Anybody running their phone on 3G only?

[Scout_313]

If so, I was wondering if you could comment on the battery life that you're experiencing. I took my Bionic back due to the horrible battery life on 4G and now realize I should have taken a few days to test it out on 3G only. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[shadowsjc]

improves it by a couple of hours, but don't expect a miracle.

 

[jtpterp]

Solid 14-16 hours with moderate to heavy usage on 3G only

 

[scottfree]

3g only right here. 6 hours is the best I can get when I actually use the phone. That's 3 hours display on. 11 hours is what I managed with a display on time of 1.5 hours. Best I can do without shutting down syncs and background data. Not so much an issue for me though because I'm on the road a lot and can stay plugged in. still disappointing though

 

[JOEKC]

I don't have 4G available yet (Nov?) but I doubt I'll keep the 4G radio on when it arrives. Why keep 4G turned on if you're mostly getting voice and data that works just as well on 3G? So far my battery life has been better than I expected actually. Go into Settings and turn off 4G untill you really need it. You'll be much happier, folks.

 

[anon(392870)]

Based solely on one day it seemed to massively extend my battery life. Since I have wifi at work (and don't use my phone a ton) I tried flipping off 4G today and just running 3G/Wifi. After 9.5 Hours my battery was 70%. Compare that to 15% running on 4G.

For me, light usage means about 1.5-2 Hrs of display time, some texting, maybe download an app or 2, and do things on off throughout the day but never for an extended period of time.

 

[monger]

I got around 15 hours out of it today running 3g only with moderate usage. It's lot better than my mytouch 4g got.

 

[sixfootsideburns]

15 hours? Are you people serious? Damn... I would guess 24-36 hours or so with standard usage (given 5-7 hours at night while I'm sleeping the phone is just sitting there)... I don't do anything real heavy with my phone, but I do consistently use it throughout the day... Then again I also don't charge my phone just because the battery isn't full. Its bad for Li-ion batteries to be charged all the time because it reduces its number of cycles.

Deep discharging is bad, but I typically don't plug my phone in unless the battery is at 30-40% or lower, or if I know I'm going some where and need a full charge I'll plug it in.

Edit: and I only run on 3G, no 4G where I live

 

[stoneynumbnuts]

On 3g I get 14-15 hours with moderate usage. Not bad. It will usually make it through the day. Better than some other Android phones I've owned

 

[carzaddict]

im running 3G........... im at work most of the day and barely use the phone for anything other than texts.....it only makes sense to now let my phone chug power for no reason

when I need it, ill turn on 4G

 

[saltysteve]

4G off and only used when needed. I get around 11 hours of hard tapatalk use. I also over my screen to black with white letters and I think that helps alot

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[LBTRS]

I went from around 7 hours of use with 4G on (i live and work in a 4G area) to around 16 hours with moderate data use and only a couple of calls in 3G only mode.

 

[ltfrazer]

If so, I was wondering if you could comment on the battery life that you're experiencing. I took my Bionic back due to the horrible battery life on 4G and now realize I should have taken a few days to test it out on 3G only. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I've been running it at 3G since 7:30 am it's now 3:00pm and I'm at 60%. I've been moderate use at work with emails, a phone calls, a couple of searches, some market downloads, playing around with it, some music. No games. It's not at good as my OG was at this point in time. I should point out that I live and work in a 4G area and turned off the 4G to save on battery life. No need to suck battery when the phone basically is sitting on my desk all day long!

 

[sux2bu]

If I didn't have an extra battery I would switch off 4G when I'm not using it. But there is no point in having an extra battery if I'm not going to use it. I get about 9 hours with they thing on full performance and 4G.

 

[D1andOnlyOmen]

I don't have 4G in my area yet so have had it set to CDMA only since day one (got it on launch day)....I use WiFi when I'm at home, otherwise on 3G with pretty much no restriction to data connection (i.e. on all the time) and I really feel like I've been using it quite a bit - not sure I'd consider it "heavy", not been doing a lot of music or video streaming, but first Android phone so have been spending a lot of time with the phone/display on getting familiar with the OS, messing with settings, trying out different looks, downloading various apps (most of what I've used the data connection for at this point) and getting addicted to that stupid X Construction game! LOL But since Thursday, I've managed to get about 15-16 hours of use per day......some of those days I've plugged it in to a USB port for brief periods, so it's gotten a little extra charge....but not a ton. Got it at Costco so got all the dock (which I really haven't used) but I figure I have plenty of options to juice the phone up when necessary as my usage patterns change......and we'll hopefully be getting 4G by years end...

 

[KTamez]

3G only here. I was dissapointed in the battery some. I've made some small changes here and there to help it out and now I'm fairly satisfied batterywise overall. I had a couple apps that KILLED the battery. Super KO Boxing 2 for instance. I downloaded so my kids can play it on the weekends, but I ran it for just a couple minutes to download the necessary extra file framework and started the app to make sure it ran ok. Got out of it and went on about my business. Looked later in the day and it had taken 10% of the 70% of the battery used (down to 30%).

I can foresee an app in the future switching 4g off/on depending on the state of the phone though.

Today 4hr 38minutes since off the charger and at 80% with moderate, but not HARD usage. Some web, downloaded an app, played with some settings, a couple phone calls, some texts, etc

I don't know weather its my tweaks I've made, but the battery continually gets better each day.

 

[Rhuarc]

3G only here. I was dissapointed in the battery some. I've made some small changes here and there to help it out and now I'm fairly satisfied batterywise overall. I had a couple apps that KILLED the battery. Super KO Boxing 2 for instance. I downloaded so my kids can play it on the weekends, but I ran it for just a couple minutes to download the necessary extra file framework and started the app to make sure it ran ok. Got out of it and went on about my business. Looked later in the day and it had taken 10% of the 70% of the battery used (down to 30%).

I can foresee an app in the future switching 4g off/on depending on the state of the phone though.

Today 4hr 38minutes since off the charger and at 80% with moderate, but not HARD usage. Some web, downloaded an app, played with some settings, a couple phone calls, some texts, etc

I don't know weather its my tweaks I've made, but the battery continually gets better each day.

This is what I want to use Tasker for. I want to turn off 4G when the screen is off so that it is only using 3G. Then when I turn on the screen it connects to 4G. This way I get the benefits of the faster connection when I need it, but it still connects to data all of the time with less battery usage.

 

[mbentley3]

I have been running my Bionic on 3G most of the day while working. Only time I switch is when I want 4G for web browsing, watching videos or downloading.

I get 10-12 hours with that method, with light/moderate usages.

 

[dirtbiker0025]

I have been running my Bionic on 3G most of the day while working. Only time I switch is when I want 4G for web browsing, watching videos or downloading.

I get 10-12 hours with that method, with light/moderate usages.

yeah i get full 4g here and after a few days of leaving it on, im now getting into the habbit of using 3g mostly for all my data sycs and when i wanna web browse or look for maps a few clicks and back to 4g, noticed a huge difference in battery since

 

[glock813]

I live in an "extended" coverage 4G area, which equates to no 4G coverage at all! On 3G only with light to moderate usage, I am at 50% right now after about 13 1/2 hours...