Does "Wi-Fi preferred" save battery?

[MrDoh]

I spend a lot of time in an area with cellular that's not strong enough to use for calls, my home *smile*. So I'm currently using wi-fi calling full time. I'm wondering if "wi-fi preferred" uses less battery than "Mobile preferred" under the phone app wi-fi calling setting.

Seems like it should, since we have really good wi-fi all the time. So this should relieve the cell radio of struggling to maintain a usable signal level, where "Mobile preferred" may not do that.

Anyways, wonder what people are experiencing out there about this one? Always looking for some battery savings to help get through the day *smile*.

 

[Rukbat]

If cellular is weak, yes. It's not that one uses appreciably more or less power than the other, but the cellular system transmits at a higher power is the signal is weaker (if the tower's signal is weak getting to the phone, the phone's signal is weak getting to the tower), and transmitting more power costs more battery.

 

[B. Diddy]

That being said, I still find that weak signal will still cause some degree of battery drain, even if Wi-fi Calling Preferred is turned on. The only way to get rid of that would be to turn on Airplane Mode (to turn off the cell radio), then turn wi-fi back on -- I believe wi-fi calling should still work in these conditions, because it's worked for me in the past.

 

[MrDoh]

I was looking into some way of turning off the cell radio at home that was automated. There are apparently ways to do that, but my phone needs to be rooted. The problem with me is that I don't think about my phone when I leave the house, so I'm not likely to remember to turn the cell radio back on, and then remember to turn it off when I get home.

Too bad that the cell phone manufacturers don't add that as an option, turning off the cell radio when using wi-fi, and then turning it back on when leaving a wi-fi zone. Maybe too many edge conditions or something. But that would be a nice thing for a lot of us *smile*.

 

[B. Diddy]

Maybe with Tasker with AutoInput plugin? https://android.stackexchange.com/q...y-turn-on-airplane-mode-on-non-rooted-android

 

[MrDoh]

Well, I found out *smile*. Short term testing today shows almost 3% per hour battery charge loss. Compared to about 1% per hour on "Cellular preferred" yesterday.

Hmmmph, had to try it. Too bad...don't really understand why it's so much worse, but that's okay. Good to know.