Do you leave 4G on?

[johnnyshinta]

I know some people think the nexus has poor battery life. Do you turn 4G off to mitigate that issue?

I personally don't have 4G in my office building and at home I use wifi. I'm thinking of turning it off but I know without 4G I can't get simultaneous voice and data

 

[dsuppa]

i leave it turned off all the time, especially if Im not in an area that has it. Whenever I go somewhere that has it, I'll turn it on only when I'm using it, no need to keep it on all the time.

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

I've left 4G on since March (had a Thunderbolt prior to the Galaxy Nexus). Everywhere I go has 4G. I honestly haven't had any major issues with battery life with either phone.

 

[rcpa]

I've turned off 4G and only turn it on when I really need it, like when streaming video. I haven't noticed that the speed made much difference in things like browsing and I certainly don't need my background data like email downloaded on a high speed network. I prefer longer battery life to receiving email faster in the background.

It would be ideal if the phone could switch from 3G to 4G quickly without disrupting the data connection and then the high speed 4G network for foreground data and the lower power 3G network for background data. That way it could just switch on the 4G when the screen is on. Unfortunately, the technology doesn't support that.

 

[johnnyshinta]

Does 4G yield noticeably better quality for pandora or streaming from Amazon cloud player?

 

[davidnc]

As others have said I leave 4g on when Im in a 4g area,I leave it set on 4g even if on WiFi's then too.
When I am at work its not a 4g area so I just have it set on 3g then .

 

[trmoney24]

i also leave mine on 3G most of the time. at home and work i have wi-fi. all my friend's places have wi-fi. in the car when i'm driving, there's no need for 4G since I can't really use the phone much and google maps works fine on 3G. Music streaming is fine as well with 3G. so really i just turn on 4G when i need it. wish there was a 4G toggle widget that worked. i have "LTE switcher" which is good enough for now i guess.

Also you guys should check out "y5 battery saver". it turns on your wi-fi automatically in known areas by remembering the voice cell networks around. works pretty good for me.
few issues which aren't too bad:
1. when you happen to be connected to a different voice network than what was "remembered" by the app, you'll have to manually turn on your wi-fi.
2. if you are in a big city and go down the street, Y5 will keep your wi-fi on since it thinks you are in the area.
3. in order to turn off your wi-fi in a known wi-fi area like in scenario 2, you have to turn off Y5. otherwise it will keep turning your wi-fi back on when you turn it off.

 

[Blitzdroid]

I also have 4g off most of the time. I get very bad 4g signal in the office building which either kills the battery. Or it switches between 3g and 4g which sometimes lead to no data connection.

 

[IamHydrogen]

i also leave mine on 3G most of the time. at home and work i have wi-fi. all my friend's places have wi-fi. in the car when i'm driving, there's no need for 4G since I can't really use the phone much and google maps works fine on 3G. Music streaming is fine as well with 3G. so really i just turn on 4G when i need it. wish there was a 4G toggle widget that worked. i have "LTE switcher" which is good enough for now i guess.

Also you guys should check out "y5 battery saver". it turns on your wi-fi automatically in known areas by remembering the voice cell networks around. works pretty good for me.
few issues which aren't too bad:
1. when you happen to be connected to a different voice network than what was "remembered" by the app, you'll have to manually turn on your wi-fi.
2. if you are in a big city and go down the street, Y5 will keep your wi-fi on since it thinks you are in the area.
3. in order to turn off your wi-fi in a known wi-fi area like in scenario 2, you have to turn off Y5. otherwise it will keep turning your wi-fi back on when you turn it off.

I always have mine on in the Chicago suburbs. I have wifi @ home and @ work so I leave that on all the time too. I easily make it all day...usually with @ least 20% left at bedtime around 11.

 

[Koolthulu]

I have 4G turned off all the time, because it is the only way to stop constantly losing service. Being able to make/receive calls > fast data.

 

[Danv1369]

I have 4G and wifi on all the time. In the office I get 1-2 bars on 4G, but outside the office I get 4 bars most of the time. At home I use wifi but still leave 4G on. With moderate use I get about 12-14 hours on a single charge.

In regards to Johnnyshinta's question, I use Google Music to stream my music and I notice better quality on 4G.

 

[ScooberJake]

I leave mine in 3G right now, turn 4G on when I need it which isn't very often. I just got the extended battery, and once I get a good feel for the battery life I may give 4G a try to see how it does. I think I have decent signal.

 

[anon(357286)]

On all the time i live in NYC.

 

[samkatz]

I leave it on 3g most of the time. I find that for web browsing, even 3g is much faster than I've seen on other phones. I switch to 4g if I'm doing a lot of downloading or streaming video. I don't mind since we're not paying more per month for 4g and I bought the phone for it's other features...not just for 4g. I think we all know that 4g is really still in "beta"....

 

[Wildo6882]

I turn it off unless I'm using it for something like downloading apps or streaming music or videos. I'm in a 4G area, but I'm also really close to the boonies, so it switches to 3G frequently, so there's really no sense in leaving it on. Like some of you, I find that 3G is enough for most everyday needs. I don't need my emails coming in at lightning speeds, it's really unnecessary. I got the phone for everything else it provides, not 4G...that's just a bonus when I want it.

 

[zulu308]

too lazy to switch back and forth so I just leave it on.

 

[jakeh0]

i turn it off if i will be away from a charger for a long time

 

[jpbass7]

From what I understand (and I'm happy to be corrected on any of this), the phone switching from 3G to 4G really kills the battery. So, being in an 'edge' area will negatively impact battery life. For me, 4G seems to use more battery, but it's not as big of a difference as I had expected. I have unlimited data, so I tend to leave 4G on when I leave the house (where I use wi-fi).

If you are rooted and rom-ed, there is a one-touch toggle that works pretty well for me. You can check it out at [LTE][Tasker] BAMF LTE Widget v0.3 [01/11/2012] - RootzWiki

 

[lakaw]

Always on. Battery life is good, but not great like the Rezound I had previously.

 

[MRW1215]

I leave 4G turned on, and my battery life tends to be just fine. Of course, I use Juice Defender which, to my understanding, turns data off when the screen is not on, so that probably helps to a certain degree.