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Help Wifi or 3g?
- Thread starter Billswood
- Start date
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- Tags
- motorola droid x
pixelsyndicate
Newbie
i use wifi whenever possible; generally this is at home, so i have plenty of options to keep it on a charger/mount. get the speedtest app from Marketplace to test your connection.
Paycer
Android Enthusiast
Not necessarily true. If your phone has to struggle for a 3G signal at all for an extended period of time, it will have a significant impact on your battery. So long as you're not too far from your WiFi access point, you should get noticeably better battery life by using it instead.
for the most part wifi is faster than 3g and in ny experience it consumes less battery. i have the speed test app & i live in a rural area my 3g speed is ranges from 1.8mbs to about 2.1mbps. on my wifi network at my house down the hill i get anywhere from 12mbs to 18mbs. i have noticed slow 3g connections in busy cities. it all depends
Paycer
Android Enthusiast
WiFi speed is dependent on the Internet connection that it's hooked up to, as well as how fast the router is actually capable of sending and receiving information. It relies more on the actual connection speed than it does capabilities, but they can both easily bottleneck your speeds.
My home Internet connection is capped off at 200KB/s downstream and around 35KB/s upstream. I have a low-speed Internet package to save money right now. As a result, I will be using my 3G connection quite often; probably when my computer is downloading something and taking up most of the available bandwidth.
At the same time, your 3G coverage may suck donkey balls. If that's the case, go with WiFi. WiFi is probably a better choice in general, but just remember that you can only download and upload as fast as the WiFi's connection and hardware will permit.
My home Internet connection is capped off at 200KB/s downstream and around 35KB/s upstream. I have a low-speed Internet package to save money right now. As a result, I will be using my 3G connection quite often; probably when my computer is downloading something and taking up most of the available bandwidth.
At the same time, your 3G coverage may suck donkey balls. If that's the case, go with WiFi. WiFi is probably a better choice in general, but just remember that you can only download and upload as fast as the WiFi's connection and hardware will permit.
No way. Wifi is almost always faster and better on battery than 3G. If you are standing under a 3G tower, maybe, but otherwise, I'd say get on wifi whenever possible.
What?! Ok I'm thoroughly confused. I understand if you struggle to get good 3G service or switch between 1x and 3G in your area, wifi could be better on battery. However, every phone I had that had wifi it was a known fact on all the forums that wifi was a battery hog. What do you guys turn off your mobile network when using wifi? Then, maybe I could see. But, if not, I always notice my wifi having a drain on my battery. Do you guys have any tests to prove that wifi is a smaller drain? Maybe it's this phone and I haven't experienced it before...
EDIT: Just read somewhere that when the wifi comes on it automatically turns off your 3G service. Is this correct? I don't recall having this on my other phones in the past. If so, that's great.
Paycer
Android Enthusiast
The Droid X automatically stops using a 3G connection when you connect to a WiFI access point. I imagine this is an Android feature, as my LG Ally did the exact same. This is also why we say to use WiFi instead of 3G, since it's easy to switch between the two automatically, depending on where you are.
Yes, when wifi is on and connected to a network, the phone drops the 3G data connection (leaving voice on to send/receive calls).
Ah, thanks a lot for filling me in, that's awesome! 
So, to clarify; if wifi is on, but you don't allow it to notify you of open networks, it doesn't drain the battery even when you're out and about away from your usual home or work network? Wouldn't the wifi chip be working, finding networks as they appear?
So, to clarify; if wifi is on, but you don't allow it to notify you of open networks, it doesn't drain the battery even when you're out and about away from your usual home or work network? Wouldn't the wifi chip be working, finding networks as they appear?
TMack
Well-Known Member
I discovered today at Starbucks that if I'm connected to a wifi access point 3G stops working, even if there's no internet access through the AP. This seems crazy, but I was without any internet service for a while until I realized that I needed to open my browser and accept Starbucks "terms" before it would give me internet access. In the mean time, 3G was in range but would not work.
Is there any way to adjust how this behaves?
-TMc
Ah, thanks a lot for filling me in, that's awesome!
Now I didn't say that!
I'm in the camp of leaving wifi off unless I want to transfer a lot of data, or connect to my home computers. Until I get some time to compare battery drain of wifi vs 3g, I'll stick with 3g as I've done on all my other phones.
Paycer
Android Enthusiast
I don't know the specifics of how the chip actually works, or how closely the software regulates it, but you can set your phone to automatically connect to certain wireless networks that you specify. So, when you arrive home and are within range of your own network, it will automatically connect. Yet, if you're out and about and happen to pass your local Panera Bread, it will not connect to it unless you've already told it to.Ah, thanks a lot for filling me in, that's awesome!
There are applications that can allow your device to simply connect to any and all open networks that it detects, but I don't believe the phone does this by default. It would be a rather silly feature to have out of the box.
Turn WiFi off when you head to Starbucks, or tell your phone to, "forget," the access point in your settings. It shouldn't automatically connect to it anymore once you do so.
bigbadwulff
Android Expert
I use 3G 90% of the time. Only use Wi-Fi if downloading a big app, like Google Earth......took a whole minute(if that)....5.72mb!