I have a few apps that I need to be connected to the internet/data overnight and was wondering which would consume less battery power when the phone is idle. These apps are excluded from all restrictions and battery optimizations in Oxygen OS.
Currently I have it setup that wifi goes off when the screen is off and the apps I keep running overnight are connected to 4g/lte. This drains about 10~12% battery overnight.
Would it be better to keep these apps connected to wifi instead of 4g/lte? Do you think that would consume less power? I always thought keeping wifi on/connected to my home router all the time drains the battery faster than 4g/lte.
Any thoughts?
Wi-Fi is supposed to consume less power than data; makes sense since the phone doesn't need to use its antennas for 4G..
WiFi consumes less battery.
You should turn off that setting so WiFi stays on while the screen is off and you'll save battery.
Another vote for WiFi consuming less battery. Think about it: the WiFi signal just has to travel 50 feet or so to your WiFi router, versus cell data signal, which has to travel maybe a mile or more (depending on the location of the nearest cell tower - but you get the point). Or meters versus kilometers, if you deal in metric.
Pushing a signal a longer distance equals more power consumed.
WiFi vs. lte
With respect, I'm not sure and would like enlightenment.
If I turn off my wifi and set my phone to lte, then I'm turning off the power that goes to the wifi/antenna sub-system.
If I turn on wifi, my phone powers that, but still powers the lte connectivity to my cell carrier for phone calls and SMS messaging. Also, wifi -- while superfast -- constantly scans (and uses power) to look for a better wifi connection.
I haven't tested it for power consumption, but I usually turn off wifi when I go to sleep and I also turn off "mobile data." I don't need my Google and other data synchronized until I wake. I would turn the entire phone off to let it charge at a minimum temperature, but I like to keep it on overnight in case a close friend, relative or clients gets arrested.
Related
Hello,
My mobile broadband usage keeps vanishing.
I now have noticed that when I am in range of my home wi-fi, and wake the screen up the GPRS is connected, it then rapidly switches back to wi-fi.
What is causing this please?
WiFi is disabled when the device is in Standby to save battery life.
AFAIK it can be set to be always on via Reg-tweak but it will drain battery very fast.
Mmmm yes I realise that, but what happens then is that the 3G data connection then connects and drains the credit.
NoData widget
I have just found the solution a little widget called NoData.
Toggles GPRS connections. Added it to my drop-down menu no problems, Wi-Fi can switch itself off and on as and when.
HTML:
http://htcdriver.com/index.php?page=nodata
if i have bouth data and wifi turned on and i am connected to a wifi spot...do i need to turn off the data conection first before it will stop sucking my topup?
shouldnt the device make sure it uses wifi if wireless network is available?
No, you don't need to.
When you connect to a wi-fi connection, the 3G data will automatically switch off (logo on status bar will go away) and it will return when you switch wi-fi off.
funstuffalex said:
if i have bouth data and wifi turned on and i am connected to a wifi spot...do i need to turn off the data conection first before it will stop sucking my topup?
shouldnt the device make sure it uses wifi if wireless network is available?
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Click to collapse
what?
The phone will prioritize the WiFi connection over the 3G connection unless the WiFi is turned off, it's signal drops out(resulting in a disconnects), or you have the default still set for WiFi to turn off when the screen is off.
Am I right in thinking that although the 3g connection will kick in when the wifi signal is lost the phone will still continue looking for a wifi signal and therefore impact on the battery?
xspyda said:
Am I right in thinking that although the 3g connection will kick in when the wifi signal is lost the phone will still continue looking for a wifi signal and therefore impact on the battery?
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Click to collapse
Once the WiFi signal it's connected to is lost, it will switch the data 3G connection back on. Once you're out of range of remembered WiFi networks, it does scan for new/known WiFi signals to automatically connect to(only in the case of known signals, it will not try to connect to unknown networks).
As far as impact on battery, I don't think it's much. Only one time has WiFi ever creeped up on my battery use meter and that was on a particularly light day. I still finished my work day at little over 70% battery. There's an app on the market called WiFi Toggle which can help you automatically manage the phones WiFi chip. For instance, one setting will let it turn the WiFi on for a second, scan for known networks and connect if it finds them. If it doesn't, it turns it back off.
That's as I thought, thanks for the confirmation. I'd really like something to make the android phones act like the nokias in this respect - only turn on a data connection when needed (ie when the browser is fired up) and also prioritise the connections such that if a pre programmed known wifi network is available it will connect to that but if not switch to 3g data. There is no scanning for wifi networks all the time.
Nice to know it doesn't seem to impact on the battery though and yes before anyone mentions it I am aware android devices are designed to be always connected
xspyda said:
That's as I thought, thanks for the confirmation. I'd really like something to make the android phones act like the nokias in this respect - only turn on a data connection when needed (ie when the browser is fired up) and also prioritise the connections such that if a pre programmed known wifi network is available it will connect to that but if not switch to 3g data. There is no scanning for wifi networks all the time.
Nice to know it doesn't seem to impact on the battery though and yes before anyone mentions it I am aware android devices are designed to be always connected
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Click to collapse
I've been saying this for a while too. I came from Nokia symbian phones where they initiated the data session only when needed, like opening the browser etc. Android does not do this, instead it keeps a data session on all the time. Anytime you see that 3g symbol on an android phone means its data session is open. This is why android gets such poor battery life across all models and manufacturers.
Take one day as a test and simulate your symbian use by turning off mobile data, and your battery life will sky rocket on your nexus. So really It's just a trade off to make knowing you're always connected vs on others like symbian you need to manually do something to open the connection.
Oh and WiFi gets so much better battery life over 3g on android.
Have been testing 2.3.3 and I found that sometimes when shifting from Wifi to 3G data connection that the wifi sharing process decides to go on full tilt and uses about 20-30% CPU cycles when monitored in real time. As a result, the CPU is clocked at 1000 MHz and the device does get warm.
Interestingly, Wifi sharing is off the entire time and is actually not even configured in the wireless settings page. So what is the purpose of the Wifi sharing process, when it is not used for actual wifi sharing? Does it serve some hidden purpose that requires it to use up so much of the CPU time that the battery just drains before your eyes?
I've been seeing mixed reports on battery life with keeping your wifi always on. Some say keeping it always on extended their battery life.
What do you have it set as? And how has it affected your battery life?
cakalusa said:
I've been seeing mixed reports on battery life with keeping your wifi always on. Some say keeping it always on extended their battery life.
What do you have it set as? And how has it affected your battery life?
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Click to collapse
I keep always on but it does the opposite
I always have WIFI and bluetooth on. Take it off the charger in the morning and battery is usually 70+% at end of day.
GPS off. cellular data off (i use a prepaid voice-only service).
Wifi Sleep Policy is 'Always On', but I use an automation app (MacroDroid) to actually enable/disable wifi when I'm in/out of range of trusted SSIDs (using CellID triggers).
With autosync on and locations services set to battery saving with wifi scanning when disabled off I get the following results.
Wifi enabled connected to SSID (3G data is on but Android automatically prefers Wifi) - standby drain circa 1% per hour.
Wifi disabled (as no trusted SSID in range), 3G data on - standby drain 1 to 4% per hour (depending on network strength)
On 3G data with Wifi enabled but not connected to a SSID - standby battery drain 2 to 6% per hour.
neu - smurph said:
Wifi Sleep Policy is 'Always On', but I use an automation app (MacroDroid) to actually enable/disable wifi when I'm in/out of range of trusted SSIDs (using CellID triggers).
With autosync on and locations services set to battery saving with wifi scanning when disabled off I get the following results.
Wifi enabled connected to SSID (3G data is on but Android automatically prefers Wifi) - standby drain circa 1% per hour.
Wifi disabled (as no trusted SSID in range), 3G data on - standby drain 1 to 4% per hour (depending on network strength)
On 3G data with Wifi enabled but not connected to a SSID - standby battery drain 2 to 6% per hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's some good info and data. Thanks!:good:
So, when I'm at home, does the phone/watch use less battery without Bluetooth and connected via remote instead?
Just wondered.
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers Legacy app
For the watch stand point, no, Bluetooth always consume less power than Wifi. This is not really up to date paper but should be good enough for comparison UCLA: Energy Consumption Analysis for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Cellular Networks
For the phone stand point, you need that Wifi or lte/3g to get most of the notifications anyway so you dont care how much power it actually consumes it will stay on no matter what. If you run your watch in remote connection mode, you will save some power on phone since it wont have to run bluetooth for watch but you wont be able to answer calls on watch or get delays on notifications and eventually you will consume more power on watch. If you run the watch on bluetooth you will end up using more power on phone because of bluetooth so its a no win situation.
If you have a Lte model of watch and watch's phone number is the same with phone's or you dont care about notifications that comes to your watch, you can put watch on airplane mode but leave bluetooth on to consume less battery.