Database Info

3g Data our real battery drain culprit?

So i was doing some messing around and i found that on my phone if i leave data enabled i get ridiculous battery drain while using the phone. Just enabling data and downloading an app of the market dropped me 3%. now if i have 3g data off i get maybe 1-3% drain per hour while using the phone. maybe its just me but i think its 3g data thats draining our battery more then it is the super amoled display.

Yes, 3g data drains the battery. Use the power control widget to turn that, and GPS, off while your not using it. Your battery life will be much better at the expense of things like weather widgets not updating and contacts not syncing.
Now, does this really need to be in the development section??? Come on man, post in general or Q/A or somewhere where it would make sense to post!!!

benjio12 said:
Yes, 3g data drains the battery. Use the power control widget to turn that, and GPS, off while your not using it. Your battery life will be much better at the expense of things like weather widgets not updating and contacts not syncing.
Now, does this really need to be in the development section??? Come on man, post in general or Q/A or somewhere where it would make sense to post!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI the power control widget does not have the option to disable 3g data

benjio12 said:
Yes, 3g data drains the battery. Use the power control widget to turn that, and GPS, off while your not using it. Your battery life will be much better at the expense of things like weather widgets not updating and contacts not syncing.
Now, does this really need to be in the development section??? Come on man, post in general or Q/A or somewhere where it would make sense to post!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i know it drains battery but this seems to be excessive compared to other phones ive had (palm pre,htc hero,tmobile g1). Also if there was a Q/A section i would of put it there hehe maybe we can get a mod to make one.

greatzak said:
FYI the power control widget does not have the option to disable 3g data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where can i turn off 3g?

I noticed the same thing with my phone. It seem when u do anything regarding the 3G your battery gets murdered. Yesterday i was noticing a 10% an hour battery drain with very little use. Over 5 hours i probably sent/received 4 or 5 text and talked for 4 minutes. Today using Juice Defender i noticed much better performance. Maybe only 4% drain with the same amount of usage.
Hopefully this gets addressed by either samsung or the amazing devs around here.

koolhand79 said:
I noticed the same thing with my phone. It seem when u do anything regarding the 3G your battery gets murdered. Yesterday i was noticing a 10% an hour battery drain with very little use. Over 5 hours i probably sent/received 4 or 5 text and talked for 4 minutes. Today using Juice Defender i noticed much better performance. Maybe only 4% drain with the same amount of usage.
Hopefully this gets addressed by either samsung or the amazing devs around here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
awesome glad im not the only one with excessive drain from 3g

So how do you disable 3g manually?

I recommend Power Control Plus from the Market.
It allows you to make power widgets including 3G data, SD Card Scan, and a working flashlight app!

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3891/samsung-epic-4g-review-the-fastest-android-phone/8
Those battery life numbers dont look good...

Geez, I just looked at that battery review. The review does look bad. I get pretty good battery life on my phone. 10+ hours yesterday with heavy media streaming, talk time, playing games & browsing the internet.

Power Control doesnt work for our phones(at least for me), failing to control 4G & 3G.. something is amiss.. doesnt even notice that i have 4G hardware

Try juice defender, turns off data whenever u shut the screen
Sent from my Epic 4G

Isnt there a serious delay when restarting 3G on that setting?.. not only that.. but everytime my screen is on, i dont want 3G running, sometimes im gaming, or doing other none internet related things.
Is there a 3G on demand button in juice or ultimate juice? ie.. only waking if prompted by a service needing the net?

Phen0m said:
Isnt there a serious delay when restarting 3G on that setting?.. not only that.. but everytime my screen is on, i dont want 3G running, sometimes im gaming, or doing other none internet related things.
Is there a 3G on demand button in juice or ultimate juice? ie.. only waking if prompted by a service needing the net?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

MZWiZard said:
Lol
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so helpful

yes theres a widget that you can use to toggle data on juice defender. you can turn data on , off, or turn it on and have juice defender control it.

2.0t03speed said:
yes theres a widget that you can use to toggle data on juice defender. you can turn data on , off, or turn it on and have juice defender control it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you kind sir

No problem glad to help.
Sent from my Epic 4G

No you can't shut off 3g the software wont let you
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

[Q] GPS and battery life

How much does leaving GPS on affect battery life?
Is it possible that with gps on, and all apps set to try to use gps for location information as the default...that it will poll the 4g radio less, and perhaps offset some of the drain?

I drove for 1 hour and battery went from 100% to 75%.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

KRAZYADROIDMASTER said:
I drove for 1 hour and battery went from 100% to 75%.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well with that you also have to factor in that he screen is on, the brightness levels, the app that is using the CPU, and that if you are using setcpu, your default profile will be used since the screen is on. I think OP is talking about just leaving GPS on but not using it directly with Google Maps for example.

mmapcpro said:
How much does leaving GPS on affect battery life?
Is it possible that with gps on, and all apps set to try to use gps for location information as the default...that it will poll the 4g radio less, and perhaps offset some of the drain?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on stock, so it might not be what you're looking for, but I always leave my GPS on and I get decent battery life, averaging 19hr and sometimes reach 24 hrs before having to charge my phone. I also use Tasker for several GPS location tasks for when I am in certain areas to provide shopping lists, reminders, etc., that periodically check my location, so I don't think leaving it on matters much. It's only used when needed.

The impact GPS has on battery is pretty close to negligible. No more than an hour per day probably.
If at the end of the day your battery is near critical then you shouldn't leave it on all the time, but if you don't use it too heavily then it won't be a problem.

I recorded my path using MyTrack for about 4 hours and my battery went from ~90% to ~10.

legoman666 said:
I recorded my path using MyTrack for about 4 hours and my battery went from ~90% to ~10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a difference between leaving GPS on but not using it constantly and actually running an app that quires the GPS nonstop. In your case, you probably prevented the phone from sleeping, and that will murder your battery no matter what.

(TIP) Saving Battery Life on Galaxy Note 3

Didn't see it posted so I though I be the first, If it was sorry.
How to Increase Battery Life on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 or Simply how to make it last longer though out the day. Have another Tip? Leave a comment and let me know, Ill add them.
My Top 10 Tips for saving Battery Life.
1- Enable power saver
2- Disable unnecessary features & gestures
3- Turn off WiFi & Bluetooth when not needed
4- Delete unused widgets
5- Close applications that you are not using
6- Toggle From 4G to 2G
7- Disabling Background Data:
8- Changing Application Sync Settings:
9- Set Brightness to ” Auto ” and lower Timeout Duration:
10- Avoid Live wallpapers, instead set Dark wallpapers.

Thanks for the tips. But if I follow that, what's the point to use such an advanced smartphone?

Kisses99 said:
Thanks for the tips. But if I follow that, what's the point to use such an advanced smartphone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung crams SO many features into their phone I doubt you or really anyone uses all of them regularly (it's not like you can't turn anything you want back on). Also some of these are just temporary when you really need to conserve power; like Power Saver, which really degrades the performance of the processor and GCU or switching to 2g data.

Tip No. 11 Turn your Phone Off...

Thanks a lot.. But if turn off the device saves a lot of battery jeje.
Enviado desde mi SM-N9005 usando Tapatalk

Awsome
... [email protected] now Free

- Turn off mobile data when you're not using it. This can save you about 3 days of battery live. In one go.
- Turn off Auto Sync. Did you seriously think something that connects to the internet all the time did not drain your battery?
- Don't use Auto modes. Yes, this includes brightness. IT'S A SENSOR, GENIUS. Sensors require power. Just turn down the brightness yourself. (30% is more than sufficient in ordinarily lit rooms.)

Kisses99 said:
Thanks for the tips. But if I follow that, what's the point to use such an advanced smartphone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well have you every been stuck without a way of charging? There's times I know I wont be able to charge my phone and it might die so i do these things in order to improve and prolong my battery life.

Take a brick charger with you :laugh::laugh:

Unless you mean to do this when you're running low once in a blue moon, then ok.
Otherwise what's the point of the phone?
I do the literal opposite of your list.
Full brightness (unless I'm in a dark room)
4g
Syncing 4 gmail accounts
Syncing Microsoft exchange calendar
Power saving mode off
Facebook connected
I do have a fully charged original note 3 spare battery on me at all times though.
But I rarely need to use it before 7 pm (12 hours after taking it off the charger in the morning).

blackout720 said:
Well have you every been stuck without a way of charging? There's times I know I wont be able to charge my phone and it might die so i do these things in order to improve and prolong my battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I do have. My solution is tha I will carry 3 oem batteries...plus a 10000 mah battery power bank.

I only got the spare battery yesterday.
I was still running on full mode before the spare battery. I made sure my phone was always charging (while at office, car or home).

blackout720 said:
Well have you every been stuck without a way of charging? There's times I know I wont be able to charge my phone and it might die so i do these things in order to improve and prolong my battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed... I do 7 hours a day by train, in which I have a 70% chance that I might have to spend half of that checking the travel advisor for an alternative route. I know what it is like all too well....
To me battery life is more valuable than knowing my neighbour managed to write a Q on her visit to the bathroom.

Is there any way to turn off data when the screen is turned off in the settings? Similar to the htc ones power saving option

NoFanboy said:
Is there any way to turn off data when the screen is turned off in the settings? Similar to the htc ones power saving option
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think juice defender does that.

The thing I like about the Note 3 is that battery life is not an issue anymore, provided that I can charge it overnight.
Today, I've been on battery for 17 hrs straight, including phone calls, 90 minutes of navigation, Internet use etc. And there's still 28% battery left.
My point is: if the battery life is much less, there's something wrong, and you should investigate that before turning to measures like in the first post. Use an app like Wake Lock Detector or Better Battery Stats to check what is draining your battery.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

I don't actually have a Note 3. Still on Note II but I check in here for feedback.
I would suggest people to purchase the Android Tuner app. It ain't cheap unless u buy it in a sale, but it crams many utilities into one program meaning you don't have to run several different apps. These include battery information/tweaks, overclock/undervolt, ram management, screen off tweaks like disable data or wifi when there's no network activity such as streaming music, backup options like titanium pro, etc etc and much much more of varying complexity depending on how far you want to delve into it.
All in all, a wonderful app and worth every penny.

crislevin said:
I think juice defender does that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. But I was hoping it would be built into the settings

Yeah the features are there for us to use. And betteries to drain
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 4

could someone clarify this for me?
when you turn off
"Auto Sync"
or enable
"Restrict Background Data"
what does it do exactly?
does it mean I would no longer get notifications for WhatsApp, Twitter, Gmail?

[App] Snapdragon™ BatteryGuru

Hi,
''Snapdragon™ BatteryGuru is a battery life saver app that extends battery performance and improves overall user experience by intelligently making changes that optimize device functionality in phones with Snapdragon mobile processors. This app:
• Delivers longer battery life with fewer charges, acting as a battery life extender
• Intelligently learns how you use your Snapdragon-powered smartphone and optimizes your device without disabling smartphone functionality
• Requires no user configuration - Snapdragon BatteryGuru automatically learns and adjusts the smartphone settings so you don’t have to
After a brief 2-4 day introduction period, Snapdragon BatteryGuru learns the user’s behaviors and then notifies the user that it is ready to extend the battery life and improve the experience. Snapdragon BatteryGuru continues to operate in the background, deepening its understanding of the user and further optimizing the experience over time.''
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Play Store link
FAQs - Snapdragon BatteryGuru
I share this app for those who don't know this app and want to test. There is some good feedbacks for other devices. Personnaly I don't use it so don't ask me if battery life is better or worse, test by yourself, share your feedbacks, etc...

That wifi function was what i missed from xperias stamina mode and this has tons more. Hopefully the app keeps at light weight and dont end up drain battery itself.
Looks good! Lets put it to test.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk 2

I just installed it. Not expecting much, but we'll see.

We'll see how this works, seems like it could be decent. It says 4 days to calibrate, so be wary of that, crackflashers!

First night deep sleep battery usage dropped from ~60mAh to 24mAh. Seems like a realdeal. :thumbup:
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk 2

In used this on my DNA and noticed no improvement. I wonder what it'll do with the S800. Going to try again.

I installed it & when it came out of the dormant mode to start saving battery for me, it asked me to keep the location sharing always ON in the LG UI settings, which i had disabled to save battery, i don't understand why does it need location ON?
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

rkaria1970 said:
I installed it & when it came out of the dormant mode to start saving battery for me, it asked me to keep the location sharing always ON in the LG UI settings, which i had disabled to save battery, i don't understand why does it need location ON?
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand this either. But.... I am at 52% battery with almost 4 hours off screen time and my location services have been on constantly. I believe I read the location services were to determine when it can turn wifi on and off. I'm not 100% on that.

This app didn't do much on my one.
Imo the g2 doesn't need it
Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk 2

I will report back when learning mode is done, sucks that it needs the location services turned on,that alone might defeat its purpose I think.

I used it for a couple of days after 4 days of calibration, i can hardly find any difference. Uninstalled it.

rkaria1970 said:
I installed it & when it came out of the dormant mode to start saving battery for me, it asked me to keep the location sharing always ON in the LG UI settings, which i had disabled to save battery, i don't understand why does it need location ON?
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it learns places you use wifi and will turn it on and off depending on where you use it.

Guys. The app is designed for people that use their smartphone. Most people leave location services on. Try using your phone with location services OFF and UNINSTAL the app. See how much battery you use. Then use the the app. It causes a HUGE increase in battery. But if you usually leave location off, you won't see much of a difference
Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

I count about 42% difference on this. My Juicedefender config gives me 96% on average. I'll stick to that.

I've been calibrating for two days and I'm hoping that after calibration has finished, I can just leave my wifi and gps on all the time and it will know when to turn it on and off without my input.

Omnigaia said:
I've been calibrating for two days and I'm hoping that after calibration has finished, I can just leave my wifi and gps on all the time and it will know when to turn it on and off without my input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly how it works I am a flash aholic though:/ so can't use this app
Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

I'm not a flashaholic but I'm seriously looking forward to the day I can flash CM onto my Wind D801!!!! I used CM on my S2 and I really see the value in CM!

I just installed it. Not expecting much, but we'll see.

kevintong116 said:
I just installed it. Not expecting much, but we'll see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least you'll have the inevitable uninstall to look forward to

It's not looking promising but I'll mess with it a few more days just for giggles.
I seem to be using MORE battery after finishing the learning period. In the morning I check a few news sources then don't touch the phone again until about 10am where I've been, according to the Guru battery indicator 99%. This morning I was at 96%.
Besides changing some autosync settings it didn't apear to do much before and seems the same now.

Impact on phone battery life?

I know this will be completely relative to the amount of notifications you have pushed to the sw2 but....what kind of impact are you seeing in regards to your phone's battery life?
Basically, does reduction in phone screen-on time and foreground cpu processes negate the impact of the bt and smartwatch connect running in the background of your phone?
Thanks!
Sent from my LG-D800 using xda app-developers app

randaddy said:
I know this will be completely relative to the amount of notifications you have pushed to the sw2 but....what kind of impact are you seeing in regards to your phone's battery life?
Basically, does reduction in phone screen-on time and foreground cpu processes negate the impact of the bt and smartwatch connect running in the background of your phone?
Thanks!
Sent from my LG-D800 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Difficult to quantify accurately without a with and without comparison on a strictly like for like basis but I haven't noticed any significant impact on my phone's battery life. I was worried that maintaining a constant bluetooth link and keeping SmartConnect and the SW's notification elements constantly running in the backgroung (ie, not Greenified) would be a big drain but I've not seen any of this. If anything, not having to constantly get my phone out and turn the screen on everytime it receives some form of message may well be saving my phone's battery - it's certainly been much more convenient for me.
Nexus 5 (rooted, stock 4.4.2)

Prepagan said:
Difficult to quantify accurately without a with and without comparison on a strictly like for like basis but I haven't noticed any significant impact on my phone's battery life. I was worried that maintaining a constant bluetooth link and keeping SmartConnect and the SW's notification elements constantly running in the backgroung (ie, not Greenified) would be a big drain but I've not seen any of this. If anything, not having to constantly get my phone out and turn the screen on everytime it receives some form of message may well be saving my phone's battery - it's certainly been much more convenient for me.
Nexus 5 (rooted, stock 4.4.2)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same. I was worried also about BT, but nothing happened Once i saw Smartwatch Map2 consuming battery, but it is gone too. I found some feedbacks about that app consuming battery, but that's another story and always can be uninstalled...
Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk 4

Thanks! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear.
The SW2 happened to be on sale at Best Buy today, needless to say I'm now part of the club! =)
Sent from my LG-D800 using xda app-developers app

Welcome mate! Enjoy your new toy
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2
N7100XXUEML3 JB 4.3

I'm pretty satisfied too, it doesn't seem to drain too much the phone battery! The only thing i noticed was the gmail extension for smartwatch, in the first days it seemed to have a little bit more of battery drain compared to the other extensions, so i removed it. With Watchit you can see the notifications of gmail also, so no problems at all welcome to the SW community
Sent from my Xperia SP using xda app-developers app

Wore my watch and used my Samsung GS3 (rooted 4.1.2, BoneStock 3.4) and it chewed up battery way faster than normal. Previously my rooted phone could get two days between charges with light usage and definitely through a full day with moderator heavy use. Only extensive GPS use would wear it own under a day. Using SW2 seems to draw just under the GPS draw. I only have the stock Sony extensions for Gmail, messaging, slide show, music, calendar. I read that the Gmail extension draws a lot battery but I can't use other notification apps like Watch It so I push all my email to my Gmail account to get notifications on my watch.
Sent from my TouchPad using xda app-developers app

I have a Note 3 and had this watch since xmas and i can say with all the test i made, with battery monitors, checking wakelocks, trying 2 identical days with and without the watch tethered, there is no significant impact of this watch on the battery life of my Note 3, there is less than 2% difference between the days i have the watch connected and those i dont. That could be considered as a margin of error. Or maybe one day a had a couple more notifications that the other, anyways, there is no significant impact.

my phone battery is bad but I haven't noticed that the battery drain more with the smartwatch 2,
before using the smartwatch 2 I had always running BT on the background (so I can step in to the car and connect with the radio ),
In fact yesterday i uses my smartwatch 2 allot in in place of my phone and my phone fell down when i was home normally it will shut down hours before!
So I think it doesn't effect allot of you'r phone batery.

It's currently chewing up a good 20% plus of my battery consumption. Well, "com.sonyericsson.extras.liveware.extension.userLabel" is chewing up 20% plus. I think that's the long winded name for "Smart Connect", that or the "SmartWatch 2" app.
"com.sonyericsson.extras.liveware.extension.userLabel" under 'included packages' states:
Facebook - Smart Extras
Weather Widget - Smart Extras
Find Phone - Smart Extras
Twitter - Smart Extras
Missed Call - Smart Extras
I'm assuming that however I have those Smart Extras setup determines how much impact it has on the battery i.e. Weather Widget - Smart Extras updating the weather every 15 minutes will eat up more battery then setting it to every 1 hour.
Question: If you install something like "Watchify", and you use that to handle notifications for what is being currently handled by the Smart Extras in the list above, is it safe to remove "Smart Connect"?

Chris_c81 said:
Question: If you install something like "Watchify", and you use that to handle notifications for what is being currently handled by the Smart Extras in the list above, is it safe to remove "Smart Connect"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you remove Smart Connect I believe your watch will loose connection with your phone. At least that's what I found.
Try it for yourself though, easy enough to put back on.

AlexOB1 said:
If you remove Smart Connect I believe your watch will loose connection with your phone. At least that's what I found.
Try it for yourself though, easy enough to put back on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I think you're right. Delving deeper in to third party apps it would seem they all use Smart Connect as a kind of vehicle between watch and phone.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 06:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:00 PM ----------
Chris_c81 said:
Yes I think you're right. Delving deeper in to third party apps it would seem they all use Smart Connect as a kind of vehicle between watch and phone.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. As I mentioned earlier, Smart Connect was hogging a good 20%+ battery. I have been monitoring it all day and I've been out at work on my mobile data during that time. Now I've been back home on WiFi only a couple of hours, Smart Connect has dropped right down to 5% battery usage! Would definitely seem as though while its using the mobile data to forward notifications it hits the battery harder then it does over WiFi.
That sort of makes sense as under normal circumstances mobile data, as it's constantly trying to find best signal, always hits the battery harder then WiFi which is generally pretty stable. So factor in Smart Connect and it makes sense.
I really need to see what my phones battery life would be like had I not been charging it on and off throughout the day. I'll try and start at 100% tomorrow morning and just let it run till I'm home and see what percentage it drops and how much of that drop was Smart Connect.
My phone is the Note II. Going forward battery capacity will be high on my priority prerequisite list for my next mobile phone.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

I use 2x battery, to just turn on auto-sync/wifi/3g every 15 minutes, rather than having permanent push. Saves tonnes of power if you can content yourself with that.
It also has a SmartWatch extension which is nice.

AlexOB1 said:
I use 2x battery, to just turn on auto-sync/wifi/3g every 15 minutes, rather than having permanent push. Saves tonnes of power if you can content yourself with that.
It also has a SmartWatch extension which is nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I also use 2x battery, and I can confirm this. In my opinion the best battery saver out there. And works nicely with the SW2.
Sent from my C6833 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

nice trick that 2x battery, data always chews a lot of battery, but with the z ultra, that screen is a killer, alltough i put it on 20% brightness and still see ok, but since i got the SW2 it does drain faster, idk why is that, before i had this toy i could go a solid day listening to grooveshark and googling contantly, now i had to buy a magnetic dock to keep it going.Oh what we do for our gadgets )