[Q] LTE or WiFi for battery life - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III

My understanding is that battery life will be better when I'm on WiFi as opposed to lte. Is that true? Lte is a lot faster than my WiFi at home, and I have unlimited data. I'm just trying to figure out which one I should use at home.
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JRW160 said:
My understanding is that battery life will be better when I'm on WiFi as opposed to lte. Is that true? Lte is a lot faster than my WiFi at home, and I have unlimited data. I'm just trying to figure out which one I should use at home.
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They say that if your LTE has a great signal that it uses less power then Wi-Fi.
In my experience I have 4 bars of 4g and have downloads of 50MB and Wi-Fi of only 15MB.Seems even with my four bars of 4g it rapes my battery.
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I get about the same. Sometimes better on 4G.
Verizon Samsung SIII
ROM: Jelly Beans 8
THEME: Magnum Cream

I suspect it is going to vary from person to person/location to location.
For me, WiFi battery life appears to be a bit better. Plus I don't have unlimited anyway.
Someone that has a strong LTE may find that LTE battery life is better.

If I still had unlimited, I would chew that data like it was my job.
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Regardless as you can see Wi-Fi has better battery life
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Either way if your at home you have access to electricity to charge it...
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Related

How often do you use wifi?

I find myself not using wifi much now that I have 4g speed. I'm fact my 4g speed is faster than my wifi Anyone else find themselves not using wifi as much now? With my incredible I had to use wifi since 3g was only 3meg compared to my wifi which gets about 12 meg down.
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Maybe a few times a week , which is.hardly ever. The 4g speeds in chicagoland area are so fast I forget about using the wifi networks I'm around. Since wifi uses less power than mobile data should probably be using it for better battery life though
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I use wifi on my T bolt because no 4G is in my state yet even... I know fail
I never use wifi on my Thunderbolt. My home internet is fast (~25 Mbps), but I don't need it to be that fast on my phone. I have 4G in my area and get around 18-20 Mbps with my TB.
All the time when at home. Added benefit of accessing home network shares.
I use it whenever i can, not 4G where i live. Some parts of the island have....not my part.
I only use Wifi when I'm at home since my apartment gets terrible reception (3 bars on 1X). If I go outside on the balcony I get full 3G though.
Only when I dont have LTE coverage when traveling. Thats literally it. 4G is just too good.
Never use wifi now, 4g is about 8meg for me which is much faster than my home wifi.
I haven't even turned wifi on yet. Had the phone since day 1 release.
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I use wifi whenever it's available so mostly at home and at school. It saves on battery and I don't have 4g yet so it's a no brainer
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Rarely
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LTE > Wifi > 3g for me, but I use WiFi when I can, and LTE when I'm travelling somewhere that has it.
mindcritic said:
I find myself not using wifi much now that I have 4g speed. I'm fact my 4g speed is faster than my wifi Anyone else find themselves not using wifi as much now? With my incredible I had to use wifi since 3g was only 3meg compared to my wifi which gets about 12 meg down.
Sent from hell.
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I am rooted with Wireless Tether, and getting about 16mbps out of the 4g. My internet company can shove it! Also play Xbox through it!
I dont think I will be able to see that much of a difference between wifi or 4g, plus why would you not run wifi? unless you really like your phone plugged in to a charger all day. Battery life burns much faster on 4g then it does on wifi, yes I am rooted.
I use WiFi whenever I'm at home. 4g is faster but WiFi is better on my battery and is almost as fast as 4g
potcryan said:
I use wifi whenever it's available so mostly at home and at school. It saves on battery and I don't have 4g yet so it's a no brainer
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Same here. I live near LA and although i would love to try 4G, i wont be going out of my way to do so, which means wifi whenever its available.
I use wifi almost all day, everyday. Only exception is when I'm driving around.
As soon as I get home I disconnect bluetooth from my truck and turn on wifi. I average 10-12mps down which is about the same as 4g in my area and wifi doesn't eat my battery like 4g does.
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Almost every day, i hardly use wifi hot spots though.

weird switching between Edge and 4G

Where I work, there is generally only edge network speeds (AT&T). In my building though, we have cell repeaters. While getting close to the repeaters, I can put my skyrocket into airplane mode and then re-enable the radios and suddenly, I'll get 4G (albeit slow 4G ~ 800kb/s-1.1 Mb/s) speeds.
1. Why wouldn't the phone auto-switch to the better network
2. Why can I get 4G through the repeater, when outside my building I can only get Edge? Seems more plausible that the repeater would cause even more loss on the network throughput...
just curious to see what others think about this.
The repeater is powered with a much better antenna than your cell. So it can pick up the 4g signal where your phone can't. It then sends that signal to you. So it doesn't surprise me that you get 4g service around it when you normally wouldn't without it. What does surprise me is why your phone doesn't automatically pick that up. Dunno
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Ends said:
The repeater is powered with a much better antenna than your cell. So it can pick up the 4g signal where your phone can't. It then sends that signal to you. So it doesn't surprise me that you get 4g service around it when you normally wouldn't without it. What does surprise me is why your phone doesn't automatically pick that up. Dunno
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even weirder was that until I updated to ICS recently, I couldn't even get the 4G, while everyone with Iphones could switch into airplane mode and back and get 3G at least. odd.
guess it's just the wonders of working 30 miles away from civilization...
bp787 said:
guess it's just the wonders of working 30 miles away from civilization...
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4G that far out? That would surprise anyone
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Ends said:
4G that far out? That would surprise anyone
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By 4G I'd assume we're thinking of HSPA+.
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lnfound said:
By 4G I'd assume we're thinking of HSPA+.
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yeah, it's not "real" 4G for sure. I'm only getting a max of 1Mb/s down. Usually around 400-500kb/s. but definitely beats out 15kb/s that I WAS getting
The phone indicates it as 4G on the icon.

Data drops decreased greatly.....not a fix but it helps

Go to Google play store and download the app called Network signal speed booster by mcstealth and run it.....I been running it for a day and noticed a increase in signal strength and a definite decrecase in 4g dropouts......not a complete fix but it definitely helped a lot...hope it's not just coincidence cause its only been a day of using the app but I thought I'd share anything that seems to help....
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There are many different ones. Which one did you get?
Network Signal Speed booster by mcstealth...sorry..I'll edit the op
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Another thing is if your are in a 3G only area, go into phone info app and select GSM/CDMA Auto PRL. Then switch back in a 4G area for 4G signal.
Speaking of CM10
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Data drops?
Never had such a thing on this phone...
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[Q] How widespread are the signal loss issues?

I'm thinking about buying a SGS3 to replace my Thunderbolt.
I tried a Galaxy Nexus, and while I got good 4G reception at home, it had trouble getting any signal at work. (4g or 3g WiFi was fine) I've read about similar issues with the SGS3, and wanted to avoid that phone if I'll have the same problem.
With my Thunderbolt I get pretty consistent signal reception at work.
I came from the Thunderbolt and this phone is a little better. I get good signal, but not as good as I would have thought or expected.
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It may depend on where you live too. I'm outside NYC and 4G is never a problem. And have never had a dropped call.
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I'll say, at home signal is perfect...during area. I also work in the country a lot and my s3 gets better signal then my previous razr maxx. So I'm very happy, but not everybody has the same experience.
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get rid Of internet at home and use phone as tether

I'm thinking Of increasing My cell package to LTE and tethering My laptop to My phone.
My current cell package Is 6G/month With the LTE it jumps to 10G/month. I typically use 6G on My cell and 2 to 3G at home per month
has anybody done this? if So can you offer some feedback and any pitfalls.
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All I could see is if you're flashing ROMs on your phone and it suddenly messes up then you can't go online to troubleshoot but if you don't flash on a daily basis then everything should be fine. I personally haven't done tethering on a regular basis (even though my plan allows me to).
no I don't ever put custom ROMs
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FWIW, tethering kills your battery life. You use a fair bit of internet at home, but not really a "power user" per se, so you're kind of in the gray area where this type of thing could work for you but still isn't a great idea IMO.
Sounds like a good idea if it saves cash at the end of the month. At home I easily blow through 200 gigs per month, but if my usage resembled yours, I'd do it.
aycockonxion said:
FWIW, tethering kills your battery life. You use a fair bit of internet at home, but not really a "power user" per se, so you're kind of in the gray area where this type of thing could work for you but still isn't a great idea IMO.
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Ya I'm thinking that's gonna be a con. but the phone will basically be plugged in once I'm home. do you thing because I'll be on LTE for a prolonged time it will affect the phone, because Of increased heat
Ya I'm right on that edge. that's why this Is still in the analysis phase.
dac1227 said:
Sounds like a good idea if it saves cash at the end of the month. At home I easily blow through 200 gigs per month, but if my usage resembled yours, I'd do it.
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200G/month. dude what are you downloading?
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Lots, and lots, of ...... jk.
Mostly TV! Netflix, hulu, crackle, youtube. Still have the og dvr but I hardly touch it anymore. Always have something streaming. I am fearful of imminent tiered data, hopefully Time Warner holds out.
My dad is doing this its saving him a lot of money and his lte is actually faster then his old network, the only downfall is make sure you plug it in because it drains your battery quick.
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seanci said:
My dad is doing this its saving him a lot of money and his lte is actually faster then his old network, the only downfall is make sure you plug it in because it drains your battery quick.
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If you use pdanet to tether it will charge while you are tethering....
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seanci said:
My dad is doing this its saving him a lot of money and his lte is actually faster then his old network, the only downfall is make sure you plug it in because it drains your battery quick.
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My savings would only be about $22/month but I'd get faster sppeds. My home connection is 6Mbps my friends are getting 20 to 40Mbps on their LTE phones.
The only thing holding me back is what if my needs change and I need more internet at home? Especially now that winter is arrving a lot more time indoors/at home.
jdonmc1948 said:
If you use pdanet to tether it will charge while you are tethering....
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what is pdanet? I just googled it and it's just an app that let's you tether and we can already do that stock with our Skyrockets. I wanted to tether using wifi very rare I'll use the USB plug, because I find plugging into the computer takes forever to charge.
Jamolah said:
I'm thinking Of increasing My cell package to LTE and tethering My laptop to My phone.
My current cell package Is 6G/month With the LTE it jumps to 10G/month. I typically use 6G on My cell and 2 to 3G at home per month
has anybody done this? if So can you offer some feedback and any pitfalls.
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Who's your provider if you got 6 gigs and with LTE 10? AT&T doesn't have those plans.
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specter07 said:
Who's your provider if you got 6 gigs and with LTE 10? AT&T doesn't have those plans.
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I'm With ROGERS (in Canada)
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