To wifi or not to wifi

[brava27]

Main question is does wifi consume more battery than 4g? Or about the same?

 

[Rev2010]

No, wifi uses significantly less battery life than 4G LTE. If you're concerned about battery life or data usage it's a good idea to jump on wifi when you can.


Rev.

 

[brava27]

Awesome just like blackberry. Makes sense. Thank you

 

[Soundtrack to Chaos]

ive been using wifi because i have sprint's 3g atm

 

[NIKSTORM]

What about speed ? On my Dinc 3g only I see night and day difference in speed. Will 4 g be faster than WiFi ?
I doubt it , bit might as well ask.

 

[Rev2010]

What about speed ? On my Dinc 3g only I see night and day difference in speed. Will 4 g be faster than WiFi ?
I doubt it , bit might as well ask.

Well wifi has a theoretically maximum bandwidth of 54 megabits but is more commonly around up to 36 megabits if the back end bandwidth is there. Wifi is often shared though as well so the speeds are almost never as good as wired speeds. On the flip side 4G LTE speeds also vary depending on location and the amount of people using it in the area.

I'd done some tests and so far I've hit a whopping 3859 *kilobytes* per second download over 4G (I prefer Kilobytes over Megabits as it's easier to correlate to real world downloads). That is insanely fast! I am paying extra to my cable company for "boosted" speeds so I get up to 30 megabits at home with it more typically around 25 megabits max. That 4G LTE speed I hit blows past that! So 4G LTE I would say is very often way way faster than public wifi networks. If you have a home connection at 25 megabits and no one else is on your router downloading I would say the speeds could be faster or could be slower - that would depend on the 4G connection in your area.

Sorry for the long winded response.


Rev.

 

[val31178]

I think it will all depend on the wifi connection. If your on one that is being shared and used by many devices thats going to cut into the speed.

 

[NIKSTORM]

Well wifi has a theoretically maximum bandwidth of 54 megabits but is more commonly around up to 36 megabits if the back end bandwidth is there. Wifi is often shared though as well so the speeds are almost never as good as wired speeds. On the flip side 4G LTE speeds also vary depending on location and the amount of people using it in the area.

I'd done some tests and so far I've hit a whopping 3859 *kilobytes* per second download over 4G (I prefer Kilobytes over Megabits as it's easier to correlate to real world downloads). That is insanely fast! I am paying extra to my cable company for "boosted" speeds so I get up to 30 megabits at home with it more typically around 25 megabits max. That 4G LTE speed I hit blows past that! So 4G LTE I would say is very often way way faster than public wifi networks. If you have a home connection at 25 megabits and no one else is on your router downloading I would say the speeds could be faster or could be slower - that would depend on the 4G connection in your area.

Sorry for the long winded response.


Rev.

So you have no idea then .....
Just kidding thanks for the great technical response. I use private WiFi at my house. How do I test connection speeds ? 3g , 4g , WiFi

 

[tekhna]

In the end, it's not going to matter. 80% of your battery use is going to come from the screen. You're just fiddling around the margins with wifi vs cell data.

 

[firetruck41]

So you have no idea then .....
Just kidding thanks for the great technical response. I use private WiFi at my house. How do I test connection speeds ? 3g , 4g , WiFi

I use the speedtest.net app from the Play Store, on my Droid X, or go to the Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test website to check my computer connection speed.

 

[vacanation]

So you have no idea then .....
Just kidding thanks for the great technical response. I use private WiFi at my house. How do I test connection speeds ? 3g , 4g , WiFi

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...d=org.zwanoo.android.speedtest&token=Msrw7Uza

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Android Central Forums

 

[Rev2010]

I use speedtest as well. And you can change the result readout to Kilobytes which I prefer.


Rev.

 

[planoman]

Well wifi has a theoretically maximum bandwidth of 54 megabits but is more commonly around up to 36 megabits if the back end bandwidth is there. Wifi is often shared though as well so the speeds are almost never as good as wired speeds. On the flip side 4G LTE speeds also vary depending on location and the amount of people using it in the area.

I'd done some tests and so far I've hit a whopping 3859 *kilobytes* per second download over 4G (I prefer Kilobytes over Megabits as it's easier to correlate to real world downloads). That is insanely fast! I am paying extra to my cable company for "boosted" speeds so I get up to 30 megabits at home with it more typically around 25 megabits max. That 4G LTE speed I hit blows past that! So 4G LTE I would say is very often way way faster than public wifi networks. If you have a home connection at 25 megabits and no one else is on your router downloading I would say the speeds could be faster or could be slower - that would depend on the 4G connection in your area.

Sorry for the long winded response.


Rev.

G wireless is 54 mbps but N is much faster. Having said that the wifi speed on this phone is much slower than a laptop using the same wifi. My phone does not even get close to the other devices getting wireless in my network. My LTE speed is much faster but I use wifi since it uses less power and does not count against my data although I have unlimited. I have 75 mbps internet at home with FiOS but my phone only hits about half that according to the speed test on wifi. Still plenty fast enough!

 

[starsofthelid]

ive been using wifi because i have sprint's 3g atm

Me too. :'(

I prefer the wifi at home, by once I leave the house, Sprint's 3G network CRAWLS.

 

[raysun]

If WiFi is available it will almost always be superior to your carrier data network in speed, battery life, and transmission costs.

I get pretty good WiFi speeds on my 802.11n home network:
View attachment 32743

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[capslock118]

Is an android phone smart enough to have the cell and WiFi on at the same time to prefer the WiFi or is it best practice to go into airplane mode?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[adelcastillo78]

The Sprint SGS3 is. It has an built in feature called intelligent automatic connection. Not sure if is standard on all S3 of just Sprint's

 

[funkylogik]

all you americans should think yourselves lucky lol i get 9mb/s down MAX on the UKs fastest 3g network very cheap and unlimited though

 

[Rev2010]

Is an android phone smart enough to have the cell and WiFi on at the same time to prefer the WiFi or is it best practice to go into airplane mode?

When you turn on wifi it turns off data over the cellular. If you turn on airplane mode it turns off all antenna's so you can't use wifi or cellular.


Rev.

 

[capslock118]

all you americans should think yourselves lucky lol i get 9mb/s down MAX on the UKs fastest 3g network very cheap and unlimited though

If we constantly complain then things will constantly improve

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2