What's better for battery health: Draining fast in low reception? Or Turning airplane mode on/off?

[soccerdude21490]

Hey everyone,

I got a new job in the past couple of months that is in a strange reception area where I can go from having 3 bars to having none depending where I am in the building, and that's different all the time. It seems some days that my battery will drain quickly even though I'm not using it because of the low-reception, so I often time just keep it on airplane mode for a couple of hours as I don't use my phone much except for during breaks.

But for some reason I just feel that isn't the most "healthy" thing for my device/battery (turning airplane mode on and off 4 times a day), but I'd imagine letting it drain somewhat quickly everyday just because of low reception isn't the best thing for it either.

With an upgrade coming in the next month, I'm curious to hear the community's thoughts! Thanks!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hey everyone,

I got a new job in the past couple of months that is in a strange reception area where I can go from having 3 bars to having none depending where I am in the building, and that's different all the time. It seems some days that my battery will drain quickly even though I'm not using it because of the low-reception, so I often time just keep it on airplane mode for a couple of hours as I don't use my phone much except for during breaks.

But for some reason I just feel that isn't the most "healthy" thing for my device/battery (turning airplane mode on and off 4 times a day), but I'd imagine letting it drain somewhat quickly everyday just because of low reception isn't the best thing for it either.

With an upgrade coming in the next month, I'm curious to hear the community's thoughts! Thanks!

Using airplane mode just kills power to your cell radios. Nothing harmful can come from that. Severe drains on the battery are debatable.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[Paul627g]

It really isn't going to matter on the overall battery life. Batteries are designed to take up to XXXX amount of charges and discharges before signs of failure set in unless some unforeseen reason it fails early. What that XXXXX number is I'm not sure but common practice a battery should give most the average 2 year lifespan (on contract) of your device. Not to say it can't go shorter or longer.

Yes its true due to changes in your reception quality the device is working hard to maintain connection so your battery is taking a hit from it. Placing it in and out of airplane mode is not going to do any harm but as you have found it will help preserve your battery more especially when you don't need to be connected to mobile signal/data.

 

[Scott Kenyon]

It really isn't going to matter on the overall battery life. Batteries are designed to take up to XXXX amount of charges and discharges before signs of failure set in unless some unforeseen reason it fails early. What that XXXXX number is I'm not sure but common practice a battery should give most the average 2 year lifespan (on contract) of your device. Not to say it can't go shorter or longer.

Yes its true due to changes in your reception quality the device is working hard to maintain connection so your battery is taking a hit from it. Placing it in and out of airplane mode is not going to do any harm but as you have found it will help preserve your battery more especially when you don't need to be connected to mobile signal/data.

This is accurate. OEMs test a battery so many times and rate lifespan in cycles (charges and discharges). Speed of drain won't affect lifespan.
HTC may test a battery for 100000 cycles while Samsung would test 125000 cycles. I made that up to illustrate the point, in a test lab that is how "life" is determined.
If you have wifi in the building, perhaps just turn off the cellular radio and keep wifi on.

Sent from my HTC One using Mobile Nations mobile app

 

[srkmagnus]

Disabling mobile, turning off wifi and bluetooth will help as well and you'll still have network connection for calls. I have the same problem and often see a difference with the above suggestions and still keep calls.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2