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Battery consumption on Wifi vs 3G Data Connection

Any expert can tell me why 3G Data Connection consumes more battery than Wifi?
I have done experiment on turning on just:
1. Wifi
2. 3G Data connection
All other functions/apps stay the same.
1. lasted over 20 hours with minimal usage
2. lasted no more than 13 hours with minimal usage.
Any expert has an explanation?

I'm not an expert, but I've observed the same thing that you have, 3G uses more power than WiFi, both at idle and "in use" (such as streaming music).
On my HTC Hero, using WiFi, 1%/hour idle, approx 2.5-3%/hr "in use". With 3G, approx 4%/hour idle, 10-15%/hour "in use".

It takes more power to boost up your transmit signal from your phone to reach the cell tower 2 miles away compared to the wifi hotspot 5 meters away?

desertwindz said:
I'm not an expert, but I've observed the same thing that you have, 3G uses more power than WiFi, both at idle and "in use" (such as streaming music).
On my HTC Hero, using WiFi, 1%/hour idle, approx 2.5-3%/hr "in use". With 3G, approx 4%/hour idle, 10-15%/hour "in use".
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thanks
yeah, because i was thinking when using wifi, there is an extra device running.
but when on 3G data, shouldn't it be the same thing as the normal phone signal?
so why would 3G data consume more battery than wifi? thats what is puzzling me.

schizophrenia said:
thanks
yeah, because i was thinking when using wifi, there is an extra device running.
but when on 3G data, shouldn't it be the same thing as the normal phone signal?
so why would 3G data consume more battery than wifi? thats what is puzzling me.
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3G (UMTS) and 2G (GSM) are usually implemented as two different subsytems. 3 years ago, when I was working with their designs, devices actually had 2 antennas internally, because of optimsation for different frequencies.

ghane0 said:
3G (UMTS) and 2G (GSM) are usually implemented as two different subsytems. 3 years ago, when I was working with their designs, devices actually had 2 antennas internally, because of optimsation for different frequencies.
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i am no technical person but I am guessing .. that means when I turn on 3G data, I am using something that is NOT related to the original phone signal connection and that is why it consumes battery on top of the original phone signal connection?
and so happens the UMTS consumes more battery than Wifi too?

Wifi just sucks more battery in general

squallrblade said:
Wifi just sucks more battery in general
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but in fact, the phone operates under wifi is more battery saving than operating under 3G connection...

wifi 4g

can i run both wifi and 4g at the same time and will it drain my battery faster

randy6470 said:
can i run both wifi and 4g at the same time and will it drain my battery faster
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Click to collapse
No...so No
SENT FROM THE DOG POUND

Well, yes and no.
You can run the LTE chip set while you have Wifi enabled. However the wifi will take precedence over LTE, so you will be using wifi for data. The LTE will be connected in background, allowing you to receive MMS automatically and quickly connect to 4G after you turn wifi off. It will drain your battery faster but it won't make your interwebs faster.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium

I did not know that ..
Learned something new
Thanks ...
SENT FROM THE DOG POUND

kvswim said:
Well, yes and no.
You can run the LTE chip set while you have Wifi enabled. However the wifi will take precedence over LTE, so you will be using wifi for data. The LTE will be connected in background, allowing you to receive MMS automatically and quickly connect to 4G after you turn wifi off. It will drain your battery faster but it won't make your interwebs faster.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium
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just to elaborate further - leaving wifi on without a connection is the big drainer. leaving 4G on while connected to wifi does not (but I'll be testing some experiments on this theory today).

wifi
the reason i ask is i use a app called timeriffic and can set wifi on and off at differant times but if i turn wifi off i have to turn 4g on manually
was hoping to leave 4g on so when wifi is not connect my 4g is

randy6470 said:
the reason i ask is i use a app called timeriffic and can set wifi on and off at differant times but if i turn wifi off i have to turn 4g on manually
was hoping to leave 4g on so when wifi is not connect my 4g is
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i leave both on all day - but I also set my wifi scan to 1800 (once every 30 minutes). this has almost no impact on my battery life. also, each time I enter an area with a known connection, it connects rather quickly.

update to this, when leaving on both WIFI and 4G (while maintaining a WIFI connection), my phone drains at about 3% per hour in an idle state. Last night, I turned off mobile data, and my battery drained about 1% per hour. thus, I'm curious to see why previously my phone was still using the mobile data when there was a wifi connection.....

It isn't"using" it per se, but it is holding the connection open and dormant so it can establish a connection quickly on need. With LTE, you're dealing with a separate radio from voice, so if it dropped the connection entirely, it would have to open the radio link before it could get data flowing, which can take several seconds or more. It's convenience over battery life.

thanks for all the great info guy i will just leave both on and see what battery life is :fingers-crossed:

It's kind of like having a hybrid car in hybrid mode it uses just electricity (wifi) but the gas is still idling (4g) but if you were to use only electricity you would have lost no gas i.e. better mileage i.e. better battery life.

WIFI vs LTE vs E

Hi,
I am trying to get a clear idea on the battery consumption of N5 on Wifi, LTE and E. If the purpose is to be battery friendly, which one (LTE, Wifi, Edge) should I left my phone on most of the time?
Thank you,

Well id say not WiFi! I use Wi-Fi at home and battery life is OK, it actually depends on how much you use it. I'm usually on my tablet at home and on the road my n5. Idk what E is but I'm thinking it's edge so that's probably better than LTE battery wise.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

stagius24 said:
Hi,
I am trying to get a clear idea on the battery consumption of N5 on Wifi, LTE and E. If the purpose is to be battery friendly, which one (LTE, Wifi, Edge) should I left my phone on most of the time?
Thank you,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wi-Fi is by far, the most battery friendly connection because the device only has to transmit and receive from a very short distance. Mobile data signals have to travel to the cell tower so more power is used the farther away you are from it. Less bars, more power used to communicate with the tower. LTE is best because you get that transmission completed very, very fast. HSDPA is good as well. Edge connection is very slow and makes the device hang waiting on the package to be sent and received, thus using more power in the long run. I usually set my phone to edge when I'm not going to be really using it.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

You certainly want to be using WiFi at home. I tried going data only for a couple days because it's unlimited and the battery drain especially while idle was much higher than using WiFi. This is with full signal 90% of the time.

WiFi is your friend for extended battery life. Mobile data - whether it's LTE, 3G/HSPA+ or good old Edge/2G will vary in power but it's pinging the towers for signal & cycling, so it will use more data - that is, all other things equal in terms of settings including the newer/est KitKat features.

Wifi whenever you can use it.
As far as cellular, as long as you have a decent signal, faster is always better (so the modem can download what it needs and turn back off). So use LTE if you're going to be using any data. Knock it down to edge (or off entirely) if you don't want to use data at all, or just for the occassional notification.

So Wifi is clearly the best. So when my phone is idle for a long time, let say at night, should I leave it under Edge or Wifi?
I am writing a tasker profile, so I just try to see which one is better in term of battery.

stagius24 said:
So Wifi is clearly the best. So when my phone is idle for a long time, let say at night, should I leave it under Edge or Wifi?
I am writing a tasker profile, so I just try to see which one is better in term of battery.
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Click to collapse
Well you can always put it on airplane mode/turn off the mobile radio and switch on Wi-Fi after to just have Wi-Fi data. The catch is, you will not be receiving any calls or SMS/MMS while you have the mobile radio shut off... unless you're using a VOIP service.

Lte and battery power

I'm curious about switching from lte to 3g, will i really save any battery? Or do I need to install a custom modem?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

ckavvouras said:
I'm curious about switching from lte to 3g, will i really save any battery? Or do I need to install a custom modem?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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i get my best battery life on lte. i had the n4, it doesnt officially come with lte, but can be enabled. anyways, as soon as i started using lte on my n4, i gained an hour of screen on time as opposed to using 3G(hspa+). i want from 4 hours screen on time, to 5 hours. and on my nexus 5, i use lte exclusively, i dont even ever use wifi, and i see 5-6 hours screen on time every day. then again, it would depend on your signal quality.

In my house I have 4/4 bars signal with H and 2/4 bars with LTE.
In that case LTE is still the best option?
Sent from my Nexus 5

thesebastian said:
In my house I have 4/4 bars signal with H and 2/4 bars with LTE.
In that case LTE is still the best option?
Sent from my Nexus 5
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it can be. generally, when using data, lte is more efficient. it spends less time downloading/uploading, therefor uses less battery. if data speeds are better using lte than they are with your 3g, then lte would be better to use.

I have more battery drain on lte... I think 3g is faster enough

The fastest connection with the best signal should save you the most battery.
Wifi is much shorter range so needs less power to maintain a connection. Considering most people have fast Wifi it will usually be the most efficient.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I had the best battery on LTE when I went to London for a few days. Gained a hour screen on time easily with very strong coverage throughout most of central London apart from the underground obviously lol
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

i did an experiment on lte/3G battery life in the trinity thread a few days ago, same usage and setup. on lte i had 5.5h sot, on 3G(h/h+) i had 4.5h sot. using lte gains me an hour sot, using 3G i lose an hour sot.

simms22 said:
i did an experiment on lte/3G battery life in the trinity thread a few days ago, same usage and setup. on lte i had 5.5h sot, on 3G(h/h+) i had 4.5h sot. using lte gains me an hour sot, using 3G i lose an hour sot.
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When using a 3G connection does it constantly jump between 3G and H+ for you also? Seems to be based on load and I'm assuming normal operation.
I need to keep testing this but lately I am finding 3G/H+ (7-15Mbps) connection to be similar in battery use to my older wireless G (15Mbps) network.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

bblzd said:
When using a 3G connection does it constantly jump between 3G and H+ for you also? Seems to be based on load and I'm assuming normal operation.
I need to keep testing this but lately I am finding 3G/H+ (7-15Mbps) connection to be similar in battery use to my older wireless G (15Mbps) network.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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for me it jumps from h to h+ when i access data, but thats how its supposed to work. the 3G/H will be used when not needing to access data, H+ will be used when accessing data, unless H+ isnt available. besides that, it doesnt jump back and forth at all.

In my case I'm having better battery with HSPA than with LTE.
The thing is...here in my house I have yellow/brown 4G signal and green 3G signal.
In a long deep sleep time (at nights) 4G consumes a bit more than 3G.
But during the day the difference is a little more significant.
I can get 4 hours of SoT with 3G. But 3 hours with LTE (or 3 hours and half).
I'm pretty sure that with a perfect LTE signal I would even have better battery life (like almost 5 hours of SoT).
But here is still experimental.

[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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.