Do you always keep GPS on?

[Joe113]

Do you always keep GPS on and do you think it truly wastes battery when turned on? I am debating on whether or not to always keep it on, wanna know what ya'll think.

 

[Almeuit]

No clue if it affects battery but I only have it on when needed since I don't GPS all the time.

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC forums.

 

[EndlessDissent]

I keep it on all the time, along with LTE and NFC, and I get, on average, 20 hours of life with about 2 and a half hours screen on time.

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

Nope, only when using sensorly or ingress

Sent from my Samsung galaxy s3 running AOKP 4.2.2

No,you did not misread that

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I leave it on so that it's ready when I want to use an app that requires it, like Nav. I don't see it impacting battery at all except when I'm using something like Navigation.

Many location services WILL use the GPS, though, so I have most of those turned off.

 

[Paul627g]

Nah, all my devices rooted or stock I've always taken the moment to toggle it on and off as needed.

 

[Deadly_Poison630]

Nope. Though I do have a profile in Tasker that turns GPS on when I enter certain apps (Like google maps)

 

[j_grouchy]

I just leave it on. Toggling is a waste of time and leaving it off didn't save my battery any when I tried.

 

[rando991]

I keep mine on all the time. I used to always turn it off when I had the Epic, but later left it on and couldn't tell a difference.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[scipio11111]

Okay, just about every article on how to save battery life says to keep gps turned off until you need it. Is this an urban legend or what? Oh Skunkape, where are you?!

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Okay, just about every article on how to save battery life says to keep gps turned off until you need it. Is this an urban legend or what? Oh Skunkape, where are you?!

On older versions of Android, it was true. On JB (and I believe ICS), the OS itself will turn the GPS antenna on and off as necessary. See post #4 in this thread:

SGSIII / General Android Battery Tips (Can triple battery life!) | Updated 8/27/12 - xda-developers

 

[EndlessDissent]

On older versions of Android, it was true. On JB (and I believe ICS), the OS itself will turn the GPS antenna on and off as necessary. See post #4 in this thread:

SGSIII / General Android Battery Tips (Can triple battery life!) | Updated 8/27/12 - xda-developers

That, plus the fact that the newer SoCs are just generally more power efficient helps a lot. Pretty soon, even actively using GPS will draw minimal current. New technology is awesome.

 

[sicunder36]

It's a given that GPS will drain battery no matter how efficient the machine gets - efficient on not all cars need fuel - Same funda applies here.
But I am not here to reiterate the obvious. I will give 2 examples where keeping Gps on is a must ( and I am not talking about navigation)
1. Geotagging of notes like in Evernote - helps in narrowing down search results based on location.
2. Location based reminders in Google keep and Google now.

So if you have that kind of work that requires similar services then you have no other option. Try to avoid buying phones without removable battery (back cover) including eye candy toys like iphone6 and S6 Edge. It's a real shame Samsung is becoming more & more apple-y - with tizen release. No sPen based ATIV PC in last 2 years.