lte only? or CDMA+LTE

[frellingfrakker]

I'm in a strong LTE area (Atlanta) and I keep mine in LTE mode. The battery life is just as good as 3g only (I usually only charge at night). I'm pretty sure LTE/3G auto drains the battery faster because it keeps polling for LTE. I don't think LTE in itself is a battery hog.

 

[anon(394005)]

I'm in a strong LTE area (Atlanta) and I keep mine in LTE mode. The battery life is just as good as 3g only (I usually only charge at night). I'm pretty sure LTE/3G auto drains the battery faster because it keeps polling for LTE. I don't think LTE in itself is a battery hog.

I agree that LTE itself isn't a battery hog. At least not from my experience. The only real drain is from using the phone heavily when enjoying the fast speeds! Otherwise, LTE has actually improved my battery life. I think that has a lot to do with the strong signal (-50 to -70dBm) which prevents the phone from having to work much to maintain a connection. I'd equate it to how many switch to Wi-Fi to conserve battery with the idea that the phone doesn't have to work as hard to maintain a connection to a strong local signal versus a cell tower farther away. As a comparison, my home PC's typically have similar Wi-Fi signal strength (slightly better the closer I get to the router) as the phone does to LTE. Another thing that backs this up is that the only time I've ever really experienced poor battery life is when in weak signal areas (3G only or LTE).

 

[johnriii]

I'm in a strong LTE area (Atlanta) and I keep mine in LTE mode. The battery life is just as good as 3g only (I usually only charge at night). I'm pretty sure LTE/3G auto drains the battery faster because it keeps polling for LTE. I don't think LTE in itself is a battery hog.

this is a very good point, and initially my first supposition was that LTE/CDMA auto would drain the battery faster as the phone is constantly searching for a signal. I'm very close to Rooting anyway, but in the meantime, I will continue my "tests" to see which works best. KC just got 4G in mid November, so I'm going to put the signal to the test tonight.

 

[johnriii]

whoops! I already put "LTE mode" to the test last night. I'm going with CDMA only tonight to see if I drop less than 30%.

another quick question: can anyone say definitively that rooting helps battery life? from the research on this site and others, the answer is yes and no. with my limited knowledge of what to do "under the hood" of my phone, I'm going to need help after I root. I know for sure I'm removing most if not all of the bloatware, but I'm hearing it's not quite that simple. we'll cross that bridge when we come to it....

 

[johnriii]

It's just before 0600, and on CDMA auto/only, I'm at 81%. 19% drop from when I unplugged @ 10 pm last night. I guess this means 3G does use less battery than 4G, but it's not a mind-blowing difference, IMO. My last test will be with CDMA+LTE mode, which I believe will be a much bigger battery pull, even with the "battery saver" app on the phone. but we shall see......

 

[gtheg]

I have had my phone in 4g only since I got it back in April.as a moderate user I got a full day out of my phone.work the rezound battery I now get a full two days of use.the only time my phone has seen 3g is when the network went down.video streaming is the biggest drain for sure.