Wifi/4g question

[scosch]

I rooted a few weeks back with the hope that I could find a ROM that would give me better battery life than stock. After trying about 6 different ROMs and setting the governor to be very underclocked when in standby, I'm still not seeing much of an improvement. So now I think it's something wrong with my phone or an issue with settings I'm using.

So now the real question, and it's a basic one: if wifi is on, 4g isn't being used, right? I read another post where the poster said when he switched from 4g to 3g his battery life improved noticeably even in standby. Most of my time is spent at home where I typically stay connected to my wifi permanently. My 4g isn't running at all in that case, right?

 

[dragonsamus]

If wifi is on then 4G shouldn't be running. To make sure, just turn off 4G and turn on wifi that way 4G won't be running.

 

[F350-6]

When I got my phone, they told me to disable 4g with an app even though I live in an area that only has 3g coverage. They said switching the phone to 3g only would use much less battery life than leaving it on 4g in a 3g area. Don't know for sure, that's just what they told me.

Have you looked at the what's been using your battery feature in settings to see where the biggest drain is coming from?

 

[scosch]

the stock battery stats don't tell me a whole lot. Android system is usually shown as the biggest drain. Using better battery stats tells me more. In doing some research I found out to check for partial wakelocks which are those times when the phone is asleep and is awakened typically by a background process. I found that some location services (maps especially) were waking up the phone way too much, even after force closing maps. What appeared to be a google talk process also kept waking up the phone even though I uninstalled google talk! It's been better on my latest ROM but still not the same level of battery life I've seen at least a few people on this forum have.

 

[tropper]

You are correct when wifi is on 4g is off, the wifi radio uses less juice then the 4g radio.
Although if you have a mms text come through it will temp enable 4G as well.
If you want better batt life turn down your brightness and set your screen timeout to the minimum, the big bulky screen is the biggest battery killer.

 

[scosch]

I think I've tried all the basic tricks for improving battery life: low screen brightness, very few things that sync infrequently, turn screen off immediately when done using the phone, mostly wifi use....all of them. My main issue is the battery drain while the phone isn't being used. I just can't figure out what keeps running and waking up the phone so frequently. It's never very clear when I check the list of what's been using the battery under settings> about phone> battery

 

[dragonsamus]

I found out to check for partial wakelocks which are those times when the phone is asleep and is awakened typically by a background process.

This is the best thing to do when trying to figure out what's killing your battery.

I don't recommend force closing apps because they'll just open back up. There is no way to make your phone last all day, unless you don't use it. I've tried so many different things to maximize battery life. In the end I was better off getting the extended battery.

 

[z71kris]

get the stock rezound battery..for real, I am in a similar situation to you, wifi most of day, and I use my phone a TON in the evening, prolly 3+ hours of facebook, twitter, tapatalk, browser, youtube, and a few games..on WIFI, and end most evenings at 30-50%...at 11, and my phone comes off charger at 7

 

[dpham00]

Sometimes, Wifi goes to "sleep" and 4G will appear. Maybe check your wifi sleep policy settings.

Settings>Wireless and Networks>Wifi settings

Then hit the "Menu" capacitive button and choose "Advanced"

Under "Wi-Fi sleep policy", change it to "Never"


if that doesn't work, you can try something like advanced wifi lock
https://market.android.com/details?id=opotech.advancedwifilock