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[Q] Wifi taking up less battery than data?

Ive been usng my phone for quite a long time without Wifi but ive noticed that recently, after I installed Eaglesblood (dont think the rom/its kernel made much of a difference) the battery life with wifi ON has been draining much slower than without wifi and the use of data only. I dont understand because ive been using it constantly and it has been yanking in data constantly but draining much slower. Normally data on lasts me about 11 hrs on a good day. I was home all day, so with wifi on, my batter is at 30% left with 14 hrs of usage now.. Can anyone explain to me why this is happening because I wud much rather have a slower drain on 3g data than wifi (Im not always home and data is used much more extensively in updating).

If you're using wifi, you're generally in good range and have an easy connection.
If you're using data, things like buildings and movement can interfere with your connection, meaning it has to do more "searching" for the proper signal. Even if your bars tell you that you have a good connection, all that tells you is the total amount of signal, not the available amount to you (so sometimes even if you have full bars it needs to search for a good connection).

Correct, if you're on radio (2g/3g/4g), the phone is constantly searching for a signal and will thus spend more battery.
Hence why people say, turn off your radios (airplane mode) when you're in an area with no signal...like out in the boonies, because it will spend time searching for a signal that's nonexistent.

Some people say that Wifi uses up more power than data because it has faster data transfer speeds, but that clearly isn't the truth.

NekoNyapii said:
Some people say that Wifi uses up more power than data because it has faster data transfer speeds, but that clearly isn't the truth.
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Who said that? I've never heard it. Wi-Fi is known to use less batttery since day 1, clear and simple.

[Q] battery: mobile data or wifi?

what do you think? which connection is more battery friendly?
wifi of mobile data?

throcker said:
what do you think? which connection is more battery friendly?
wifi of mobile data?
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I think Mobile Data...because the Radio of the phone is already turned on either ways..uing Data or not, and when using Data, I guess it only causes a slight increase in battery consumption.
On the other hand, WiFi is an entirely different hardware component that will need its own battery consumption share.
So both Radio and WiFi being On, one for regular cellular connectivity, and the other to provide Internet connectivity, that will surely increase battery consumption.

arabology said:
I think Mobile Data...because the Radio of the phone is already turned on either ways..uing Data or not, and when using Data, I guess it only causes a slight increase in battery consumption.
On the other hand, WiFi is an entirely different hardware component that will need its own battery consumption share.
So both Radio and WiFi being On, one for regular cellular connectivity, and the other to provide Internet connectivity, that will surely increase battery consumption.
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Wifi uses less battery. Mobile data uses alot more battery because your phone always has to search for a better/stronger connection ( that's where the option to only use 2g comes it). Also wifi sends and receives data faster which lets your phone take breaks (idle) between pushing and receiving data. Mobile data slower speeds takes shorter breaks and always has to check in with the network (fast dormancy is a new tweak to reduce that check in frequency, included in newer roms to save battery).

If you are using GPSR (Mobile Connection) it will cost less battery than WiFi, I Think...

GPRS cost less battery than wifi
and 3g cost much more.
and the weaker the signal is,the more battey is cost.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4471/htc-sensation-4g-review-a-sensational-smartphone/10

[Q] Which uses more battery, 4g, 3g or weak wi-fi?

I know 4g is a battery hog, however how would you rate the following with regards to which uses more battery from most to least:
3g, 4g, weak wi-fi, medium strength wi-fi?
I'm guessing
1. 4g
2. weak wi-fi
3. 3g
4. medium wi-fi
I ask because right now I'm waiting on a new usb port for my nexus and in the meantime I am fortunate to have a spare charger, however it takes 3 hours to fully charge so I'm keeping data turned off unless I need it because my samsung galaxy nexus only lasts 2.5 hours w/ heavy use and auto brightness turned on...rooted w/ Sourcery and Lean 43.
Thanks in advance

otter34 said:
I know 4g is a battery hog, however how would you rate the following with regards to which uses more battery from most to least:
3g, 4g, weak wi-fi, medium strength wi-fi?
I'm guessing
1. 4g
2. weak wi-fi
3. 3g
4. medium wi-fi
I ask because right now I'm waiting on a new usb port for my nexus and in the meantime I am fortunate to have a spare charger, however it takes 3 hours to fully charge so I'm keeping data turned off unless I need it because my samsung galaxy nexus only lasts 2.5 hours w/ heavy use and auto brightness turned on...rooted w/ Sourcery and Lean 43.
Thanks in advance
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my personal opinion is that wifi uses the least battery, regardless of 4g or 3g.

4G uses more battery than 3G than wifi
4G>3G>wifi>2G:laugh: wifi is best than 3g and 4g

4G drain more

Thanks.
So regardless of how strong the wifi signal is, using it will eat up less battery than 3g?even when it takes 30 seconds for a Web page to load? I would have thought it would be better to use 3 in cases like that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

pradeepxtremehacker said:
4G uses more battery than 3G than wifi
4G>3G>wifi>2G:laugh: wifi is best than 3g and 4g
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I agree

4g just drains your battery than the other

Thanks for the replies
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

just background data tasks, mobile gaming, streaming
1. 4G
2. 3G
3. Weak Wifi
Big Download
1. 3G
2. 4G
3. Weak wifi
Reversed the differential on big download because the difference in 4G speed is very significant and you may very well waste battery on 3G by engaging in extended radio transmissions to and from the tower that 4G would have ended long ago. 3G will use much less at continuous tasks at a fixed/slightly variable(but well within 3G's capability) such as gaming and streaming. Both should be fairly equal at idle aka not tranmitting/receiving data, provided your phone is indeed going to sleep and not transmitting data every 2 seconds. But if you got apps waking it up every n minutes, expect 4G battery drain to go up. The moral, leach wifi where you can and make sure your phone isn't talking about you over the air all day.

[Q] disable mobile signal while on wifi

Hi all
Im trying to find a way to make my nexus 5 automatically disable my 3g connection when i connect to my home WiFi, as i have horrendous 3g signal in my home and i think its affecting battery life.
Any ideas?
Thanks

You can always shut it off manually. I personally use Llama, to automate it everything
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

You can turn it off manually. I believe it stops you from sending pictures and receiving pictures through text though.
As for battery life, I don't think it would change anything since it's using WiFi for data as a Primary.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

if you are in WiFi, battery drain shouldnt be a problem.. all data will be routed via wifi and only voice and SMS/MMS would come via cell tower...
i suggest wakelock detector to see whats using the most battery

As suggested... If WiFi is on, a week signal won't drain your battery. WiFi off, then of course it will.
Sent from my N5, N7, Moto X, G Tab 3 or S2.....

This actually happens automatically. However doing it yourself does seem to be a quick fix for some WiFi related issues. Tasker or Llama if you think it will help.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

As mentioned: mobile DATA is turned off when wifi is connected.
You don't want to turn off the mobile radio entirely, as then you cannot receive phone calls or texts.
If you're in a low signal area, you'll have a small hit to battery life from this, but it's not anywhere near as bad as not using wifi.

but changing the radio to Edge or 3G when on WiFi should be better for battery life right?
I use the smart radio setting in cataclysm and I think it actually helps a little (indoors I get 2 bars of LTE on average vs 4 on 3G).
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

raul90 said:
but changing the radio to Edge or 3G when on WiFi should be better for battery life right?
I use the smart radio setting in cataclysm and I think it actually helps a little (indoors I get 2 bars of LTE on average vs 4 on 3G).
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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No, as it's not using the data services. It's only maintaining base voice capability.

raul90 said:
but changing the radio to Edge or 3G when on WiFi should be better for battery life right?
I use the smart radio setting in cataclysm and I think it actually helps a little (indoors I get 2 bars of LTE on average vs 4 on 3G).
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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I'm not sure what others are talking about but from personal experience changing from 3g to 2g whilst on wifi did help battery life. People in this thread appear to forget the fact that even without data enabled, poor 3g/LTE signal will still drain more battery compared with having a strong 2G/3G signal as your phone's radio requires more power to maintain connection for base functionality (calls, texts).

daniel.kusy said:
I'm not sure what others are talking about but from personal experience changing from 3g to 2g whilst on wifi did help battery life. People in this thread appear to forget the fact that even without data enabled, poor 3g/LTE signal will still drain more battery compared with having a strong 2G/3G signal as your phone's radio requires more power to maintain connection for base functionality (calls, texts).
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If the phone is on WiFi, battery life is not affected much by whatever you switch your connection to. On data, then sure...signal issues are a big factor.
Switching from this to that to this while WiFi is on is really a lot of trouble for maybe a slight difference in battery life. ?
Sent from my N5, N7, Moto X, G Tab 3 or S2.....

kj2112 said:
If the phone is on WiFi, battery life is not affected much by whatever you switch your connection to. On data, then sure...signal issues are a big factor.
Switching from this to that to this while WiFi is on is really a lot of trouble for maybe a slight difference in battery life. ?
Sent from my N5, N7, Moto X, G Tab 3 or S2.....
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I completely agree with you on the fact that with data enabled on a poor 3G connection, your battery's gonna drain pretty quickly. After doing more research I found that changing from 3G to 2G can reduce power usage of the radio quite considerably (apparently up to 50% when in voice/sms mode only). Now as great as that all sounds, that's only around 50% power usage of the radio and I have no idea how much battery the radio actually uses during idle.. Looking at google's specifications it seems like the radio uses a pretty insignificant amount of battery when in idle (300 hours or so) so a 50% saving in idle radio probably wouldn't make nearly as much difference as say a more contributing factor to battery drain like screen on time or cpu usage. So yeah, I guess I gotta agree with kj2112 here, It's pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things if you're actually using your phone with wifi connected.
Interesting source if anyone was curious and wanted to learn more about radio affecting battery life: http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in_q.php?qid=362

daniel.kusy said:
I completely agree with you on the fact that with data enabled on a poor 3G connection, your battery's gonna drain pretty quickly. After doing more research I found that changing from 3G to 2G can reduce power usage of the radio quite considerably (apparently up to 50% when in voice/sms mode only). Now as great as that all sounds, that's only around 50% power usage of the radio and I have no idea how much battery the radio actually uses during idle.. Looking at google's specifications it seems like the radio uses a pretty insignificant amount of battery when in idle (300 hours or so) so a 50% saving in idle radio probably wouldn't make nearly as much difference as say a more contributing factor to battery drain like screen on time or cpu usage. So yeah, I guess I gotta agree with kj2112 here, It's pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things if you're actually using your phone with wifi connected.
Interesting source if anyone was curious and wanted to learn more about radio affecting battery life: http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in_q.php?qid=362
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If it did make a big difference on WiFi....I'd have terrible battery life at home. There is no 2g on my carrier and my signal at home is horrible. But, I get over 24 hours and 6 plus screen hours always, whether at home (on WiFi always...and usually one bar of radio inside) or at work on LTE.
So for me, the weak signal does next to nothing to my battery.....while on WiFi. WiFi off, I get half those times at home.
Sent from my N5, N7, Moto X, G Tab 3 or S2.....

kj2112 said:
If it did make a big difference on WiFi....I'd have terrible battery life at home. There is no 2g on my carrier and my signal at home is horrible. But, I get over 24 hours and 6 plus screen hours always, whether at home (on WiFi always...and usually one bar of radio inside) or at work on LTE.
So for me, the weak signal does next to nothing to my battery.....while on WiFi. WiFi off, I get half those times at home.
Sent from my N5, N7, Moto X, G Tab 3 or S2.....
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I'm not doubting you there, I pretty much summarised why in my previous post. When the radio is idling (connected to wifi) it's using a very small amount of power. Hence why it doesn't make much of a difference reducing an already very small power draw.

[Q] Poor cell signal draining battery? How to get those 8+ hour OST?

Hi
I tried searching Google, but get a lot of different answers.
I live in an area with a very bad cellular coverage. I always have 1 out of 5 bars and when I turn mobile data on, it is mainly LTE, but jumps a bit between LTE and Edge and rarely H and H+.
Can that cause a lot of battery drain? As I just factory reset my phone to get rid of every change I did. I enabled Stamina Mode, surfed the web for 15 minutes and my phone was at 95%. Is that normal? Because if my math is right, that shouldn't give me more than 5 hours of screen time, while I heard people getting 8+ without Stamina Mode.
Am I missing something or is their some very needed settings to be changed? Sync off, GPS off, bluetooth, Brightness is as low as possible, NFC off, black background (less power consumption), Wifi off and Wifi constant searching off.

U can easly check urself how cell signal draining battery ,first Check how it is with normal H+/LTE then charg it again for 100% and use ur smartphone with plane mode acivated ,now subtract result from 2 "experiment"

Also of note is that black backgrounds mean diddly on our displays. We aren't on OLEDs.
Also, if you ARE in wifi area it's better to be connected to wifi. Wifi is closer than the cell tower and data disconnects when wifi is connected.

On AMOLED/OLED black background helps because each pixel is individually lit (Black means those pixels are off). In LCDs there is a backlight providing illumination for the entire LCD so as long as your screen is on it won't make a differrence what colors are on your screen.

I'm having a similar issue. I have very low cell reception at work, and I can get maybe 4-5 hours SoT throughout the day and am at 10% when I get home. I've tried uninstalling/disabling apps that use a lot of battery, so hopefully it helps. I'll update if by the end of today I'm able to get 7+ hours SoT (which it seems it's on track to doing).
Edit: For clarification, the apps I've uninstalled that I believed to be using a lot of processing power/ram/battery were Facebook, [Facebook] Messenger, and Words with Friends.

festizzio said:
I'm having a similar issue. I have very low cell reception at work, and I can get maybe 4-5 hours SoT throughout the day and am at 10% when I get home. I've tried uninstalling/disabling apps that use a lot of battery, so hopefully it helps. I'll update if by the end of today I'm able to get 7+ hours SoT (which it seems it's on track to doing).
Edit: For clarification, the apps I've uninstalled that I believed to be using a lot of processing power/ram/battery were Facebook, [Facebook] Messenger, and Words with Friends.
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Just use an app like Greenify to block apps running in the background when not in use so you dont havr to uninstall them.

Brightness can have a lot to play on this one. I tend to go with manual brightness so there's no ambient sensors working all the while the display is on, and if you are doing anything where you can cope with lower brightness then drop it.
Keep an eye in battery stats for "google play services" as this can go nuts. When this happens sometimes clearing data can help.
I also found that using google+ to backup my photos caused a lot of battery drain.
I have not found facebook or whatsapp etc to affect my battery much personally. I use stamina mode when i'm out and about to keep the phone at sleep while the screen is off.

ssj_jaypee said:
Just use an app like Greenify to block apps running in the background when not in use so you dont havr to uninstall them.
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Click to collapse
No root. WIthout Greenify is just annoying.

Jonathan-H said:
Brightness can have a lot to play on this one. I tend to go with manual brightness so there's no ambient sensors working all the while the display is on, and if you are doing anything where you can cope with lower brightness then drop it.
Keep an eye in battery stats for "google play services" as this can go nuts. When this happens sometimes clearing data can help.
I also found that using google+ to backup my photos caused a lot of battery drain.
I have not found facebook or whatsapp etc to affect my battery much personally. I use stamina mode when i'm out and about to keep the phone at sleep while the screen is off.
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Deleted Messenger and Facebook just for the sake of it. I don't have the need to be online all the time and the people that want to contact me, have my number.

Faspaiso said:
it is mainly LTE, but jumps a bit between LTE and Edge and rarely H and H+.
Can that cause a lot of battery drain?
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At my house I get just enough LTE to cause our S3 to constantly switch to LTE then loose it and switch back to H+. Battery life couldn't make it thru one day. ATT removes the screen that let's you control network mode but I found a backdoor method to lock the phone out of LTE. The phone now stays on H+ and battery life easily jumped 40%. That's the primary reason I held out this time for an unlocked non-ATT-crippled phone--so I can easily turn LTE off.

Well, tried have my phone on over night (for a change to test it).
Everything off (mobile data, gps etc).
Used 7% of my power and every app was closed. When I looked at battery drain, 55% was from cell standby and 40-45% was from Phone Idle.
Tonight I will try charge it to 100% again and then let it be in Flight Mode to see.

I struggled to flatten the battery on my phone the first day 70% of the day with the screen on, no wifi enabled or stamina.
Another test would be to change mobile settings to 3G or 2G to see what difference that makes. Under settings, wireless & networks, select more, mobile networks, then network mode.
I would try the above first before making your phone completely unavailable, especially the 2G.

danw_oz said:
I struggled to flatten the battery on my phone the first day 70% of the day with the screen on, no wifi enabled or stamina.
Another test would be to change mobile settings to 3G or 2G to see what difference that makes. Under settings, wireless & networks, select more, mobile networks, then network mode.
I would try the above first before making your phone completely unavailable, especially the 2G.
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Just did the tests.
Flightmode - 100% after 8 hours (sleep)
Edge - 99% after 8 hours (sleep)
4g - 93% after 8 hours (sleep)

Faspaiso said:
Just did the tests.
Flightmode - 100% after 8 hours (sleep)
Edge - 99% after 8 hours (sleep)
4g - 93% after 8 hours (sleep)
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Nice, thank you! Care to check hspa too?

Fruktsallad said:
Nice, thank you! Care to check hspa too?
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What is that? H/H+?
GSM - Edge
WCDMA - H/H+
LTE - 4g
But I think 4g uses less power than edge, but it is more than in my area there is 1/5 in 4g coverage, 3-4/5 in H/H+ and 5/5 (always) if using edge.
As I see an better connection gives better batterylife, but 4g uses way less than 3g/edge if same cell signal.
But is going to try it next time I get down to my dad. He got 5/5 in LTE signal. So gonna see if it can stay at 100% over night.

Faspaiso said:
What is that? H/H+?
GSM - Edge
WCDMA - H/H+
LTE - 4g
But I think 4g uses less power than edge, but it is more than in my area there is 1/5 in 4g coverage, 3-4/5 in H/H+ and 5/5 (always) if using edge.
As I see an better connection gives better batterylife, but 4g uses way less than 3g/edge if same cell signal.
But is going to try it next time I get down to my dad. He got 5/5 in LTE signal. So gonna see if it can stay at 100% over night.
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Hehe, ok I understand. But HSPA = 3G. [emoji4] I haven't done any rigorous testing, but I think my stand by times are much better using edge (2G) compared to 3G.

Fruktsallad said:
Hehe, ok I understand. But HSPA = 3G. [emoji4] I haven't done any rigorous testing, but I think my stand by times are much better using edge (2G) compared to 3G.
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I see. But if you change between those, you probs have an better cell signal with 2g (in your area), right?

Faspaiso said:
I see. But if you change between those, you probs have an better cell signal with 2g (in your area), right?
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Nope, coverage is about the same. Generally speaking though, 2G > 3G > 4G when it comes to battery life. That's been the rule for years, but as of late, newer radios have become more efficient with 3G and 4G, thus making the difference less noticeable. YMMV. Would be interesting to see your drainage on 3G as well. ☺

Fruktsallad said:
Nope, coverage is about the same. Generally speaking though, 2G > 3G > 4G when it comes to battery life. That's been the rule for years, but as of late, newer radios have become more efficient with 3G and 4G, thus making the difference less noticeable. YMMV. Would be interesting to see your drainage on 3G as well. ☺
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Well could try it tonight.