3G vs 4G battery life

[not2gutta]

So I am trying to find out if you actually save battery when using only cdma 3g data. Before I purchased the nexus, a verizon salesman said it would use the same amount of juice on 3G as 4G...though I've seen numerous threads stating that it saves battery if you just use 3G....

Just wondering because right now I live in an area with only 3G and get crappy battery life...though I will be able to get 4G service in a few weeks when I go back to school...Ive considered taking the phone back due to its horrible battery life though I might manage living with the phone in a 4G area if the battery wont get any worse...:-*

 

[Stang68]

Battery life on 3G is better than on 4G. That's it. If you're not near being in a 4G area, just turn your date to only 3G CDMA.

 

[Bobaroo]

I keep it on 3G all the time now even though I am in a pretty big 4G area. Yesterday my phone came off the charger at 4am, I got home from work around 6:30pm and it was still in the 40%. GMail, Facebook, twitter all syncing in the background.

 

[mervman]

I have no clue how people are getting such good battery life with this thing. I took it off the charger today at 9:30AM and used it the entire train ride to work (about 30 mins) and it's down to 85% already.

 

[Bobaroo]

I have no clue how people are getting such good battery life with this thing. I took it off the charger today at 9:30AM and used it the entire train ride to work (about 30 mins) and it's down to 85% already.

4G or 3G. I also flip on airplane mode whenever I have no service (subway commute), keep wifi off unless I am at home or friends place. Keep screen brightness low unless I am home. On my subway ride I usually read twitter and play a few games and it doesn't kill it too badly

 

[earlyxoomer]

all good suggestions to save battery life, but really, should you have to spend a ton of time managing battery life to get your phone through the day?

 

[RyMac04]

Mine lasted about 6.5hours on 4g only with moderate use. Today it's lasting a little longer on 3G only, but not much. I played angry birds for about 30 minutes and it killed 20% of my battery

 

[OjilEye]

yeah I discovered I too, have to resort to all sorts of active monitoring to preserve the battery life (switching off wi-fi almost always; airplane mode underground; being wary of my work desk with a weak signal). without 2 chargers it would be tough to use this phone

 

[samkatz]

all good suggestions to save battery life, but really, should you have to spend a ton of time managing battery life to get your phone through the day?

good point. I had my blackberry curve for three years and practically never turned it off, got 3 days on a charge...but I guess this is a tradeoff .

 

[RyMac04]

good point. I had my blackberry curve for three years and practically never turned it off, got 3 days on a charge...but I guess this is a tradeoff .

coming from BlackBerry as well. I must say that it was a lot easier to put my BlackBerry down and not use it than it is with this GNex. probably has a LOT to do with it. Not to mention an app from App World has about a 3MB footprint where one from App Market (droid) has anywhere from 5 to 25MB footprint.

 

[klou]

I get about 12 hrs on 3G compared to 6-7 hours on LTE. Both times I was using the phone moderately: Reading pulse, listening to gmusic, browsing fb, etc

 

[Bobaroo]

all good suggestions to save battery life, but really, should you have to spend a ton of time managing battery life to get your phone through the day?

Definitely understandable. Though I did a lot of that with any previous phone I had. With my two previous blackberry phones I would also turn wifi off when leaving my home along with turning all radios off when in the subway...it has just become habit for me