I've noticed that the battery drains much faster on 3G/4G than Wifi. What i've read is that wifi uses more battery than 3G and 4G uses the most. I don't find much difference between 3g/4g and find much better battery while on wifi.
please advise.
thanks.
wifi uses way less battery than either 3g or 4g.
The battery life will depend on the signal strength of your 3G or 4G connection. This does not always equate with the number of bars. (Settings=>About phone=>Status=>Signal strength) A reading of -90 dBm is better than -109 dBm. Being inside a building vs outside will give you different readings as well. You are likely to get a stronger signal outside in the open than inside an inclosed space. The weaker your 3G/4G signal, the more power required to sustain the connection. Your WiFi signal (assuming it's strong) will help conserve your battery better than a weak 3G/4G signal.
Its commonly known that wifi indeed uses much less battery life that 3g. Wifi latency and speeds compensate and you get much longer battery life using wifi rather than 3g. So use wifi whenever possible.
You even see manufacturers rated specs confirm this. Look at apple's specs for iphone, they give higher times on wifi than 3g. And anandtech tests confirm this with every handset they test.
Hey,
when I use 3G I get about 2H of screen time,
and when I use WiFi I get about 4H (max).
My usage is WhatsApp, Browser etc..
Is it normal that I'm getting half of the time with 3G?
Can it be fixed with another baseband?
Any help?
3G uses more battery since it's also searching for better connection all the time(unless you choose 2G only in mobile network options, then you get better battery but speed is not so fast anymore).
I can confirm that a weak 3G connection gobbles up battery charge very quickly. This is a flaw in the radio firmware or perhaps somewhere else. Of course the phone should switch to 2G automatically when 3G is not used intensively, but uses excessive amounts of electricity, but the designers apparently overlooked this.
Your main option is, as already mentioned, to do the thing manually that your phone fails to do automatically—force 2G only.
If you do that, don't forget to disable the force-2G option again when (a) you need the higher speed and the connection is good enough for that, or (b) if you moved into an area with better reception, like 3 or 4 bars.
Alternatively, leave the settings untouched, i.e. 3G enabled, and keep charging the phone if you are stationary and have electricity nearby. You can charge from a computer, albeit at half speed.
I almost always have 3/4 bars, so I don't think I have a connection problem.
Does the phone cut back on the radio power when not in a call? Because most of the time when i go inside my home (single story home, should be pretty transparent as far as cell signal goes) the signal drops down to one or no bars.
But i've noticed a few times that if I make a call, the signal indicator suddenly jumps up to 3-5 bars.
I get a great signal right outside my house - full bars and download speeds are great 50 down and 10 up usually. But as soon as i go in my house, the bars pretty much disappear, and download speeds drop down drastically, usually down to around 1-4meg down
I happen to also have another note 4 from t-mobile and that phone usually has around 4 bars sitting next to my phone which shows 0-1 bars. Unfortunately i can't compare call quality or download speeds with the t-mobile note 4 since it's not on any active plan.
We know how much you like to stream, ahem, "videos", and so cellular data is mega-important. Rate this thread to express how you think the Google Pixel's LTE performs. A higher rating indicates that it's fantastic: throughput is excellent and signal strength is top-notch.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add.
I have been having awful 4g signal strength, throughput is fine, but suffers greatly when the signal drops out every 30-60 seconds. I might have a faulty device, not sure. Currently testing side by side with an identical device.
Edit: Pixel on Verizon, purchased through Google Store.
I give it much higher rating over my Nexus 5 as comparison.
For instance, in a regional "subway tunnel" with a roof opening to the air over it, I have more consistent signal. So far, the signal drops less than it used to in those dropout areas.
Data transmission is faster too. In general sites load well.
Sent from my sailfish using XDA Labs
When sitting right next to my Galaxy S6, the signal strength of the Pixel seems to be consistently 1 bar lower than what the S6 is showing. I know that is relative terms, but in terms of absolutes, as it sits right this minute, the Pixel is fluctuating between -85 dbm and -117dbm, whereas the S6 is at a very solid -72-77dbm, when connected to a Verizon Microcell across the room (~20 ft) from me.
This shows that the Pixel indeed has lower signal strength.
I average 80 - 160 Mbps on Verizon. Any slowness I have is directly related to the carriers business, aggregation, etc. and not the phone. Im totally happy with it.
I know they're not exactly related, but one of the main reasons I bought a pixel (besides just wanting one) is because my Nexus 6p seems to have horrendous cell and gps signal strength. How consistant is the signal? Does it disconnect from either and if it does, how frequent is it? I'm picking up my shiny new pixel phone today, and I guess I'll find out soon enough, I just wanted to see how your guys' experiences have been so far.
same here!
I noticed terrible service with the 6p as well, so far the pixel seems better. The GPS is much better as well.
Speed seems ok, havent noticed any real lag yet, I have had mine for about a week, somehow got mine a few days early (shipping error?)
Based on speedtest.net tests, WiFi appears to be much slower than the 6p, coming in at 17 Mbps where my 6p sitting in the same spot on the same network was at 26-30 Mbps
Regular black Pixel 128GB ordered through the Google store. Signal strength at home isn't quite as good as my Moto X Pure. Not a big surprise, because if nothing else, Moto has the reception game down pat. Will have a better Idea tomorrow because I just received the phone today and have been nowhere else but home.
On a side note, this phone just feels a lot nicer than my X. It's all of the little things that add up to make it a very nice experience.
I live in a poor signal area, and Telstra (Australia) LTE signal strength is higher than my Galaxy S6
I was a bit reluctant to get the pixel because my carrier didn't enable VoLTE and Wifi calling on it. I noticed that even though it goes down to 3G for phone calls, it goes back to LTE right after I hang up which it pretty bad ass!
Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers mobile app
With my 5X I was getting dropouts and dropped calls at work which is a metal clean room inside a metal factory building. I could barely maintain 3G, most of the times on 1x. Every so often I would get lucky and be able to stream a youtube video. Speed was less than 1mbs, usually 0.2-0.5. With the Pixel I see LTE and have used it for a few phone calls expecting it to drop or not be heard on the phone but I had no problems. I don't use LTE for voice calls. Data speeds are now about 2-3 mbps. 20 mb app took about 10 seconds to download. That would have taken several minutes with the 5X. So in my experience much better signal using Verizon UDP.
Out side the house didn't notice any issues but at my house **** reception which is normal so I had a service extender that my galaxy 5 used just fine my pixel don't like it thought . But now that I can use wifi calling with this phone don't matter
So far it seems to be about on par with my Nexus 6 which had better signal than any other phone I've used. My 5x would drop to 3g in certain spots in my house and was a pain tethering occasionally. The pixel has been great.
Google store pixel on vzw
Not happy with cell reception. My HTC One M9 gets better signal. Drops from 4G to 3G then nothing until I cut the radio off and then back on. Flashed most recent radio from verizon software with no difference.
For me Nexus 5 works in subway tunnel on first 3 staitions from home without problem. I can talk whole time, but on pixel i can't do the same thing. Nexus 5 is so much better. Better reception, same display size with same resolution but more ergonomic, wireless charging, screen casting (which works everywhere not only on google chromecast like pixel does), easy to open and replace battery or anything and it's 3 years older then Pixel. Feels like Google degraded in those 3 years. Released nexus 6 which sucks, then nexus 5x which bricks itself in an instant, and 6p which does same thing plus bends like a b**ch
Google should have just released Nexus 5 again with amoled screen, better specs and 100% Same visually, that would be absolutely AMAZING.