Running on Wi-Fi

Jerry Hildenbrand

Space Cowboy
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Oct 11, 2009
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Maybe.

The WiFi radio uses less power than the 3g radio. With equal signal strength or better you will save battery on WiFi, provided you set it up correctly. Open the wifi settings and hit the menu key. select advanced, then sleep policy. Set it to never.

OTOH, if your WiFi signal is weak and your 3g signal is strong, you may use more battery running WiFi. Try both ways and see.
 

Double Tap

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Feb 16, 2010
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Maybe.

The WiFi radio uses less power than the 3g radio. With equal signal strength or better you will save battery on WiFi, provided you set it up correctly. Open the wifi settings and hit the menu key. select advanced, then sleep policy. Set it to never.

OTOH, if your WiFi signal is weak and your 3g signal is strong, you may use more battery running WiFi. Try both ways and see.

Thanks for the info
 

tbonejazzcat

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Mar 27, 2010
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I'm currently trying this on my moment. When I'm in the office I do not have a strong 3G or cell signal. My question is, when I'm out of the office and on the road when 3G takes over is the Wifi going to continue to search for wireless networks and drain the battery?

Thanks.
 

imtravis

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Jan 1, 2010
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I believe WiFi keeps trying to find a signal. I use Locale and have it turn on my WiFi only when I'm at certain locations (i.e. home, family homes, etc.). It does help save the battery life some.
 

Adam Sawyer

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Feb 10, 2010
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I believe by default the Wifi radio sends out a signal every 30secs or so looking for any open networks, but you can turn this off. Also, when Wifi is connected, it does not use any extra power unless it is transmitting data.