I saw several posts suggesting that leaving WiFi on where you have WiFi connection helps you to save the battery which I'm finding pretty strange. I thought WiFi actually drains battery faster then anything else. Are savings due to the fact that WiFi is more efficient then 3G or does it actually holds true that it saves battery?
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
A lot of programs will initiate data transfers by themselves when connected to Wi-Fi though, so perhaps that is why some will notice higher drain when Wi-Fi is on.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
artisticcheese said:
I saw several posts suggesting that leaving WiFi on where you have WiFi connection helps you to save the battery which I'm finding pretty strange. I thought WiFi actually drains battery faster then anything else. Are savings due to the fact that WiFi is more efficient then 3G or does it actually holds true that it saves battery?
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Yes, as Scotty said above me...
ScottyNuttz said:
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
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This however, is untrue. At least for me. I run the leaked 2.2 and my WiFi is always on at home, my data connection is never active. I check this by dialing *3282# and hitting send.
ScottyNuttz said:
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
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When I have wifi switched on I lose around 5 to 10% an hour. With it off I lose 1 to 2%. I don't have anything set to sync differently via wifi. I only have a few apps that sync data and those are set to do so every 4 hours or so.
I have tried leaving it both on and off overnight to test this and every time I've left it off I woke up with a full battery. If I leave it on I have to charge again in the morning.
When I'm going out I turn wifi off so that my phone isn't constantly searching for signal.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
miztaken1312 said:
This however, is untrue. At least for me. I run the leaked 2.2 and my WiFi is always on at home, my data connection is never active. I check this by dialing *3282# and hitting send.
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In the Wi-Fi advanced settings (Hit Menu when in the normal wi-fi settings), there is a Wi-Fi Sleep Policy (which specifies when to switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data)
By default, my device was set to 'When screen turns off'. the other options were 'Never when plugged in' or 'Never', I switched mine to 'Never'. You should notice that when you turn your screen on, the wifi icon doesn't show up right away. Of course, I'm on 2.1, so this may be different in 2.2, but check it out.
For me, I get no cell signal in the building at work so I need to keep wifi on. If I turn it off my battery drains fast from the 3g radio constantly trying to lock on a signal.
It depends in the quality of your 3G connection, but all things equal I have seen that using WiFi instead of 3G does save battery, when the WiFi is connected of course. Anytime a radio is constantly searching for a signal or trying to hold a weak signal, power usage tends to go up.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
ScottyNuttz said:
All things being equal, Wi-Fi uses less power than 3G. Wi-Fi radio waves don't have to go as far, so they're easier to generate. When Wi-Fi is on, 3G is off, so you'll save power if you're actually transferring data.
A lot of programs will initiate data transfers by themselves when connected to Wi-Fi though, so perhaps that is why some will notice higher drain when Wi-Fi is on.
Also, if Wi-Fi is left on and you are on the move, your battery will drain since your phone is constantly searching for available networks.
Unless you've changed the settings, however, when your phone's screen it off it switches back to 3G to handle data.
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Check out Y5 Battery Saver.
This app turns your wifi on/off based on the cell towers that you are on. You just connect to wifi, enable the app, and it remembers what cell towers you were on while you were in range of that wifi location. as soon as you are off of those towers, it turns off wifi. to add new wifi locations, just disable the app, connect to the hot spot, and re-enable the app.
This gives you the best of both worlds. you get to save battery while you are using wifi and when you are out of range it doesn't continually search for new wifi networks to connect to.
ScottyNuttz said:
In the Wi-Fi advanced settings (Hit Menu when in the normal wi-fi settings), there is a Wi-Fi Sleep Policy (which specifies when to switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data)
By default, my device was set to 'When screen turns off'. the other options were 'Never when plugged in' or 'Never', I switched mine to 'Never'. You should notice that when you turn your screen on, the wifi icon doesn't show up right away. Of course, I'm on 2.1, so this may be different in 2.2, but check it out.
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Whenever I turn my screen on, my wifi icon is right there. No delay in it showing up. I don't remember ever changing the sleep policy when I updated so I believe this is the default behavior for 2.2
drwx said:
Check out Y5 Battery Saver.
This app turns your wifi on/off based on the cell towers that you are on. You just connect to wifi, enable the app, and it remembers what cell towers you were on while you were in range of that wifi location. as soon as you are off of those towers, it turns off wifi. to add new wifi locations, just disable the app, connect to the hot spot, and re-enable the app.
This gives you the best of both worlds. you get to save battery while you are using wifi and when you are out of range it doesn't continually search for new wifi networks to connect to.
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+1 on Y5. There are a few other apps in the market that claim to do the same thing, but I think Y5 is by far the easiest to set up and works really well. Nice little utility so you don't have to keep remembering to turn off the wifi manually when you are out of range.
Now if I could just find a app that does the same for my bluetooth when it is near my car....but that I think is much harder to do without it actually polling.
On my Nexus One, when I was inside and couldn't get GPS lock, and also out of range of WiFi networks, Google Maps would still get a rough location based off the cell tower. It was good enough for the weather widget to get my current location and to use Google Maps to find stuff around me.
Now, on my Inspire (rooted with the Desired HD Euro rom), I can't do that. If I can't get GPS lock, and WiFi is off or I'm out of range, it just says my location is temporarily unavailable. It's not locating me from the cell tower like my N1 is. I have the option checked in the location settings to use networks, but it's still not working. Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong? Thanks.
I've found that it works on EDGE but not 3G, anyone else noticing this?
same
Somehow you fixed my problem on my HTC Inspire 4g, W Absolution 3.7 ROM.
I turned off 3g and went to EDGE, pressed the locate button on Google Maps..and TADA! I was pinpointed in seconds. After I turned back on 3g and it seems to work now. THANKS!
I have noticed that there have been a few times where WiFi is connected and 4G is connected also. The only remedy is to turn off and on WiFi. When this happens, sometimes I have no data connection (probably cause they are conflicting) but this can't be good for battery.
4G mobile network still connected when Wifi is ON?!
I have this exact same problem! Thing is, mine just started showing this behavior like a day or two ago. It's doing it right now. Both my Wifi and 4G icons appear in the notification bar. The 4G icon isn't showing activity (the download and upload arrows are dimmed), BUT if I go to my "Phone Info" app, and go to Phone Information it shows:
GSM service: In service
GPRS service: Connected
Network Type: HSDPA
Before whenever I was on Wifi only the Wifi icon would show up, and Phone Info would show GPRS Service as : Disconnected, i.e. normal behavior. Now it appears there is a conflict somewhere and the 4G network is showing as connected even when wifi is on.
Now, I did make some changes recently:
1) Temp-rooted and pm disabled a bunch of bloatware - this was like 4 or 5 days ago and I didn't have the problem at all so I'm not sure if it's related.
2) I unchecked Wireless Settings > Mobile Networks > "Enable always on mobile data" - Thought it might save battery when in sleep mode.
I think the problem started after #2. I've since checked that option back on, restarted, airplane mode, battery pull etc., but it's still exhibiting the same behavior. I've never seen this happen on any of my past Android devices (a lot). If I go to the Quick Settings it shoes Mobile Network is OFF but it IS checked. It's really confusing. When you turn Wifi on, Mobile network should disconnect, but according to phone Info, mine is on and I've been getting "network issue, try again" in the Market, and "Network Communication issues" in the Speedtest app so clearly something is being affected.
This has been my ONLY problem with my Sensation thus far, and the fact that it JUST started doing this makes me wonder what I could have done to affect it.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Every once in awhile the 4G icon WILL disappear leaving only Wifi on, and Phone info shows GPRS service: Disconnected, but eventually the 4G/2G icon comes back and Phone info shows GPRS service: Connected, so it keeps trying/turning itself on even though my Wifi is connected. WTF!
i dont have the problem of having both, i have the problem that my wifi seems to like turning itself off now and then. this has only started happening since temp root also
Thanks to Sdobron from the thread I had started, it looks like the My Account/My Device app may be the culprit. You can try killing the tasks/services and see if it helps. I personally just disabled both apps like I disabled all of the other bloatware, rebooted, and it seems to have fixed the problem so far (for the last hour anyway). Now I get only Wifi icon, not both Wifi and 4G, and the GPRS services is "Disconnected" as it should be when Wifi is on.
djmaz said:
i dont have the problem of having both, i have the problem that my wifi seems to like turning itself off now and then. this has only started happening since temp root also
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Hmmm did you disable any apps, and if so, which? Is your Wifi sleep policy set to "Never"?
I have a reoccurring issue of losing cellular signal whenever I run applications that use a constant GPS and data connection. For example, I use Glympse almost daily, and I find that after 10-15 minutes Glympse reports "no data connection" and my 4G LTE symbol is replaced with the no signal (circle w/line through it) symbol. I cant get phone calls, texts, data, nothing. This seems to happen with any app that uses GPS and data like Glympse, Google Maps/NAV, Navigon, etc. If I use an app that just uses data (Pandora, Sirius, etc) with no GPS the connection is solid and I have no issues. I am able to get the connection back by turning on airplane mode then turning it off again. If I just leave it, the connection never comes back, until I turn on airplane mode or reboot.
Has anyone else seen this issue? Hoping that a fix or ICS comes out in the next couple months that will resolve this. Between this and the screen issues I am thinking about taking it back when the Note is released and seeing if they will let me swap it out.
Wow, so this is pretty interesting. Today I was fiddling around with VPNs (ends up being unrelated), and noticed that my wifi speed as shown by Speedtest was HORRIBLE. like 1mb - 6mb when it should have been close to 70mb. Not only that but while it was testing it would freeze several times during the downloads and uploads. We actually returned my husband's first tablet because of this issue, thinking it was a hardware problem. After an hour or so of fiddling around trying to figure out what happened, I noticed that Location services was on. Usually I keep this turned off on my tablet. I turned it off and ran speedtest again and what do you know. My wifi speed was back to where it should be and there were no freezes.
So what I'm wondering is... has anyone else noticed this problem? Can you reproduce it? Why would this be happening? Can anyone think of a fix for it? Most of the time keeping Location turned off won't be a problem for me, but Aereo for example, needs it turned on in order to stream shows.
One thing of note is that SpeedTest seems to rely on location services since when you fire it up with location services set to high accuracy mode the GPS radio fires up in notification panel. I'm not entirely sure that it'd be a fair assessment to say that the setting affects all wifi connectivity speeds when enabled as opposed to reduced speed during GPS use.
That said, I can't say that i'm seeing the same thing using Ookla's SpeedTest app. At first I thought I did but after toggling location services a couple times things settled in and i get consistent 55-60Mbps download test results whether location services is on or off or in high/low accuracy mode. My test results on the tablet match consistently with those of my rMBP in the same room on the same router (in the next room) using a 5ghz wireless n network.
I've never turned location services off on my tablet, opting instead to always leave it in low power mode (GPS isnt my thing, I use my cell phone for that) and have never had issues with wifi speed.
When I went back to see if I could reproduce it by turning Location back on.. it was fine. So I have no idea what's going on, lol. Maybe after leaving location on for a while it starts to degrade? I might test that out eventually. Just glad it is working better now.