Was wondering for android devices if having wifi on is best for the power.. as phones use power trying to find better signals. I have a wifi, and a good signal at my house, what should i use?
And also for battery life, when i hold the off button, there is an option to turn Data network on/off, if i turn it off, do i save power? Thanks!
Also.. is it bad for my phone if i swap between 2 batteries that have different levels of power on the at the time? like 40% and 90%? Thanks!
If you're at home with WiFi then turn it on and kill mobile data. WiFi can save more juice even if you don't necessarily have poor reception at your house. Your voice is still active. It's not like airplane which kills all the radios. But you can do that as well and still connect to WiFi.
As for the battery switching, I don't see why that would be an issue.
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When out of range of Wifi, turn Wifi off, When in range turn it on for best battery life
There's an app called WiFi Status that I use. When you go out of a wifi range, it notifies you to remind you to turn off wifi. Saves a lot of battery, as wifi isn't constantly scanning.
I think it's justified to make it stay on for smartphones. And my Atrix's battery life sucks. Irony is - it seems to be the best smartphone battery (for an Android device, yet).
And honestly, smartphones' battery benchmark tests should only be done with Wi-Fi turned on..
I use an app called Y5 https://market.android.com/details?id=pl.polidea.y5&feature=search_result. The app can record your wifi zone, and will disable wifi when out of range, and re-enable when in range. It saves me time and energy when I get home from work.
use wifi at home.
Yes turn on wifi only when needed.
Related
I've bought Desire 4 days ago.
I've been running in some battery problems a lot. I've heard that battery should have 4-5 full draining and charging before having its max capacity, but I have a life span of about 16-20 hours of battery with Wi-Fi on.
How i found out that: Yesterday I went to the country and messed around with my gps and navigation (never used one, so felt like a little child with a brand new shiny toy). So the battery went dead and i charged it almost full. When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
In about 2 hours, the battery was nearly 60% from 90. When i went to see what's draining the battery I saw it was the Wifi. I turned it off and since last night, up to now (about 14 hours) the battery is 50% (only 10 percent for 14 hours).
Is there any way to make the phone not scan so agressively for Wifi when it's on ? I'm comming from iphone and it didn't matter too much if i had my wifi on or off there.
First of all, what you're experiencing is normal.
In fact, dropping only 30% with 2 straight hrs of heavy use is actually quite impressive.
If you don't want your device to scan for wifi, turn it off. Simple as that. Keep the WiFi setting widget on one of your homescreens for easy access.
It wasn't heavy use I killed all apps and left it there. 30% are just from WiFi scanning.
I know I must turn off wifi, i have the widgy button, but sometimes i just forget i have to shut it down. (Though that's a bit killing, since i didn't have to do this on my iPhone. Actually this is the only shortcoming i can think of now, great phone. Seems i have to get used to killing extra stuff )
Sadly i couldn't find an option to tell it to scan on rarer occasion, just to help absent-minded people like me.
Try downloading "Y5 - Battery Saver" from the Market.
It automatically switches WiFi on and off depending on your location (as determined by cell location, not GPS).
It allows you to leave WiFi in locations where you know you have WiFi, and automatically switches it off when you leave those locations.
I've installed it, but not exhaustively tested as yet as I've not really been out of WiFi coverage since I installed it.
Regards,
Dave
Try getting the WiFi On/Off widget from the market.
It lets you turn off the WiFi with one touch. Will save you a lot of battery when not using it.
@Gana1991 - i've already noted that i have the widget (no need to download from market)
@foxmeister - thanks, i will try that. (I have been secretly thinking about some app with this function )
indeed, there is a WIFI widget builtin.
If you really want another widget, check the WiFi Toggle by "JQ Soft", nice design.
The Y5-Battery Saver is nice....it seems to work properly.
But i am affraid it was causing some problems here, so i uninstalled.
I will reinstall and do some more tests.
WI-FI usage is actually much better than using the network which drains the battery more.
But deffo only have on when using, not all the time.
Or you'd use the standard HTC energy widged or the android wifi switch wich can be found @ widged -> settings -> wifi
Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed
I leave my WiFi on all the time at home because of the data constantly changing between G/3G it drains the battery amazingly fast. leaving WiFi on helps me save battery and keep a data connection. I took my phone off charge at 9 this morning, WiFi has been enabled all day and I have 80% battery.
once the battery has had a week or 2 of charging it will run loads better. also charging with the phone switched off gets you a bit more juice because of a firmware problem.
Software Guru said:
Put the HTC battery widget on the screen, not only does it show what % you have left but selecting the widget pops up a small menu where you can adjust display, turn on /off WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth, vey handy indeed
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Click to collapse
Where is this battery widget? I cant find it anywhere.
Oops, didnt know i had to look for it on the market. Found it.
Go settings, wifi, menu button and this brings up advanced settings. From there you can disable wifi after 15 mins of inactivity. When the phone wakes wifi kicks in. I have data turned off, wifi turned off, but if I forget to turn wifi off after using it, it's not too bad as it will be deactivated.
What's that widget called? All I can find is the power widget.
Ok found it
Only seems to be a meter though, no adjustments?
Go settings, wifi, then WiFi settings, then press the menu button,. From their you can select advanced WiFi settings.
When i got home i turned the wifi on. Didn't manage to connect to my home network, due to Android still not supporting Ad-Hoc networks (sharing through my notebook) so i didn't bother more and used my data plan, but forgot to turn off the wifi.
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Click to collapse
If you were using your data plan then your wifi wouldn't be on as the phone turns it off when your connected via 3G, it only uses one or the other not both at the same time.
That's the way it is on my Desire.
I've not used WiFi at all today yet apparently its consumed 25% of my battery. I've got it switched off via widget and its also set to disable after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Any thoughts?
thanks for any help
It's just occurred to me that perhaps the percentages run and run and are not reset after a charge?
Anyone know how it works?
I am using android 2.3.7 (inc deck gingerbread).
Ok, I just read that the GPS check box (in the setting menu, or quick settings or whatever) does not actually turn the GPS antenna on and off, it only gives permission to the apps (gps-using-apps) whether they can turn the antenna on and off. Therefore, changing the GPS checkbox does not really save any battery. Simply by turning off gps-using-apps the antenna gets shut down, and then the icon disappears. The checkbox is simply there in case I don't want the app to have the ability to turn it on, as needed.
I just was hoping to get confirmation that this is true, yes?
Ok so that leads me to wonder about the Wifi and and Mobile Data check boxes (or toggles, whatever). When my phone is connected to Wifi and the 3G icon disappears, does that mean my phone just automatically turned off the 3G antenna?
I just upgraded to the Pro version of that fabulous little app Automateit... and just wonder if it is pointless to set up a rule to turn off 3G when it is connected to Wifi.
Yep. I would keep GPS ticked on because it does not actually go on unless you have an app (like navigation) open.
- Other programs may use GPS for a few seconds just to read your location, then they turn it off (such as weather programs) - this type of GPS usage really doesn't affect battery.
When you turn WiFi on it does turns off mobile data (3G) and you only have 1x.
GPS is only used when asked by an app or maybe the browser. Wifi on the other hand is always scanning. I recommend turning it off if you don't need it.
Sent from my HTC Droid Incredible
Thanks guys.
I have my wifi scan interval set to scan every 5 minutes. Hopefully that won't waste too much juice. he he
And if that wasn't stingy enough... with Automateit, my GPS, wifi and 3g get deactivated when the screen is off (all activate when screen is on). My battery life is pretty good, even overclocked . When I plugged in, going to bed the other night, I had 85% of my battery remaining (14 hours unplugged).
I should probably stop worrying about battery life.
iowabeakster said:
Thanks guys.
I have my wifi scan interval set to scan every 5 minutes. Hopefully that won't waste too much juice. he he
And if that wasn't stingy enough... with Automateit, my GPS, wifi and 3g get deactivated when the screen is off (all activate when screen is on). My battery life is pretty good, even overclocked . When I plugged in, going to bed the other night, I had 85% of my battery remaining (14 hours unplugged).
I should probably stop worrying about battery life.
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Click to collapse
Yeah you really shouldn't have to be worrying about battery life, it's something that use to drive me insane so I just bought a 2150mah battery and haven't looked back since.
Anybody else getting battery drain from wifi calling being enabled?
My wifi calling is on but when i go into power saving settings the WFC Setting is not there to show if it is draining battery.
M4ver1ck said:
Anybody else getting battery drain from wifi calling being enabled?
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It should be draining your battery. You are constantly broadcasting a wifi signal looking for other wifi signals. I turn off wifi period unless I am at a location I want it to be used at. The Wifi is the strongest RF generator on your phone and the one that creates the most drain next to the display.
It should definitely NOT drain your battery like that. Not even close. I use it all the time. You need to clear out the cache and clear data if possible. Force stop the app and reboot. Should be good to go.
I turn on the wifi calling at work, lowest I have seen my phone go to is about 50% at a 9 hour work day. Have no issues with battery life on wifi calling.
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I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?
I haven't had mine off charge long enough to really be able to comment about this yet but I can't complain with it so far.
Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.
bill3508 said:
Mine seems good so far. Had one freeze as you can see. 33% left.
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Click to collapse
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?
supersquishy said:
Still, I think it is strange (as seen in your screen shots), that WIFI accounts for almost half of your battery usage. And 5+ hours SOT is only 6%?
Could you be so kind and post the screen for wifi too, so we can see the "computed power use"?
When looking at my phone, wifi is at 52 mAh power use over an 18 hour period, on this tablet it is 2700 mAh for 10 hours.
An alarming discrepancy.
Or am I missing something?
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Click to collapse
Here you go. I'm guessing screen is only 6% because the tablet has been up now for 4 days, so 6 hours is a small portion of the activity.
supersquishy said:
I am suprised, there still is no battery life thread.
People must be very happy with their battery lifes or nobody is buying this tablet
I do have one big issue with battery life.
WIFI is the biggest battery hog, using 2-3 times more battery than the screen.
For 3 hours WIFI roughly 1400mAh.
So I only manage like 5 hours of SOT.
Btw. I have set WIFI to be disabled, when the screen is off.
Any suggestions?
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Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
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Click to collapse
I really don't know. You may be right.
I guess the high wifi in battery stats is a reporting error / miscalculation. I have wiped the cache partition in recovery (to fix my ambient light sensor) and ever since wifi is at the bottom of my battery list.
And I did not get any better SOT, so there could not have been any real battery drain from wifi even when it held the top spot in the stats.
Still disappointed with only 4-5h SOT.
Thanks everybody for helping out.
ZiggSVO said:
Doesnt Wifi use more battery when its connecting and reconnecting with it disabled when the screen is off?
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Click to collapse
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.
bill3508 said:
No its still going to use far less unless your picking it up every 30 seconds or so.
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Click to collapse
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
ZiggSVO said:
my understanding of how android has utilized the wifi sleep policy is that its best to leave wifi always on when sleep. It will use more battery to reconnect to the wifi network when it is woken up and disconnect when sleeping.
Any sources to support your theory? I'd like to read up on it more.
Info I've always followed. This is from 2011 as well:
"This tip is one that seems counter-intuitive, but you can save a lot of wear and tear on your Android phone's battery if you tell it to keep the Wifi radio turned on and connected while the phone is sleeping. Your phone needs a lot of juice to keep pinging those cell towers, and even more to transmit data to and from them. Wifi radios use much less power because of their design, and they don't have to keep searching for a better access point. It's the way cellular data communication was designed, and it's a necessary evil.
But what if you're spending all day (or all evening) in one place, connected to Wifi? If you tell your phone to shut off Wifi when idle, it bounces back to cellular data (be it 2G, 3G, or 4G) and starts sucking down the electrons again when the screen shuts off. That's no good, and easy to fix:
Open the advanced Wifi settings by pressing the menu button, then Settings, Wireless & networks, Wi-Fi settings, and tapping the menu button again. You'll have a choice to either Scan, or go Advanced -- go Advanced.
Tap the Wi-Fi sleep policy entry, and you'll get a pop up dialog with the choices you see in the picture above. Choose Never.
Now even when your phone goes into standby mode, you'll stay connected to Wifi and be able to get mail and messages without turning the cell radio back on and trouncing your battery life. And for the times when you're not in an area with a Wifi connection, just shut Wifi off, either through the menu or with a handy toggle widget. Your battery will thank you for it."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that leaving WiFi on runs your battery down on any device when its connected and it takes all of 2-3 seconds to connect. No reason to leave it on full time when your not using it. Also, the device is continuously checking and sending small amounts of data to maintain that connection.
Were talking about the pixel here and not a cellular device.
Pretty happy with the C.
I haven't really payed attention to how long this device lasts, I use it pretty casually so it lasts me up to a week. I have used it to stream movies and it has lasted me the whole day (8 hours) watching movies with about 30% left. Compared to other tablets I've had including the nexus 9 this one blows them all away. My old nexus 9 would die after a few episodes (about an hour)
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I streamed a good 6 hours of a live feed on battery and the device used around 50%, can not complain with the battery life at all with this device
bill3508 said:
Pretty happy with the C.
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Click to collapse
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?
Ves said:
Was that with bluetooth (and keyboard) on?
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Click to collapse
No, just WiFi, don't have a keyboard.
As a heads up, there appears to be a WiFi issue with MM itself. I'm seeing the same issue on my Nexus 7 2013 running a MM ROM, and I found a thread online talking about it...maybe from the Android Central forums or something, I can't remember now. People seem to be unsure as to whether or not WiFi is actually causing a battery drain, or if it's just reporting incorrectly. But at least on my N7, the battery can drop 40-50% in one day while on standby, and when I have WiFi set to Off when it's sleeping. And I used to get DAYS of standby time before going to MM.
Edit: Here's an XDA thread about it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/guys-call-wifi-battery-drain-6-0-t3219870
I had the same issue with WiFi battery bug on the nexus 5. Fixed it via router by turning off the auto disconnect (the option where router decides if a device can connect based on signal strength) on both 2ghz and 5ghz. After this the Wifi went back down to the bottom of the battery list. Long shot, and most likely not even related, but hope it helps anyone.
On a Asus rt router.
At home using wifi. When at work or on the road, LG G4 uses LTE but wifi setting remains on. Question, does this reduce battery life? In other words, does the phone keep looking for wifi networks and drain the battery in the process? If so, should I find an app that turns wifi off automatically whenever leaving home?
htcnext said:
At home using wifi. When at work or on the road, LG G4 uses LTE but wifi setting remains on. Question, does this reduce battery life? In other words, does the phone keep looking for wifi networks and drain the battery in the process? If so, should I find an app that turns wifi off automatically whenever leaving home?
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Click to collapse
I would asume yes it uses power always trying to find a open hotspot even if data is on. If u leave wifi on its on all the time. Prob in a lower power state just searching for open spot or known wifi . instead of downloading or streaming which bring it to full power.
I am going to try an app called wi-fi matic for the next few weeks. It allows turning off wifi radio when away from home. Let's see if it makes any difference with battery life.