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Simple question from the title. Personally I have only ever used it to test the speed. WiFi is simply too ubiquitous.
.001% if that,just not in my area,hell I dont even check when I get to where Im going anymore,ohwell... Yeah wifi is becoming free every where,I was just at McD's yesterday,used wifi for a good hour before I finally got up and left,oh and 3 cokes later,lol...
Sent from my MyFrankenstein EC05OCE using XDAPA...
I have no wifi at home or really any place I seem to go. I use 4G for downloading most flashables and updating apps for the most part. I've never dl'd any flashables from a pc, all from the epic phone. I will use 3G for small dl's and small app updates.
4G used about 5~10% of the time.
I use it 100% of the time because it's faster than DSL.
Sent from Bonsai 7.1.3.1
Only use it on the train.
24/7 With the "Want better 4g signal, do this" in General section but I luckily live in a 4g area since launch day...SoCal
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Only at work. I work in Boston and we were one of the first cities to get it. I live 30 minutes out of the city, however, and there's no 4G there. I also tend to use it mostly when plugged in, but I am happily surprised at how well the service stands by without murdering my battery.
Not much since it is too unreliable in my area. It is actually slower than 3G because of the disconnects. 3G is very fast with my Airave.
Do you BONSAI?
A few months ago I was lucky. I had 4g at work and at home. I didn't even know what it was like not having 4g. Now fast forward to today, I got laid off and now moved out of a 4g area and life with my phone isn't the same :-(
Practically never. When it actually works, it's slower than 3G.
It's a simple question but the poll response options are terrible.
I use it whenever possible, I'm using it right now in fact. What % is that? I don't have a clue.
It depends. If I am traveling around town a lot for work I stick with 3g and only use 4g for downloads. If not a lot of traveling, then 4g. It depends on the accessability of a charger. (If I broke down and got a car charger, I'd ue 4g 24/7)
Also unless I am actively using the data, I leave 3g on. Never run around with 4g on (why would I?)
Epic is as Epic does.
I was using it about once a month.. just to see what I would get with speedtest at my house.. but now I moved closer to my job.. and not only do I not have 4g at work or at my new place.. but I have to keep roam control on roaming.. because I dont have ANY service at home now.. and I never had it at work either..
epic4GEE said:
I have no wifi at home or really any place I seem to go. I use 4G for downloading most flashables and updating apps for the most part. I've never dl'd any flashables from a pc, all from the epic phone. I will use 3G for small dl's and small app updates.
4G used about 5~10% of the time.
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This. Exactly this.
^^ Agree with the above
walord said:
It's a simple question but the poll response options are terrible.
I use it whenever possible, I'm using it right now in fact. What % is that? I don't have a clue.
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Ehhh I thought it was kind of self-explanatory. What % of time that your phone is on is 4G enabled.
If I am in an area with 4g that usually means full signal 3g so why waste the battery to have 4g on? full signal 3g is plenty fast for a cell phone. Only reason I might use it is to stream HQ videos IF 3g struggles.
kennyglass123 said:
Not much since it is too unreliable in my area. It is actually slower than 3G because of the disconnects. 3G is very fast with my Airave.
Do you BONSAI?
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I live in Salt Lake City, UT, one of the first lauch cities for 4g. And I've given up even trying it to speed test.
When I turn it on, it constantly sleeps or drops, then taking time to switch back and forth with 3g. I bet 1x is faster than trying 4g. And I evn have the dropping problem right in the heart of the supposed coverage area.
But also my friend has a stock evo, and sitting right next to him, he'll get and hold great 3g coverage. While mine is constantly on/off/switching between 3g/4g.
This is my first 4g phone.
I am not sure the 4g is working properly. Need some input.
I have the 4g turned on. This phone seems to flip flop between 3g and 4g connection. It does not seem to hold a steady 4g connection and seems to often be downloading on 3g.
Did I get a dud? Should I try and have it swapped out?
Annoying to be paying a premium for 4g service when more than half the time I am getting 3g download speeds.
If it matters, I live in Las Vegas
I'm having the same problem
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
azmtbiker said:
If it matters, I live in Las Vegas
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I live in Vegas, too. If you're trying from inside a house, you'll be lucky to hold a 4G signal. While they've got the valley pretty well covered, it's still not great. Some towers have greater coverage than others. I live in NW and have no 4G until about a half mile from my home.
The only place I know to have solid 4G is on the Strip/Convention Center area. I use it to stream during my shift.
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Just so you know : you are not paying for 4g. It's a premium data charge, which is charged to all subscribers with or without 4g phones. Just thought you should know what your paying for.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
azmtbiker said:
This is my first 4g phone.
I am not sure the 4g is working properly. Need some input.
I have the 4g turned on. This phone seems to flip flop between 3g and 4g connection. It does not seem to hold a steady 4g connection and seems to often be downloading on 3g.
Did I get a dud? Should I try and have it swapped out?
Annoying to be paying a premium for 4g service when more than half the time I am getting 3g download speeds.
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ive noticed the 4g radio is a little finnicky sometimes, however haven't noticed anything coverage related. Using EVO view right now...this thing has a much better 4g antenna. My embedded laptop gets the best though. I'm in Vegas too...and work for clearwire.
Full bar 4G here but I am not in Vegas. It should sleep when not in use but when its switching between 3G and 4G alot, it eats battery. Sprint 4G is notorious for not being great indoors
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Update
Well, after another day without the device hooking up to 4g for crap, I headed down to the sprint store.
Of course at the store, 4g is working. I tell the lady working there what is going on and she seems incredulous of my claim as the 4g currently seems to work.
The lady takes the phone, plugs it in to a cable. After 3 minutes she hands it back to be me and says, "it is now aligned with the towers." I said, so it should work. She says yes. Is this really a real thing??
I will post tomorrow with results of another days use.
Dunno if it is a hardware or software issue but has definitely not been working as it should. Wont even hook up to 4g in the car let alone in a building.
I also live in las Vegas, NW in fact and my GPS lock on is timeless , fast as heck, but for some reason at the Strip, is slow(almost never with the Epic4G) but a few seconds it takes with the ET4G.
The 3G speed varies on what area you're at sadly, sometimes for some reason when im in the parking lot of Paris, I have no connection, and even my phonecalls drop, but the moment i exit, baam! it works, 3G speed is up and down, recenty after updating my Profile and PRL, it has been snappy some what amazinly, and 4G hit and Miss in some areas.
Is fast on my own opinion anyway , for 4G i only get one bar at this very moment, but is still fast.
---------- Post added at 03:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:10 AM ----------
Vegasden said:
I live in Vegas, too. If you're trying from inside a house, you'll be lucky to hold a 4G signal. While they've got the valley pretty well covered, it's still not great. Some towers have greater coverage than others. I live in NW and have no 4G until about a half mile from my home.
The only place I know to have solid 4G is on the Strip/Convention Center area. I use it to stream during my shift.
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Exactly lol, but at home NW i also get it too.
Other thing I notice is when it switches from 4g to 3g, the 4g will not turn back on unless it is manually switched on and off.
azmtbiker said:
Well, after another day without the device hooking up to 4g for crap, I headed down to the sprint store.
Of course at the store, 4g is working. I tell the lady working there what is going on and she seems incredulous of my claim as the 4g currently seems to work.
The lady takes the phone, plugs it in to a cable. After 3 minutes she hands it back to be me and says, "it is now aligned with the towers." I said, so it should work. She says yes. Is this really a real thing??
I will post tomorrow with results of another days use.
Dunno if it is a hardware or software issue but has definitely not been working as it should. Wont even hook up to 4g in the car let alone in a building.
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Since it's your first experience with WiMAX, if you're expecting to drive around and keep 4G connected, it ain't gonna happen. Pretty much you have to be stationary and in good coverage area. And take the coverage maps with a grain of salt.
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azmtbiker said:
Other thing I notice is when it switches from 4g to 3g, the 4g will not turn back on unless it is manually switched on and off.
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hmm.. I haven't tried this myself..Only tried 4G and it stayed there no change, I'll do this when im at home, since im at work at the moment.
Though if you can replicate this problem, do it for the Sprint Rep and see if they can exchange it for ya.
Vegasden said:
Since it's your first experience with WiMAX, if you're expecting to drive around and keep 4G connected, it ain't gonna happen. Pretty much you have to be stationary and in good coverage area. And take the coverage maps with a grain of salt.
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this is disappointing to say the least...well many of us have given sprint a fair try...i only wonder how do some ever get use to this...i know for a fact this is not the norm for all carriers while i guess some really do get good coverage with sprint.
Mine does the same exact thing
azmtbiker said:
Other thing I notice is when it switches from 4g to 3g, the 4g will not turn back on unless it is manually switched on and off.
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When I go from one spot to another in the car, the 4g signal is lost and phone reverts to 3g.
I have to toggle 4g off/on to reconnect.
I did the tweaks listed here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265990
but no help.
Did the tweaks improve this for anyone? Anyone else having this issue?
Curious if its worth saving battery life to just keep the network on CDMA only during the day ?
I came from Sprint and they had the 4G toggle on most Android devices, I never used it, maybe 05% of the time, WiMax was such a battery hog, and so spotty to ever a hold a solid connection anyways, just seemed like a waste. But Sprints 3G really sucked too, like 1xEdge speeds.
Does keeping the Nexus on LTE cause signal issues ? Meaning does it jump back and forth between 3G and 4G causing dropped calls if you on the phone and move into a non LTE area ?
Thanks
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I only bother to switch mine off when I am on my days off from work. I get great 4g signal at work but none at home. I haven't payed close enough attention to battery usage to notice a difference though.
As far as battery life goes, I've found there isn't much difference at all if LTE is on/off. It's the screen that kills the battery. That being the case I don't bother switching it off anymore.
I leave LTE on all day and my battery lasts all day. As long as that's the case I don't pay any attention to battery life. I also never leave 4G coverage though.
I am new to Verizon. Live in the Chicago area, I would assume a big market like this has solid LTE coverage ?
I just know from Sprint, keeping the phone on 4G was a fast battery kill. If left on WiMax you were lucky to get 4 hours on a full charge.
Hopefully LTE is better than WiMax on the battery, I know for sure it way better network coverage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Zorachus said:
I am new to Verizon. Live in the Chicago area, I would assume a big market like this has solid LTE coverage ?
I just know from Sprint, keeping the phone on 4G was a fast battery kill. If left on WiMax you were lucky to get 4 hours on a full charge.
Hopefully LTE is better than WiMax on the battery, I know for sure it way better network coverage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Yeah better coverage and probably easier to find a signal due to frequency differences.
I use ihtfp69's LTE toggle to turn off LTE/CDMA to just CDMA when I leave work. I live in a pretty poor 3g signal area, so leaving LTE on just drains my battery unnecessarily. I turn it on when I get into the LTE area, works great since it's a widget.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Usually the issue, IMO, is if you are moving between an LTE area and a non-LTE area or if you're at the edge of LTE coverage, so your phone loses its LTE connection, searches, reconnects, etc.
If you've got a solid LTE connection and it's uninterrupted you won't drain battery as fast.
As to whether LTE usage drains your battery faster than 3G usage... I can't say.
I usually leave my lte on unless I know I have to push my battery... coming from sprint evo then photon which are complete battery hogs on 4g due to the joke they call 4g coverage...
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The key issue is whether you have a weak or non-existent LTE signal. I find that in some areas such as these if the phone is on LTE I do not get 3G service, or the service goes on and off. If I switch to CDMA only 3G will work much better. I've only used the phone for limited times in areas with strong 4G so I couldn't compare batter life when set for 4G.
I toggle lte off when home, no 4g signal does drain my battery. At work with great 4g signal I toggle it back on. Gives me an excuse to look at the beautiful battery draining screen.
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OK, so I just upgraded from the original Evo 4G to the Epic 4G touch...
I see all these people debating whether or not to wait on Sprint's LTE network and 4G this and 4G that...
Am I the only one that has never had 4G coverage where I live and I get pretty decent 3G speeds so I guess I really dont care.. other than the fact that I'm paying $10/mo for "premium" data.. it's still cheaper than the other guys.
And by the time Sprint's LTE makes it to me (a relatively small town at about 200k), I'll have upgraded 3 more times... lol
I've used 4G when I travel and I guess I just haven't had that great an experience.. too much of a battery hog for the amount of speed increase gained..
Am I alone here?
nope you just havent let the xda mob hysteria get to you... if everyone took a step back and put all these issues into perspective like that there would be no posts in general!
I've had my 4g on all day sometimes and it'll result me with 20% less battery usually. That's with 70% 4g coverage thru the day.
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Hey Blak, i agree my bro. I live on a small rock in hawaii and ill probably upgrade atleast 2x more aka 4 years before i see 4g so i dont care at all. Im just happy that hopefully within 6 months ill have ICS. That will be fun. I dont mind the 4g thing at all.
Sent From My Epic Touch 3g
I'm in the same position. I live in WV, and there's no 4G here. My 3G speeds are sufficient generally, but at the moment I'm not really in a position to care about LTE/WiMAX yet.
I'm not sure if this region will ever get 4G, to be honest.
You are not alone. I live out in long island NY and I'm about an hour from the city and have yet to get 4g here. Even Verizon, att and tmo don't provide 4g out here.
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That's what I thought... you just wouldnt know it from reading some of the posts around here..
Everyone talks about Sprint's crappy 3G and coverage... Well I guess I'm lucky because I get good speed and never drop calls where I'm at so 4G just doesn't matter all that much to me.. thanks for the replies
I get great 3g as well and no chance of 4G coverage anytime soon... You just don't hear from us sane people all that often because we are normally enjoying our phones and we don't complain about every small bug.
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Im in Boise, we have 4g, but I never use it. I might use 4g once every two months. I dont have an issue with the 3g speeds, and it saves my battery.
I'm in Alabama, north of Birmingham in a high tech community of just under 200k people and I doubt we see 4G anytime in the near future so that doesn't factor into my phone decisions. Overall I get really good 3G speeds (with the exception of a few mystery zones in the city) so I'm happy to wait and see how it plays out because I'm a frequent upgrader as well and have bought more than a few phones at full cost because I wanted them but had no upgrade available lol Sprint should really love me.
I have good 4g coverage and I keep it on all the time. I can go from 6am-11pm with about 30% left.
But frankly, I don't really use it unless I am watching hockey. And if I am doing that, I am draining the battery anyway.
This thread is reminding me to shut off 4g as 3g is much better on the battery.
I'm not to worried either. I'm on wifi every second at home cuz obviously saves battery and when I leave the house I make sure my 3G/mobile network is off so its not bringing in data so I only turn my 3G on when I wanna check FB, twitter something like that. Living here in central iowa I have never had a chance to check out 4G. A few friends have verizon and des moines has 4G which is half hr from me and they say its amazing. I go to chicago every spring for vacation I managed to get 4G on my evo hit and miss and wasn't nothing amazing IMO
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What do you guys usually leave on when at home? I get about 50-60% signal at my house with crap 3g speeds so I tend to get better battery life with wifi on.
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Same here, always use wifi at home. Even with good 3g speeds it doesn't compare to the speed on wifi
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Been using wifi at home now and getting way better battery even tho I get good 3g/4g signal as well. The battery life is a lot better on wifi.
Wifi...and its not even close!
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Wifi for sure. My signal is so hit and miss at home that I have started using airplane mode with WIFI on. I use groove IP (I don't make many calls) and Google voice app for sms. Battery life is wayyy up.
Wi-Fi radio signals are far less powerful - mainly because they don't need to communicate over such a distance - and as such chew up less battery. Not to mention using Wi-Fi doesn't go against any quotas that you may have with your carrier, unless the Wi-Fi is through them too.
WiFi always, if available. If you leave sync on overnight, make sure you have WiFi set to never sleep as well.
Wifi duh, 3g is too slow and 4g drains my battery too quick.