that useful "out and about" apps like google maps refuse to recognise that there is an internet connection present.
I've raised this with the network and they say that for all of the cells that I've accessed data speeds shouldn't slow that much, and suggested it might be a faulty SIM (perhaps). But today on a different sim in another Moto G on a different network I experienced the same - Edge connection was connected, but practically non-existent.
Is this anyone else is experiencing, or am I just being really unlucky in the cells I am located in?
Thanks!
Matt
larkim said:
I've been testing out the data speed connections with my Moto G on Tesco Mobile. When it is showing a HSDPA connection (H+) or UMTS (H, I think) or 3g (3G) data connection speeds are what I would expect.
But as soon as it drops to Edge (E) or GPRS (G) I get speeds so slow that practically no data is being passed - even with a full 4 bars of signal.
And I am well aware that Edge and GPRS are significantly slower than 3G and its superior data connections, but I'm talking less than 0.03Mbps speeds as measured by the Speedtest app. The speed is so slow that useful "out and about" apps like google maps refuse to recognise that there is an internet connection present.
I've raised this with the network and they say that for all of the cells that I've accessed data speeds shouldn't slow that much, and suggested it might be a faulty SIM (perhaps). But today on a different sim in another Moto G on a different network I experienced the same - Edge connection was connected, but practically non-existent.
Is this anyone else is experiencing, or am I just being really unlucky in the cells I am located in?
Thanks!
Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, slow edge nd gprs sppeds experienced by you is possibly due to ur location....coz i get a decent edge speed as well as my friends too who r also using moto g.....So nothing is wrong in the phone it just depends uoon location....
Akshay7273 said:
Yes, slow edge nd gprs sppeds experienced by you is possibly due to ur location....coz i get a decent edge speed as well as my friends too who r also using moto g.....So nothing is wrong in the phone it just depends uoon location....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I don't think it is location as the problem seems to be consistent in every cell I am in. I've obtained a fresh sim from the network to see if that was the problem. Will post back with any further info!
larkim said:
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I don't think it is location as the problem seems to be consistent in every cell I am in. I've obtained a fresh sim from the network to see if that was the problem. Will post back with any further info!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well....do u have any friend who is using Moto G and getting same problem at that place??And by the way, Here in india some operators give faster 3g speeds but 2g speed sucks...So just like that it could be the operator's prblm too....First confirm if any of ur friends are getting better edge or gprs speeds.....Thanx
Thread subscribed.
On my old phones I was used to only use 2G (Edge or GPRS) networks in order to get one day of battery life. On my Windows Phone 7 device with an Edge connection it would sync emails, send and receive them and I could even browse (slowly) the internet.
On this one Edge is slow as ****. Furtunately H+ isnt that heavy on its battery as in order devices but when I get to places without a 3G connection the phone gets pretty much unusable, its a shame...
rmrbpt said:
Thread subscribed.
On my old phones I was used to only use 2G (Edge or GPRS) networks in order to get one day of battery life. On my Windows Phone 7 device with an Edge connection it would sync emails, send and receive them and I could even browse (slowly) the internet.
On this one Edge is slow as ****. Furtunately H+ isnt that heavy on its battery as in order devices but when I get to places without a 3G connection the phone gets pretty much unusable, its a shame...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. For the full story:-
I have a Moto G with Virgin (MVNO in the UK using the EE network), and have had for about 5 months. Love it. Never had an issue with data speed on any of the "flavours" (obviously GPRS and Edge are slower, but useable as you say). I've just persuaded my wife to take a Moto G too, but she is on the TescoMobile network (MVNO in the UK using the O2 network). I obviously don't expect our experience with data speed to be identical, but she has only had the phone for a week or so and she reported to me last week that it seemed that data was turned off so she couldn't use maps when she was driving to get some travel time updates. When I looked at the phone at home, it was all fine - and at home both of us get H+ signals throughout most of the house (when wifi turned off). On playing a little more, I noticed that in one room of the house the signal dropped consistently to Edge, and when testing data speed there I noticed the slow (unusable) speed. I swapped the sim into my phone (which was a sim free purchase, so unlocked) and got the same issue. I've then subsequently tested data speeds when we've been out and about in different cell locations, and consistently when she is on Edge or GPRS the data drops off a cliff. HSDPA is always fine.
Then yesterday I was out and about just with my own phone in an Edge area, and I also got the same experience - unusable Edge data speeds (bear in mind this is now on my network, Virgin). Now, I've only had this once, but I am wondering if the 4.4.4 update has slowed Edge / GPRS performance, as the common factor across both my phone and my wife's is that they have only just been updated to 4.4.4
If no-one else here is experiencing the same, then clearly it is just local signal issues, but it does seem peculiar that both phones, on different networks and in different physical locations (up to 30 miles away) appear to be experiencing something similar.
Both phones are on 210.12.40.falcon_umts / 4.4.4
I've just found something to try. Won't be for everyone, but using the "hidden" phone menu via *#*#4636#*#* > phone information and setting preferred network type to "WCDMA only" I can at least force the phone to ONLY use a 3G connection. Whether that will leave me with no signal in areas where I'd like to have a signal I'll wait and see, but I could at least switch manually back to 2G if I found myself down a dark country lane with no 3G signal. Perhaps an option only for the tech-enthusiast, wouldn't want my wife to be relying on this if her car broke down in the wrong end of town!!
It may be a work around, but I can't possibly rely on that since being unreachable isn't acceptable for me.
Let me add that I experience these "issue" since I can remember, so definitely 4.4.4 wasn't the culprit...
rmrbpt said:
It may be a work around, but I can't possibly rely on that since being unreachable isn't acceptable for me.
Let me add that I experience these "issue" since I can remember, so definitely 4.4.4 wasn't the culprit...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an option "WCDMA preferred" which may (I know nothing about this!) set a preference for a stronger reliance on 3G services rather than 2G. It's very easy to set up and switch, worth a little experiment if you get into an area where you are suffering with a slow 2G service.
Changed it right now.
If I feel any difference I will leave the proper feedback.
Thanks

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