does 4g kill battery even when 4g is available? - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

does 4g kill battery even though u have a good 4g connection in the area

I use 4g fairly often with strong coverage and it seems to drain my battery faster than wifi or 3g.
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Yes, it does when compared to 3G, but I'm not sure about Wifi. Was testing it this weekend.

Wifi uses about half the power of 3G, so through comparison (in terms of power consumption):
Wifi < 3G < 4G
Another thing to consider is that 3G and 4G work over a distance while Wifi is not working too hard to grab a signal.

Product F(RED) said:
Wifi uses about half the power of 3G, so through comparison (in terms of power consumption):
Wifi < 3G < 4G
Another thing to consider is that 3G and 4G work over a distance while Wifi is not working too hard to grab a signal.
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Thanks for the info. That makes sense.
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Related

Wifi or 3G?

I live in an area that has 3G and 4G in certain areas im regularly in. Now Ive only used 4G a handful of times so i dont want that put into the equation at all. Out of curiosity what saves more battery a very strong wifi connection or 3G when im usually in an underground basement?
Wifi will give you much better battery life
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cool i figured as much since itd be a mucn better signal.

[Q] Should data always be 4G?

Reception is weak in my office at work. On my previous phone, Motorola Defy, I noticed my data would go back and forth between 'H' and '3G'.
With my GS2, data is stuck on 4G. I have watched it for hours now and even though I have no bars it does not change. Am I missing something? Is my device defective?
I appreciate your help with this.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
There might not be a 3G (icon) for the phone which is why it stays on 4G rather than drop to 3G.
At least that is the case with my G2X, it is either 4G or 2G but never 3G.
Not sure why, but that's how they made it.
Have you done a speed test to see if you are on 4G or not?
This phone also might have better connectivity to the network.
....
I can at least confirm there is an E for edge Found out today at my apartment in Boston (normally I have 4G with great speeds in Boston, but I guess the bathroom doesn't get good reception)
Thanks for the replies. Yes I ran 4 speed tests this morning in 4G and my max was 1490 Mbps so I think it's working well.
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There actually is a 3g icon. It is only displayed for Umts networks. The reason it was done that way is because there is no way to differentiate hspa from hspa+. Two network technologies for 3g were in use anyways and so it was easier to display all hspa and hspa+ networks as 4g and all umts as 3g.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Edit due to phone auto correct fail.

Verizon users you keep it on LTE/CDMA ?

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.
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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...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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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Wifi vs 3g. What's better for battery life?

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!
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
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.

[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
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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.

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