Develop Bugs

[Q] music streaming: 4G versus 3G

Would there be a difference in quality streaming Pandora in 3G versus 4G? If there would be no difference then I could save battery drain via 3G. Since Pandora used to work fine on my OG, thought it might not matter.

It just takes longer. Otherwise no.

lilfleck said:
It just takes longer. Otherwise no.
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Longer to start first song only or for each song?

Generally the first song in a well covered area.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

might not be quite that simple. the 4g antenna uses up more power, but won't be actively transferring data as long either. it will also be dependent upon the relative signal strengths. if you have good signal strength on 4g and poor for 3g, you might find that 3g is using more power.
in terms of quality, it probably won't matter unless the 3g speed is slow enough (due to congestion or poor signal strength) to prompt pandora to transcode the music to a smaller bitrate to avoid skipping. i'm not certain that pandora has this feature, but i know other cloud-based music players do that sort of thing and i would expect pandora to do the same. as long as you have a decent 3g connection though, streaming music will be cake without the need to transcode.

rubber soul said:
might not be quite that simple. the 4g antenna uses up more power, but won't be actively transferring data as long either. it will also be dependent upon the relative signal strengths. if you have good signal strength on 4g and poor for 3g, you might find that 3g is using more power.
in terms of quality, it probably won't matter unless the 3g speed is slow enough (due to congestion or poor signal strength) to prompt pandora to transcode the music to a smaller bitrate to avoid skipping. i'm not certain that pandora has this feature, but i know other cloud-based music players do that sort of thing and i would expect pandora to do the same. as long as you have a decent 3g connection though, streaming music will be cake without the need to transcode.
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So, if I'm in an area with good coverage of both 4G and 3G, I would probable save battery with 3G and not suffer quality?

you certainly won't suffer any quality loss if you have good 3g coverage.
whether you save on battery isn't clear to me because there is a tradeoff going on:
4g consumes more battery per second than 3g.
3g is on for more seconds to complete a download.
my suggestion would be to give yourself a real test. queue up a bunch of songs in an area you typically would listen to music and have the app stream the entire playlist. the longer the playlist, the more accurate the test. open the battery status and observe the battery usage rate. repeat this test on 3g and see if there is any difference.
ideally the tests would be performed both starting with roughly the same battery percent (make sure it is less than 90% to start). and they both would have everything gps, wifi, data sync, etc. turned off. if you perform the test, report the results!

3G is plenty to stream music. I've streamed Google Music for long periods of time while on the highway with poor signal. Having a well designed app (in the sense that Google Music prefetches the first few seconds of pending songs to eliminate a pause between tracks) helps, too.

LTE will use less power because it will turn off quicker. Being more efficient is the whole point of 4G technologies.
Stand-by times are usually worse for each succceeding wireless technology. We won't be able to know that for sure until carriers deploy VoLTE and LTE IMS SMS. Right now, LTE is only used for data. Voice and SMS go over CDMA, so the phone is powering 2 radios at one time. This, combined with the early LTE chipsets, is why the LTE Nexus has such awful battery life compared to the GSM/HSPA model.

Battery overheating a lot (CDMA version)

My battery seem to overheat alot,its even uncomfortable to hold up to my face sometimes. Is this normal? The back gets very hot two.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

My GN seems to get ridiculously hot pretty often for NO reason. Up around the camera is usually where the heat is focused.

Yup around the camera is where it happens to me too. It usually only happens when I stream Google Music or Slacker

Mines gets hot there too while im just browsing
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Just browsing? That can't be good. Are you rooted? If so, how high do you got your phone over clocked? Maybe you also may have too many processes opened

Most LTE devices heat up under browsing. Its not the battery that gets hot.
Also, I cannot think of a single phone I have had on Verizon that did not get warm during extended calls.

mine heats up a lot also. After talking or browsing for a while it does get warm.

What's your LTE signal strength? If you only have a bar or so, it's been my experience that the phone will heat up trying to keep the connection. At work, I've had to turn off LTE in order to keep the phone cool and save the battery.

eallan said:
My GN seems to get ridiculously hot pretty often for NO reason. Up around the camera is usually where the heat is focused.
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Two reasons why that area gets hot:
1) LTE antenna
2) SoC (CPU/GPU)
Both are in the top of the phone, away from the battery. If you're taxing either the CPU or your data connection, it will heat up. As long as your battery isn't getting hot (heat increases the decay rate in lithium-based batteries) you're fine. Silicon can take a lot more heat than your hand can without sustaining damage.

I might need to get a case for my phone and screen protector
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I have Battery Monitor Widget installed, and it has been enlightening. Here are my observations, using the charger that came with the phone:
The following behaviors happen on the stock ROM (using the Franco Kernel), CM9, and BlackIce:
If I am on WiFi and charging, it charges quickly, and the battery temperature reported by the app stays within the default limit (45C).
If I am on 3G, and on the charger (whether using the phone for anything or not!), the app shows the battery temp rising quickly, the charge rate drops to zero. The battery is no more than 35C based on my best guess when touching it, HOWEVER the area around the camera is very warm I (where the phone radios are). If I unplug the charger for a minute or two, the temp drops, and plugging back in will start charging again, for a short time, until it heats up again.
Underclocking seems to help this issue, as I discovered, a short while ago (playing with the BlackIce ROM, today), and I will update, once I play with it some more. This said, my suspicion is that the processor heating up is the issue, and NOT the battery, though Battery Monitor Widget claims the battery is overheating. Throttling the processor should help. Underclocking and undervolting BOTH, should help even more, I bet.

It's normal for LTE devices to warm up during extended/heavy use. It's not bad for the device unless you hear a pop or smell burning.
Heat shields FTW!

Smokeey said:
It's normal for LTE devices to warm up during extended/heavy use. It's not bad for the device unless you hear a pop or smell burning.
Heat shields FTW!
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It IS, however, a problem, if your device is getting warm enough that it ceases charging itself, which has been my experience.
Imagine this scenario: Your phone is below 15% charge, and you plug it in, hoping to be able to get through the day. It charges for five or maybe ten minutes, then you see the battery level start to DROP, rather than rise. (and forget charging, in the car, while you use navigation, or play music, of both) This is what is happening with mine.
The Battery Monitor Widget says that the battery is overheating, when, in fact this seems to be processor and radio related, since it only happens on 3G (and presumably LTE, though I haven't verified it) and only when allowed to operate at a normal clock speed on the CPU--forget overclocking, that worsens the issue, too, and all of this happens, even when the device is sitting idle.
This happened to me on both the FD01 and FD02 radios (I didn't use FC12 long enough matter), so I suspect that we can rule out the radio.
Reiterating, this happens on the stock ROM (with Franco Kernel), and both CM9 and BlackIce, with their respective kernels that they are packaged with. This begs the question of whether it is a problem with the process that monitors the battery charging using up more CPU than it seems necessary for such a mundane task,
Everything else on this phone works wonderfully, so I don't believe that I have a bad device. I should not have to UNDERCLOCK such a high tech device, so that i can charge it effectively when it is sitting idle.
Any thoughts on this? Anyone else have these issues?

Just gotta email from sprint

They were sayn that wifi saves batt up to 50%. Ive always been told the exact oppisite. Wifi kills batt life. Wtf
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

harley1rocker said:
They were sayn that wifi saves batt up to 50%. Ive always been told the exact oppisite. Wifi kills batt life. Wtf
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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Depends on distance/strength of wifi signal...
It's a good way for them convince you to not use your data connection for a while and slow down the network.
Sent from my Super Galaxy'd SPH-D710

I got an email/text or statement insert saying the exact same thing. Funny thing is ever since that statement I have always made sure to have wifi on when home.
I know it sorta turns off when disconnected but then it scans and picks up wifi networks so I just turn it off when I leave the house.
On my OG Evo I did not notice any change in battery life with wifi on.

Searching for WiFi is what really kills the battery which is why I turn mine off and on manually rather than leaving it on. If I'm in an area with WiFi available and my 3G signal is low, then I'll turn on my WiFi, also when I'm at work or home my WiFi is always on but if I'm out and about then I keep WiFi off rather than have it drain my battery constantly looking for signal.

Technically, I think Wifi takes up less battery than, say 3G when actively used.
Just a guess o-0

MochaCharok said:
Technically, I think Wifi takes up less battery than, say 3G when actively used.
Just a guess o-0
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I would think this is true, especially if you're sitting close to the router like at home or work rather than pinging off a cell tower however far away.

It goes both way guys. When idle, wifi consumes more battery than an active cellular data connection.
By virtue of simply being more efficient, wifi consumes "less" when actively using it. This is, however, because of the generally increased data speeds: it takes less time to accomplish a task (I.e. downloading a file), thus providing battery savings. In this regards, even 4g consumes less battery, even though it technically takes more juice to run 4g.
The way to really look at it so it becomes clear is say, hypothetically, you had a wifi connection whose internet side connection was very slow. In this regards, wifi doesn't save you any battery, and will probably end up consuming more, simply because its gain in efficiency is now gone.
Of course sprint wants us to get off cell data as much as possible, but in a lot of real world situations, it will save someone battery. Take my typical work day for example:
I wake up at home, drive to work, stay at work all day, then go home and probably stay there. I have good wifi connections both at home and work. Now, if I was the kind of user that didn't auto sync anything, I would probably end up using more battery life than I need to if I left wifi on all day, simply because I'm pumping juice into a radio that isn't being used.
However, I DO use a lot of auto sync functions, which means that my phone is actively using data a lot throughout the day. In this case, the battery drain due to the time in which wifi is left idle is out-weighed by the gain in battery life I get by the times my wifi is now being used instead a cell connection.
In a nutshell, as I said at the beginning, cellular data connection is more efficient at being idle than wifi (provided it's a good connection), and wifi is more efficient at being actively used (again, provided it's a good connection and the internet-side speed is sufficient).
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

My battery last far longer on wifi than 4g, not even close in my book.

Since I have wi-fi at work and home I can say there is a HUGE difference - especially since at home and work the 3G/4G signals are so weak that the phone burns quite a bit of battery just searching for a signal. Hoping that this will change as NV completes in the area but it might be the frequency that we're on is not too friendly with the newer building materials.

Yes, using wifi will save you more battery life than using your 3g/4g

Pastie13 said:
My battery last far longer on wifi than 4g, not even close in my book.
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4g is a completely different animal than 3g when it comes to battery drain. So far when on 4g your battery life is sucked out of your phone. The email Sprint sends out I would safely say is comparing 3g to wifi.

That same tip is on Sprints website when you log into your account. It is on the right hand side.
As for battery life my findings have been WIFI uses less juice when the signal is good. 3G uses less juice when the throughput is good. So when I am on 3G in an area that has good speeds I can hit near 30 hours of battery.
I can do the same on WIFI when the WIFI signal is good, but if the WIFI signal is on the lower end the throughput slows since the quality has been lowered.
So in essence the better the throughput the better the battery, because when the phone wakes to check on any sync items setup the longer it takes to make that check the longer the CPU is at max and the more battery drain occurs. And I'm not talking signal strength for 3G since you'll get more drain on the battery in lesser areas because the phone is naturally going to have to boost the transmitter power. I'm talking best signal and crappy 3G network throughput. That is where the drain comes from.
I have tested this in my house with my WIFI and my Airave. On WIFI if I go outside my WIFI range is really bad and my battery drains a lot quicker. If I turn off the WIFI and use the Airave, which has a much higher transmitter power, I can get great battery. I have also seen this in over night testing. My WIFI is in the living room which is 5 walls away and the signal is pretty poor. If I leave my WIFI on over night and not charge my phone I loose 50% battery and when trying to use my phone for internet I get super bad throughput since I am on the edge of the signal. But turn off my WIFI and ride on the Airave I only loose 15% over night and the internet is great, but limited to 1.5m since it is 3G. So if you download a 1meg attachment. 3G takes 2 min and WIFI take 4 min then 3G will use less battery. This also goes vis versa. Whoever is maxing the CPU the longest is your battery killer because both are always on and always ready when they are selected.
Hope I didn't go into to much detail, but transmit power is not the big thing here it is throughput quality of the signal. The worst the throughput the more time it takes to transmit and thus more battery as the CPU is maxed till the job is complete.

Moving from Galaxy S7

So my Galaxy S7 is water damaged, and I need a phone to last for me for approximately another year. Would moving to the Nexus 5X be a good choice? It would save me some money if I get this instead of the OnePlus 3, which doesn't have warranty as it is sold third party only.

AB__CD said:
So my Galaxy S7 is water damaged, and I need a phone to last for me for approximately another year. Would moving to the Nexus 5X be a good choice? It would save me some money if I get this instead of the OnePlus 3, which doesn't have warranty as it is sold third party only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do it, you won't regret it. its a device powered by Google, so there is a great support from all points of view, including instant Android updates. also, there is a strong community.

ulxerker said:
do it, you won't regret it. its a device powered by Google, so there is a great support from all points of view, including instant Android updates. also, there is a strong community.
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Do you think I'd see any noticeable battery or performance drop?

AB__CD said:
Do you think I'd see any noticeable battery or performance drop?
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I've never used an S7, but you'll likely notice a drop in both. Depending on what you do, you'll definItely notice a difference in performance when this phone heats up. If you play games often, you'll notice it. If you live in a warm climate, you'll notice it. The CPU throttles aggressively after a certain temperature or below about 20% battery charge. I still think it's a solid phone, especially with the software and dev community. I just know it has limits and they can be deal breakers.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

SlimSnoopOS said:
I've never used an S7, but you'll likely notice a drop in both. Depending on what you do, you'll definItely notice a difference in performance when this phone heats up. If you play games often, you'll notice it. If you live in a warm climate, you'll notice it. The CPU throttles aggressively after a certain temperature or below about 20% battery charge. I still think it's a solid phone, especially with the software and dev community. I just know it has limits and they can be deal breakers.
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My main workload primarily consists of Snapchat, Instagram and a few casual games, but I do live in a very warm climate, all year round.

AB__CD said:
My main workload primarily consists of Snapchat, Instagram and a few casual games, but I do live in a very warm climate, all year round.
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I notice the thermal throttling every time I go outside (checking with EXKM) however I only travel and use Google Maps when the weather is the warmest each day. I'm not doing much else in high heat since I work indoors. If I worked outdoors, I'd probably hate this phone lol The phone runs fine when you don't expose it to too much heat.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

SlimSnoopOS said:
I notice the thermal throttling every time I go outside (checking with EXKM) however I only travel and use Google Maps when the weather is the warmest each day. I'm not doing much else in high heat since I work indoors. If I worked outdoors, I'd probably hate this phone lol The phone runs fine when you don't expose it to too much heat.
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To be honest, I don't use it much when outside, but somehow I have la penchant for making cool phones run hot. Even the GS7 runs hot when doing not much more than web browsing.

AB__CD said:
To be honest, I don't use it much when outside, but somehow I have la penchant for making cool phones run hot. Even the GS7 runs hot when doing not much more than web browsing.
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Ha, I'd say go for it but measure your expectations. SOT hovers around 2-4 hours for most people, I'd say average. Throttling is an issue but one you can tweak somewhat through guides. Speaker volume is weak but can be tweaked if you install a custom kernel. My complaints are: speaker volume, throttling, and desire for a larger battery. I just web browse, text, surf XDA, and use Google Maps. It's a plastic phone which doesn't bother me, but it may bother you coming from a metal phone. It's a solid phone overall. Plus, we get updates quickly.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

SlimSnoopOS said:
Ha, I'd say go for it but measure your expectations. SOT hovers around 2-4 hours for most people, I'd say average. Throttling is an issue but one you can tweak somewhat through guides. Speaker volume is weak but can be tweaked if you install a custom kernel. My complaints are: speaker volume, throttling, and desire for a larger battery. I just web browse, text, surf XDA, and use Google Maps. It's a plastic phone which doesn't bother me, but it may bother you coming from a metal phone. It's a solid phone overall. Plus, we get updates quickly.
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Click to collapse
Plastic doesn't really bother me, build quality comes dead last to me in a list of priorities, as I always put my phone in a case anyway. Battery life is what concerns me the most, and the fact that it uses USB C instead of micro further adds insult to injury. The update speed does tempt me though...

AB__CD said:
Plastic doesn't really bother me, build quality comes dead last to me in a list of priorities, as I always put my phone in a case anyway. Battery life is what concerns me the most, and the fact that it uses USB C instead of micro further adds insult to injury. The update speed does tempt me though...
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Thankfully the adjustment to USB C is easier now though than it was at release. Fast updates are the best thing about a Nexus
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Question Battery life

Is it me or this phone is battery hungry?
1h of screen on time in 4 hours of light usage and lost 15%

It's gotten better with updates.............wasn't good when it was released.

I'm getting about 5 hours SOT per charge, including some gaming. That's ok by my standards.
There's another thread here about reducing battery loss. I keep my refresh at 120, but you can reduce it to 96 with little noticeable difference, apparently, but you need the app to do that (on that thread). Reducing it to 60 is noticeable, though. All I did was change the screen from vivid to natural, which appears to help a bit.
When new, it seems to take a while to 'settle' and work out actual battery levels. I fully charged, ran down to 1% (not a fan of going to zero), and fully charged again. I don't know if that's needed or helping, though.
Edit: app for refresh rate :
[App]Galaxy Max Hz (Refresh Rate Mods, Screen-off Mods and More)
About this app: Refresh Rate Control: Easily control the max refresh rate (Hz) of android devices with multiple refresh rates (e.g. note20 ultra, s20/S20+/S20Ultra, z fold 2, s21/s21+/s21Ultra, tab S7/S7+, z fold 3, z flip 3). This app can limit...
forum.xda-developers.com
Battery life discussion:
Z Fold 3 battery life discussion
Hi to all F3 owners hope your enjoying your new toy? Only query / disappointment for me so far is that battery life is nowhere near as good on Fold 3 as it was with Fold 2. 1.5 hours light usage today and I am down to 58% - mostly indoors and...
forum.xda-developers.com

I get good battery life, and have since day one. Have you checked to see if any apps are draining your battery? I had to put WhatsApp to sleep because it was using unnecessary battery power, and I hardly ever use it so don't mind it not having push updates. I get 10 to 12 hours between charges with me on it most of the time.

thegios said:
Is it me or this phone is battery hungry?
1h of screen on time in 4 hours of light usage and lost 15%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Z Fold 3 battery life discussion
Hi to all F3 owners hope your enjoying your new toy? Only query / disappointment for me so far is that battery life is nowhere near as good on Fold 3 as it was with Fold 2. 1.5 hours light usage today and I am down to 58% - mostly indoors and...
forum.xda-developers.com

thegios said:
Is it me or this phone is battery hungry?
1h of screen on time in 4 hours of light usage and lost 15%
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Click to collapse
1. Disable 5G if you are not in a strong 5G signal area.
2. Go to settings - location - improve accuracy - & disable Wifi and Bluetooth scanning.
Made a huge difference for me (O2 UK, SM-F926B)

thegios said:
Is it me or this phone is battery hungry?
1h of screen on time in 4 hours of light usage and lost 15%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to stop the unnecessary background running apps and make sure the mobile doesn't get heat this was useful for me to prevent the battery drain.

thegios said:
Is it me or this phone is battery hungry?
1h of screen on time in 4 hours of light usage and lost 15%
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Click to collapse
Damn, I wish my battery was this good, usually it's worse for me, but I use Twitch app and looks like it's really really bad for the battery.

cheack this for more info what you looking for

dezborders said:
1. Disable 5G if you are not in a strong 5G signal area.
2. Go to settings - location - improve accuracy - & disable Wifi and Bluetooth scanning.
Made a huge difference for me (O2 UK, SM-F926B)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NOBODY has 5g around them, maybe a couple but thats it.

fastfed said:
NOBODY has 5g around them, maybe a couple but thats it.
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Click to collapse
I got 5g in my local town, and we're out in Whoop Whoop Australia 500km from any other town. I turn it off at home, down to 3g actually, because I don't get 5g at home, and the constant switching from 3g to very faint 4g always causes problems. Being able to switch manually reduces battery drain considerably.

fastfed said:
NOBODY has 5g around them, maybe a couple but thats it.
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Always on 5G with good signal strength in the Atlanta GA area. Over 700Mbps down at the grocery store parking lot the other day. T-Mobile

94b20gsr said:
Always on 5G with good signal strength in the Atlanta GA area. Over 700Mbps down at the grocery store parking lot the other day. T-Mobile
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yep was going to say maybe some parts of big cities but its no where near as efficient as LTE is, the range on 5g is pathetic and not sure how it works in a grocery store as the signal cannot penetrate through walls like LTE. I think so many people (not people here I hope) think they actually have 5G simply because every phone company is allowed to put that up top. 5G should be pretty much 1tb per second of data from all the videos ive seen.

fastfed said:
yep was going to say maybe some parts of big cities but its no where near as efficient as LTE is, the range on 5g is pathetic and not sure how it works in a grocery store as the signal cannot penetrate through walls like LTE. I think so many people (not people here I hope) think they actually have 5G simply because every phone company is allowed to put that up top. 5G should be pretty much 1tb per second of data from all the videos ive seen.
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Click to collapse
Unfortunately some companies (Verizon) would have you think mmWave is the only true 5G but it just isn't so. T-Mobile has multiple layers of 5G signal. Low frequency for coverage instead of speed(600Mhz and better than LTE building penetration since most is at 700Mhz), mid band 2.5ghz re-farmed from Sprint that offers the speeds I mention while also covering fairly large areas and commonly referred to as "UC" or Ultra Capacity, then mmWave which is just about useless unless you are at a sporting event or sitting outside within a couple hundred feet line of site of the cell and have no obstructions. Then you will get 1-2Gbps but only if stationary. 5G in general will increase network capacity more so than allow everyone to have crazy speeds, and I wish they hadn't tried to push the false message that 5G=1gbps+ to everyone. Someone better versed than I can go into more detail on this subject. Also, I'm 30 miles+ north of Atlanta in a suburb not in the actual city.

Does the benefits outweighs the battery life with 5g? Is there a use for such high download speed? Personally, I can't think of any app that I use often that need such high speed.

Hi, regarding the battery: need to change and perform next generation battery, need next level upgrade, the phone its good, but battery its joke.

fastfed said:
NOBODY has 5g around them, maybe a couple but thats it.
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Click to collapse
What country are you in?

mine is bad in low coverage area, spend a day in town and its great. At work its another story, have to charge at least once in the middle of the day.

With T-Mobile conversion from Sprint, I feel like their 5G isn't fast, seems slow to me. I did see where T-Mobile was supposed to stop advertising that it has the most reliable 5G, since a recent report showed that it isn't.............they are planning to appeal.