Are there any advanatges of using WiFi over 4g?

[SeeD65]

Hello,

I have been using my Charge for about a week now and I really love the phone. The 4G is quite fast and is most times faster than my home WiFi. Since I have the unlimited data plan, would there be any advatange of using WiFi over 4g? Better battery life? anythig else that I am not thinking of?

Thanks!

 

[Gravytrain]

Battery life is about 10x better on wifi.

 

[saillling4life]

Battery life is about 10x better on wifi.

I agree 100% if you live in a weak 4g area. But if you live in a strong 4g area than it'll take up less battery.

 

[Gravytrain]

I agree 100% if you live in a weak 4g area. But if you live in a strong 4g area than it'll take up less battery.

I was in new Orleans all weekend with strong 4g strength and it shredded through batteries in 4 hours.

 

[rescueswimmer]

Like the others, while at home or work, I put on wifi and I have no issues getting 10+ hours of battery life out of my phone. 4G-3G I get 5-8 hours depending on use and strength. If you shut off data all together you can get days out of your "phone" Just some FYI

 

[Farabomb]

Was off the charger for 19+ hours while at home using the wireless. I have no issue with the battery life on this phone.

 

[Gnarnar]

Yep i get 4-5 hours with heavy use. To think that I thought my 7-8 hrs on my Blackberry was bad. Oh wow!

 

[shobuddy]

I don't have wifi at home but was at a friends house and used wifi on the Charge for the first time. My question is, how do I know whether the phone is using wifi or 4g? I didn't see any icons or notifications change on the phone.

 

[fundragon]

how do I know whether the phone is using wifi or 4g?

I see it as an icon difference in the status bar:

4G:

WiFi:

 

[shobuddy]

I see it as an icon difference in the status bar:

4G:

WiFi:

Thanks fundragon, I'll have to try it again. I connected to wifi but still recall seeing the 4G icon. Will go back and verify this.

 

[BeefJerky]

I agree 100% if you live in a weak 4g area. But if you live in a strong 4g area than it'll take up less battery.

Sailling4life's experience matches mine. With a good 4G signal, the phone will last longer on 4G than Wi-Fi. I honestly have no idea why some have such poor battery life in strong 4G ares (i.e. person below in New Orleans), unless they have a defective phone.

 

[turkishcoffee]

Thanks fundragon, I'll have to try it again. I connected to wifi but still recall seeing the 4G icon. Will go back and verify this.

You can have WIFI and mobile data turned on at the same time. If you just want one or the other you can turn them on/off by via the pull down menu. You can access this menu by dragging your finger down from the top of the screen. You can turn WIFI, GPS, Bluetooth, Mobile Data and Auto Brightness from here.

 

[BlueBiker]

• Unlimited is never truly unlimited. If you start going beyond 10GB or whatever, maybe Verizon will start throttling the connection.
• WiFi might be more reliable during stormy weather.
• WiFi connection might give you access to local wireless fileservers or printers.
• WiFi could follow you into the basement where LTE wouldn't reach.
• LTE speeds may degrade due to congestion as more people switch to LTE, but a FIOS/WiFi connection won't.
• Okay, that's all I got.

 

[shobuddy]

• Unlimited is never truly unlimited. If you start going beyond 10GB or whatever, maybe Verizon will start throttling the connection.

While I agree with most of what you said, do you have any basis for your first comment?

 

[BlueBiker]

No, I don't know anything specifically about Verizon. But it's generally true w/server resources that unlimited translates as "We won't tell you what is too much, but if you significantly exceed what 98% of our users consume, there may be subtle or unsubtle consequences." Comcast used to cut people off despite advertising unlimited bandwidth, but I think they've been lawyered into specifying 250GB now.

 

[winnersmw]

While I agree with most of what you said, do you have any basis for your first comment?

Verizon Wireless to Throttle Data of Heavy Users Starting Today

"Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren?t negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users."

 

[fundragon]

"Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle[...]

I can confirm that this wording was in my new contract when I bought my Charge in May.

 

[BlueBiker]

"Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren?t negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users."

FWIW, I don't have a problem w/those terms and especially the soft landing. Obviously nobody likes to feel constrained, but there are always going to be users who will otherwise leave their phones streaming video for an entire month or moving around multiple massive .ISO's just because they can, so I think it's reasonable for a carrier to say "Hey go have lots of fun but don't be a total idiot." And the My Verizon icon shows data usage, so it won't be a surprise if you start chewing through a lot.