4G or wifi for battery life?

[benoit808]

I work from home so I spend most of the day close to my wifi router. I have been wondering lately if it wouldn't be better for me, as far as battery life goes, to just keep my wifi on. Isn't wifi using less battery than 4G? I could even download one of those apps that would turn my wifi on/off when I am close/far to my house.

Is that a bad idea or would I be saving a little on battery?

 

[Droid800]

I work from home so I spend most of the day close to my wifi router. I have been wondering lately if it wouldn't be better for me, as far as battery life goes, to just keep my wifi on. Isn't wifi using less battery than 4G? I could even download one of those apps that would turn my wifi on/off when I am close/far to my house.

Is that a bad idea or would I be saving a little on battery?

It depends. T-mobile's HSPA+ network is pretty light on battery, so you'd probably be fine just leaving it on normal 4G. If you use wifi it turns off the radios anyways, so it comes out to be about the same.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I noticed today that wifi uses a LOT less battery. I read a little and it made a lot of sense. Once on a wifi connection it doesn't have to refresh that connection at all. On the cell network it does, so it has to poll more.

 

[BarfingMonkey]

What? HSPA is light on the battery? Strange, since there is an option to use 2g to save on battery.

It depends. T-mobile's HSPA+ network is pretty light on battery, so you'd probably be fine just leaving it on normal 4G. If you use wifi it turns off the radios anyways, so it comes out to be about the same.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

This is in comparison to LTE and wimax. It's 3G so yes it's easier than those other two on battery. Going to 2G only on ANY phone will give you awesome battery life.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk

 

[ROne21]

I work from home so I spend most of the day close to my wifi router. I have been wondering lately if it wouldn't be better for me, as far as battery life goes, to just keep my wifi on. Isn't wifi using less battery than 4G? I could even download one of those apps that would turn my wifi on/off when I am close/far to my house.

Is that a bad idea or would I be saving a little on battery?

Good question....but if I'm at home, battery life is my least concern as I can just grab the charger and leave the phone plugged.

Now that you mentioned this, when I'm at work, I noticed that my battery last a considerable amount longer versus when I'm at home. At work, I'm always connected to wifi as our office is in the basement so signal is nonexistent. This is where wifi-calling is handy. This feature is a big plus for me. I guess I can also use my wifi connection at home but 4G is so much faster than my internet connection.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I went three days on the myTouch 4G with wifi calling enabled.

Haven't dove into it yet with this.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk

 

[steveo1198]

I noticed today that wifi uses a LOT less battery. I read a little and it made a lot of sense. Once on a wifi connection it doesn't have to refresh that connection at all. On the cell network it does, so it has to poll more.

I agree with this, seeing as how I live in a valley and don't really get very good cell reception from any carrier, I run my G2X off my wifi. I can leave it on wifi all day and not even drain the battery. When my phone is only set to mobile network, the battery drain is very substantial. My only complaint which I posted in another thread was the audio quality was very poor. Not saying it's my phone, it's most likely my wifi or is catching some interference. I would give the wifi a try and set your network to auto-assign your phone its own ip address using dhcp so your router isn't auto-assigning it a new ip address every time your phone connects to it.

 

[r3g]

Wifi uses significantly less battery than 3g and 4g. So having wifi calling enabled will make your battery life epic because when its on it turns off the network radio

 

[JNM]

Leaving the G2x on Wifi, even if just for data and not the calling feature, will save a significant amount of charge. I have noticed quite a difference on mine. On wifi it easily can last through a long work day. On the mobile network I charge by 5 pm regularly.

In addition, the G2x seems to run through the battery more quickly than other phones when on the mobile network so definitely take advantage of Wifi when you can.

 

[r3g]

Which other phones are you comparing it to? I've only owned this phone and the Vibrant and battery life on this phone is twice as good as the Vibrant.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

MyTouch 4G has better battery life by a large margin.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk

 

[r3g]

Really????? I have one of those and they seem pretty much even

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Two days on the myTouch. Half that on the g2x. Same usage. BUT the g2x has had zero updates and it's pretty much brand new hardware.

It won't be fully optimized until Ice Cream Sandwich.

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