Is LTE gonna kill the battery life?

KoukiFC3S

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I read that the new snapdragon S4 has the LTE radio built in, unlike the old LTE phones.

Is this true? If so, the battery life will be much better, no?
 

Glenn

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Yes, it's true. It's widely believed to be the reason why the US version of the One X is using the dual-core Snapdragon S4 chip, instead of the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 seen in the international version.

Snapdragon S4 is also going to support a wide array of hardware on the chip itself. It has always been Qualcomm?s policy to integrate the cellular modem with the SoC, whereas other manufacturers rely on external components for that. The S4 will support on-die LTE, HSPA+, and CDMA radios ? making it the first ever SoC to integrate LTE radio, and also the first 28nm LTE part. That means longer lasting, thinner, lighter devices.
 
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Starfleet Captain

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It will probably still eat the heck out the battery at first. That is how all new 4G tech works... Remember how bad things were when the OG Evo and Thunderbolt came out? There will probably be updates soon after that will improve the battery life. That's how these things usually works. That being said, I do believe that HTC has learned from past mistakes and have more experience in this area, so the battery drain won't be as severe. I'm willing to bet though, that you still will not be able to make through a full day, with moderate use, with the LTE radio TURNED ON.
 

Droid800

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Yes, it's true. It's widely believed to be the reason why the US version of the One X is using the dual-core Snapdragon S4 chip, instead of the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 seen in the international version.

No, the reason why the LTE version uses the S4 is because tegra 3 is not compatible with LTE basebands yet. If it was, they would have gone with the quad core.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 

apinkel

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No, the reason why the LTE version uses the S4 is because tegra 3 is not compatible with LTE basebands yet. If it was, they would have gone with the quad core.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

He is right, and so are you.

The msm8960 has the LTE baseband integrated onto the SOC so for LTE based phones it makes a lot of sense to go with this over the tegra 3. In addition tegra 3 supposedly couldnt' be integrated with an LTE baseband in time for the release of the One series phones including the Evo.

As far as battery life goes... the MSM8960 is built on a 28nm process and should (in theory) be quite a bit more battery efficient then current gen LTE radio. But how much of a difference the new radio makes is anyone's guess at this point. I just hope the additional 200mah is enough to offset the LTE radio draw.
 

KoukiFC3S

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That S4 processor is really exciting. I hope Sprint will roll out their LTE rather quickly.

I was so excited for WiMax back in the days, but that didn't turn out so well. :'(
 
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Jaggrey

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No one knows at this point if the LTE radio will be turned on at launch for the Evo right? It's disabled by default on the Galaxy Nexus I believe until the update comes out to enable it.
 

Lorak

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According to reports The lte radio won't be disabled. It will just be turned off by default. You can still toggle it on. The update that will be pushed later will just reverse this. So its on by default and you'll have to turn it off

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
 

Droid800

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No one knows at this point if the LTE radio will be turned on at launch for the Evo right? It's disabled by default on the Galaxy Nexus I believe until the update comes out to enable it.

Its not disabled, its just turned off.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 

Auzo

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It doesn't matter. No one is going to get lte anyways. Its sprint after all.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

Back in the early days of Wimax you could sometimes get service when they were testing it out before it was officially rolled out. In LA area there were a couple weeks that it was pretty much fully on before being officially announced. That was fun :p
 

Crispy

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Those are just cpu benchmarks. No one knows what the power draw and battery profile will be like with an actual LTE signal, and no one has done tests that show real world battery life.

Well, Sprint knows for sure, but they aren't going to release that info :)
 

apinkel

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Those are just cpu benchmarks. No one knows what the power draw and battery profile will be like with an actual LTE signal, and no one has done tests that show real world battery life.

Well, Sprint knows for sure, but they aren't going to release that info :)

Yeah, that's the big questionmark. I like everything I've heard to-date about the Evo but the LTE battery life is still the thing I want... no wait, NEED, more info on.
 

blacksapphire08

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It will probably still eat the heck out the battery at first. That is how all new 4G tech works... Remember how bad things were when the OG Evo and Thunderbolt came out? There will probably be updates soon after that will improve the battery life. That's how these things usually works. That being said, I do believe that HTC has learned from past mistakes and have more experience in this area, so the battery drain won't be as severe. I'm willing to bet though, that you still will not be able to make through a full day, with moderate use, with the LTE radio TURNED ON.

Wrong. Not all 4G tech eats battery life like crazy. GSM phones using HSPA+ dont and the speeds can be just as fast as LTE. I think the only reason everyone is jumping on the LTE bandwagon is because it uses a different bandwidth than traditional 3G signals.
 

apinkel

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The marketing guys call HSPA+ 4G but the technophiles don't. I don't really care which one of these groups you find yourself in so to clarify it's probably better to state that LTE and wimax radios to date have provided poor battery life.
 

Starfleet Captain

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Wrong. Not all 4G tech eats battery life like crazy. GSM phones using HSPA+ dont and the speeds can be just as fast as LTE. I think the only reason everyone is jumping on the LTE bandwagon is because it uses a different bandwidth than traditional 3G signals.

Oh, Im sorry. I was speaking of actual 4G tech. Not 3g tech that's been spruced up to look like 4g. LTE burns battery. That is a fact. Perhaps the s4 will make the loss marginal, but it will still be bad.
 

philb#AC

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I can live with that, having no removable battery is an issue, my understanding is that when not on LTE the battery last up to 16 hours. I use my phone when I am working to listen to podcasts. I download them at home before leaving so no streaming is less drain. I think this phone will work for me, since I am not buying until July I will have more information than those who buy on day one. Android Central podcast is great because they don't pull punches on reviews.
 

anon(94115)

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Having had a TB and now my beloved Charge, things were night and day between the two. The TB ate my battery whole. I mean it didnt even taste it, just swallowed. My Charge is much better. On the stock battery, on a day when I am just in the office streaming music and surfing a bit (not using the companies wifi), I can get 8-10 Hours out of a charge.

heavy use means going through and extended battery and a half (I mean that literally).

Even after all the TB updates i was lucky to get 4-5 Hours out of it. I won't have the problems that you guys do(not sure if VZW will get the One X or if I would want it), but I am obviously a power user and a non-removable battery is a non-starter for me.

Use your Wifi when you can, when you don't need the Phone, throw it into airplane mode.
 

Starfleet Captain

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Having had to deal with the Evo for about 2 years, I have learned how to manage battery life. Basically, I leave my phone in 3G mode when NOT IN USE. Even when I'm doing some light browsing, I leave it in 3G. Also, I spend quite a bit of time on a wifi network. Now when I need to break out the heavy artillery and I'm not on wifi:

(streaming music) -- 4 times a week
(youtube) - about twice a week
(streaming movies netflix) - once a month
(streaming hulu) - twice a month
(downloading/updating apps) - 5 times a week
(video calling/chatting) - once or twice a week

Then, I turn on the 4G radio. On the flip side, I would love to have a phone where I can leave the 4g turned on, (or it can manage the two data networks on its own) and be fine without me having to REMEMBER TO SHUT IT OFF if I want to save my battery.
 
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