Develop Bugs

[Q]Which is better for battery? 2g/3g auto or only 2g?

As you may know desire has a built in feature that monitors when you do need 3g connection and when not, so when you do not need it it automaticly switches to 2g. I have also read somewhere that this feature consumes less battery then being always on 2g. Is that true? I still heard a lot of people that are most of the time on 2g while they do not browse the internet, reporting decent battery lives.
So, as the title says, which is better?

2g uses less battery than 3g. Use 2g when not using data for the best battery life.
Whoever said that 2g and sometimes 3g uses less battery that 2g only needs to go back to school, its mathematically impossible if 3g uses more battery.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

lvnatic said:
As you may know desire has a built in feature that monitors when you do need 3g connection and when not, so when you do not need it it automaticly switches to 2g.
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are you completely sure about that? my phone seems to be always in 3G as long as it is available and switchs to 2G if it cant get a 3g connection.
anyway, 2G is the best option battery wise.

there is a video from google i/o 2k9 talking about this. I think it's this one : http://developer.android.com/videos/index.html#v=OUemfrKe65c

I have used both modes for some weeks, but i didn't see any difference.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=688492
How about this? Does it apply to desire as well? I am curently using gsm only when im not browsing the net.

2g only will use the least battery.
Auto is great but the issue is that it will preferentially seek 3g. To seek 3g more power is required. (Now this is a negligible amount on its own). However if comparing the battery use in only a 2g area the 2g phone will last longer.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

if you have signal i recommend to use 3g. the cells needs more power to have/transmitt fast data connections like hdspa and in that case the cellphone need less battery to connect to it. in Romania the network it's kinda new hardware, because we use cellphones later than anyone else and the tech was envolved when we first install the network, but remember if your cellphone go from 2g to 3g often, this will consume a lot of power.

Robert A said:
if you have signal i recommend to use 3g. the cells needs more power to have/transmitt fast data connections like hdspa and in that case the cellphone need less battery to connect to it. in Romania the network it's kinda new hardware, because we use cellphones later than anyone else and the tech was envolved when we first install the network, but remember if your cellphone go from 2g to 3g often, this will consume a lot of power.
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So you recommend wcdma only? Even when I don't use the internet? Its true that I have signal most of the time, but I am on "gsm only" all the time, switching to wcdma only when I browse the net.

I would recommend GSM auto (PRL) from the testing menu ( *#*#4636#*#* ) then in phone information. Your phone will still use 3G but only when the signal is strong. Otherwise it will prefer 2G.
WCDMA preferred will try to force 3G even when the signal is weak. Consuming more battery.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

2G only uses the least power.
3G only uses moar power.
Constant switching uses the most, it peaks at 600mA battery drain in the process.
3G only will only give you signal outages, therefore I would not recommend it. It is not widespread as GSM signal is.

Oh I finally know how to acces PRL options, thanks. But regarding this, I found this thread on the nexus one section, which says wcdma prl is better. Any of you know how accurate that is?
Edit:
sheek360 said:
He mentioned that gsm auto prl will save the user a bit more power because it wont force the phone to continuasly hunt for a stronger signal. Typically this option gives our n1's a weaker signal and slower data speed. But he said it depends on our network in our city.
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Nvm, it wasn't battery related anyway. And I found what I needed. Thanks a lot.

Im back to gsm only, gsm auto prl didn't seem to be better in terms of battery saving.

[Q] Best Radio for EDGE

I was wondering if anyone had good battery consumption over EDGE network on a certain DHD radio.
I have so far tried Radio_12.54.60.25_26.09.04.11_M2 and Radio_12.62.60.27_26.13.04.19_M but I'm not happy with the consumption. On both the radios I lose about 10% battery an hour over EDGE. However, if I stay on wifi I lose about 2/3% battery an hour.
I live in Bangladesh and we don't have 3G here so high 3G battery consumption is not an issue. I just need a radio that goes well with EDGE.
PS: Should I keep the network on GSM only or GSMWCDMA Auto?

Radio_12.54.60.25_26.09.04.11_M2 should be a good one for Asia i think. Cuz im in Malaysia as this radio jz ard 5% drain the most per hour on standby mode. If youre nt using 3G, stick to GSM only mode will do

Bert2662 said:
Radio_12.54.60.25_26.09.04.11_M2 should be a good one for Asia i think. Cuz im in Malaysia as this radio jz ard 5% drain the most per hour on standby mode. If youre nt using 3G, stick to GSM only mode will do
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Well I'm losing 10% an hour with light usage on that radio. I imagine battery consumption with 3G is a lot less that this. I usually delete stock items I do not use like plurk, flickr, notes, twitter, and other stuff.
I have one facebook and google account on sync plus the weather and news.

Switching through 3g and HSDPA+ for no reason

Hi,
I have had my One x since this Monday, constantly using mobile data because i didnt have WiFi at hand. I noticed my battery dropping super fast for no real reason. What i also noticed was the icon all the time switching back and forth between 3g and H ... I dont really know why this is happening, does anyone have an idea? Now that im using WiFi my battery seems to drop a lit less quickly..
Offtopic question about the battery: when i got the phone i didnt let it charge before i started using it, i just let it drop from the 20 % to 0 and then charged it... Did this maybe mess things up?
Thanks a lot
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

Same here. I'm having the same issue. I'm using mine on AT&T.

I have seen my signal go 3G to H+ a lot but my battery is no worse than my GNex. I am also on ATT.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

Generally speaking, my Android phones have shown a 3G symbol when not using data, and will switch to H when starting to transfer data. This is when you have 3G network coverage.
A bigger battery drain is normally when you have poor signal, and the phone is always trying to search for a signal, or when it is constantly going between 2G and 3G/H.
Being on wifi is definitely easiest on the battery though.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Mmm thats weird never seen that happen with my previous phones... I always thought the arrows on the side indicated wether or not they were using data or not... The arrows beside the 3g flash as well when using data...
I hope the update comes soon. Because i dont really like the battery life atm
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

.26 firmware has major batt issues... You guys are not alone...I'm getting more pissed by day...

mr.boonet said:
Mmm thats weird never seen that happen with my previous phones... I always thought the arrows on the side indicated wether or not they were using data or not... The arrows beside the 3g flash as well when using data...
I hope the update comes soon. Because i dont really like the battery life atm
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
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See if you get the arrows beside the 3G symbol. I'm pretty sure on mine, as soon as the arrows come along, it switches to an H.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

You are completely right about the arrows thing. I just can't imagine the switching being better for the battery or whatever... Seems to me that just keeping it on H would be less hard on the battery than constantly switching between 2 radio's.
Or is it 1 and the same radio?

mr.boonet said:
You are completely right about the arrows thing. I just can't imagine the switching being better for the battery or whatever... Seems to me that just keeping it on H would be less hard on the battery than constantly switching between 2 radio's.
Or is it 1 and the same radio?
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Am pretty sure 3G and H are the same thing, so it won't affect battery drain. It's not like switching between 2G and 3G, which I think causes more battery drain because your phone is searching and switching. I'm sure there's some expert here that can clear it up.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

Mm ok indeed, but i guess when the engineers at htc/google do it like that, and it's not only happening on my device, there should be quite a good reason for it
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

I think some confusion is present here.
3G data and HSDPA data are both 3G technologies on the same frequency bands. However HSDPA uses MORE power because it bonds on multiple channels to get the bandwidth up. When the phone is doing very low amounts of data, or no data, it will revert to 3G only to save power. It will ONLY go to HSDPA when it is obvious there is much data to be transferred! This behaviour is correct and appropriate.

Just thought I would add there is only one mobile network radio in our phone so there will never be any radio switching issues.
M.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

jonstatt said:
I think some confusion is present here.
3G data and HSDPA data are both 3G technologies on the same frequency bands. However HSDPA uses MORE power because it bonds on multiple channels to get the bandwidth up. When the phone is doing very low amounts of data, or no data, it will revert to 3G only to save power. It will ONLY go to HSDPA when it is obvious there is much data to be transferred! This behaviour is correct and appropriate.
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That makes absolute sense. Except that what tends to happen (with me at least) is that it switches multiple times while I am trying to load something which interrupts the transfer again and again. Sometimes I get 'Connection error' messages while trying to download apps from Google Play. If I keep trying, it will download successfuly after a few tries, when it can stabilise long enough on either 3G or H. And it isn't a situation where I'm on the edge of either because this happens no matter where I am. Any insight on this?

jonstatt said:
I think some confusion is present here.
3G data and HSDPA data are both 3G technologies on the same frequency bands. However HSDPA uses MORE power because it bonds on multiple channels to get the bandwidth up. When the phone is doing very low amounts of data, or no data, it will revert to 3G only to save power. It will ONLY go to HSDPA when it is obvious there is much data to be transferred! This behaviour is correct and appropriate.
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Click to collapse
It's called "fast dormancy," do a search on XDA or Google. It saves battery provided the carrier you're using supports fast dormancy. It's erratic when they don't and should be turned off. AT&T supports fast dormancy so that shouldn't be the cause for anyone on their network to have abnormally high battery usage. I’ve used an i9100 for a year all over AT&T’s network and never had an issue with fast dormancy active. And it works exactly like described above. In certain parts of the country (EG: Louisiana) my battery drains 25-50% faster but that's due to signal not fast dormancy.

you guys also have to calibrate your battery in order to get a decent battery life

Fast dormancy can be disabled by going to service menu by typing *#*#9900#*#*
Worked with most of my devices. Donno it will work with this device as i dont have one now.

[Q] How's 3G?

I'm about to get 3G plan for my phone, and curious about a few things, thanks in advance for anyone who can answer them:
1) Is there any problems with connecting to 3g, just like there is in wifi sometimes?
2) Outside, would you rather using 3G than searching a wifi network? (because of speed, etc)
3) How fast is it (in average, for an average phone company)
Thanks again!

GFex said:
I'm about to get 3G plan for my phone, and curious about a few things, thanks in advance for anyone who can answer them:
1) Is there any problems with connecting to 3g, just like there is in wifi sometimes?
2) Outside, would you rather using 3G than searching a wifi network? (because of speed, etc)
3) How fast is it (in average, for an average phone company)
Thanks again!
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Click to collapse
I have no problem with 3g or wifi.
Wifi is sometimes quicker, sometimes free or cheaper than data, and uses less power.
No such thing as average, it varies wildly based on carrier, location in the country, maybe time of day, signal strength and many other things.

3G is fine but it's not down to the phone it's down to your carrier.
As mentioned above, time, congestion, signal strength all play a part in how good a connection is.
Radio keeps getting better for me on each new release so not an issue, just find a radio that works well and stick with it.

GFex said:
I'm about to get 3G plan for my phone, and curious about a few things, thanks in advance for anyone who can answer them:
1) Is there any problems with connecting to 3g, just like there is in wifi sometimes?
2) Outside, would you rather using 3G than searching a wifi network? (because of speed, etc)
3) How fast is it (in average, for an average phone company)
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm using 3g instead of wifi because i have hardware fault and i didn't fix it yet. 3g works perfectly!
i reached 7mb/s with 3g (vodafone italy)
it doesn't drain much battery so you can just keep it on everytime

[INFO] 4G LTE and Battery Life

Just and observation on LTE and battery life if you are in an area that has been refarmed to get LTE but may not have the strongest signal for it yet.
I get constant LTE signal wherever I go in Baltimore. Download speeds are great. But the signal isn't super strong yet. So my phone does a lot of pinging the towers to stay connected. That is the yellow signal in my battery graph. This causes a decent amount of battery drain while the phone is asleep.
But 3G signal is great. That is the green line in the battery graph. You can see that when I switched to 3g (or HSPA as it really is) the battery drain while idle reduced dramatically.
So if you are in an area like this and you really need the battery to last longer, put it on 3G and it should help a lot. At least until T Mobile increases the LTE coverage, which I am sure they will.
And for when you need the LTE speed, I have an LTE button on my quick settings panel to activate it so I still get the speed when I need it, but not the battery drain when I don't. (Note, I'm using cm10.1 rom. I am not sure if the TW roms have that quick setting button available. But it can be done in settings.)
This option is not for everyone. But if you are not a heavy data user like me it might be great for you.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app

Skipjacks said:
Just and observation on LTE and battery life if you are in an area that has been refarmed to get LTE but may not have the strongest signal for it yet.
I get constant LTE signal wherever I go in Baltimore. Download speeds are great. But the signal isn't super strong yet. So my phone does a lot of pinging the towers to stay connected. That is the yellow signal in my battery graph. This causes a decent amount of battery drain while the phone is asleep.
But 3G signal is great. That is the green line in the battery graph. You can see that when I switched to 3g (or HSPA as it really is) the battery drain while idle reduced dramatically.
So if you are in an area like this and you really need the battery to last longer, put it on 3G and it should help a lot. At least until T Mobile increases the LTE coverage, which I am sure they will.
And for when you need the LTE speed, I have an LTE button on my quick settings panel to activate it so I still get the speed when I need it, but not the battery drain when I don't. (Note, I'm using cm10.1 rom. I am not sure if the TW roms have that quick setting button available. But it can be done in settings.)
This option is not for everyone. But if you are not a heavy data user like me it might be great for you.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app
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How do I put it in 4gHSPA +

Awesome advice
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

thetbg said:
How do I put it in 4gHSPA +
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There are many apps in the Play Store that allow you to do that.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2

Never thought to have data go to 3g and lower.. I've always used tasker to disable... no off screen email but I go in and manually check it anyways so it works for me. I get 2.5 hours out of 1 percent when my device sleeps.