Wifi and battery life

[Blaalad12]

Just curious guys, I usually leave wifi on all day esp when iam at home all day but lets say i have wifi connected all day but iam not using the internet, would this cause much battery drain? Would it be better to just toggle off and on as i use it?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

The answer is really "it depends." On many factors.

The "internet" isn't the only thing that uses data. If you get emails during the day, or notifications from Facebook, use Google Maps, play Words with Friends, or any of a dozen other things you're using data. And if you're using data, that has to go across either WiFi or 3G / 4G. If you're truly using no data at all, then turning off both WiFi and wireless data (3g/4g) will use quite a bit less battery than leaving either data on. But that means no notifications from outside your phone, no email, no facebook, no nothing. Even a lot of games need data connectivity these days.

Assuming you're going to use some data, the question is which is more efficient WiFi or 3g or 4g. Even here, the answer is "it depends." Signal strength is at least as important as connection type.Assuming you have strong signals, WiFi is much more efficient that 3g, which is more efficient than 4g LTE. But a strong 3G/4G signal may be better than a very weak WiFi connection.

One more thing: when you turn WiFi on, the phone automatically turns off 3g/4g. When you turn WiFi off, those radios will be turned back on. So turning WiFi off may make battery life worse. To really save power, you'll need to turn both WiFi and 3g/4g data off.

Finally, the single biggest battery hog on your phone is the screen. If you have the screen on 4 or 5 hours a day, nothing you do with the radios will be nearly as noticeable.

So to answer your question, yes, if you really don't need background data at all, then turning off both WiFi and 3g/4g will save a lot of battery power. Personally, I would rather use my phone the way it was intended, getting email and other notifications in (more or less) real time, than disconnect my phone from the world to get a few extra hours of battery life.

 

[Blaalad12]

Informative response, thank you