Do you turn 4G LTE off?

[vandyman]

I live outside the 4G market and I leave 4G enabled.

It does not make any differences on the battery or the signal if I leave it on or off.

And of coarse i did not vote, because there was no option for me.

 

[ghosthunter]

I live outside 4G and travel a lot, where goes in and out so I just keep it off all the time.

For simple web browsing 3G is fast enough for me. I would love 4G all the time but for now this is fine.

 

[sperho]

if you live in a 4g area why would you turn it off? why own a 4g phone?

Because it is nice to have speed when I want it or need it. I do not always need it.

if you don't live in a 4g area, why buy a 4g phone?

See answer #1.

 

[Shayes]

toggle it depending on battery and if im even in an area with reception (my school has some areas with literally no reception of any kind)

 

[jkc120]

On the Rezound, I left 4G enabled at all times and never had issues. Either it was able to hand off quickly enough that I never noticed losing data or voice or the radio is just better able to hold the signal.

VZW claims data and voice dropping entirely is "normal" for 4G phones, so I guess I will leave it off unless I need it if I'm to believe them. Sure doesn't seem like something that should be normal. I'd be curious to see if this happens in a strong 4G area or test w/someone who doesn't see this happening.

 

[Premium1]

I leave 4g on at all times. At home I am in a 4g area and while at school i am in a 3g only area and have no issues.

 

[jkc120]

I leave 4g on at all times. At home I am in a 4g area and while at school i am in a 3g only area and have no issues.

Maybe it is just areas that have weaker or not fully rolled out and tested 4G? When I mentioned in the store today that I had seen it drop with 4 bars of 4G in an area on their coverage map that was nowhere near the edge of their coverage or a roaming 4G area, they just said it's still not "quite ready" or something to that effect here.

It would sure be reassuring to see another nexus or even another 4G phone do it at the same time it happens to me. Luckily with Costco's 90 day exchange policy, if it does turn out to be a problem with my phone's hardware, I can swap it. But I'm curious if it's just me or the area. The VZW reps seemed to think it was the area being not quite fully ironed out.

 

[umataro42]

I leave it on since I'm usually in an area with 4G coverage, and also because I have a charger at work, in my car, and at home so I'm not worried about the battery.

But at home (and some other homes I'm often at) I use wifi anyway. If I were somewhere I knew there was no 4G I would turn it off though.

 

[fed123]

I only use 4G if I can't get 3G, which sometimes happens.

 

[mntbighker]

Until I or VZ figure out the battery issues I leave 4G off living in a 4G area. Since the phone does not sleep enough having 4G on just compounds the battery issues. If I can track down what keeps the phone awake most of the time I will likely start leaving 4G on.

 

[SirKronan]

if you live in a 4g area why would you turn it off? why own a 4g phone?

if you don't live in a 4g area, why buy a 4g phone?

Um ... not to burst your bubble but this is honestly the most ridiculous question I have EVER seen on Android forums (unless it's a sarcastic one, which I really hope this is!!)

Whether we had 4G LTE or not didn't even remotely factor into my decision to purchase this device. Having LTE capability is on my priority list but closer to the bottom. Allow me to steal my list from another thread. Despite 4G being towards the top, I didn't list these in any order of personal preference, just as they came into my head:

I don't know why anyone would NOT want this phone, size being the only reservation for those that need more iPhone-sized devices. I understand that. But seriously ...

It has a 720p HD screen
Fast, efficient dual core processor
Large battery (I definitely get more battery life out of this than my fascinate or DX, consistently!)
4G when you need it (I turn it off most of the time to save battery. It's too easy to turn on when you need something downloaded in a hurry, provided you even have LTE in your area yet...)
It has very smooth and responsive and stable ICS (phone virtually never locks up. amazing iPhone like stability in my usage)
It can power my USB Christmas lights
It can charge my bluetooth headset
It can go MHL to my HDTV with mirroring
It works flawlessly with bluetooth keyboards and mice, AND usb keyboards and mice, too!!
It has solid wifi performance, and picks up both bands on my router
Has much better call quality (noise canceling mic and louder headset speaker) than the Fascinate did, which wasn't necessarily bad
It has a barometer (see pressureNET and predict the weather)
Rock solid GPS performance (every state I've tested so far, even right after just enabling the GPS, it locks freaking right away and gets me right where I want to go - although I've read the barometer helps with this too)
Voice control (I say call someone, it does. I say navigate somewhere, it does. Even gets it right most of the time)
Instant picture snapping, shot after shot after shot
32GB of memory, if you're with Verizon!! (and it's fast internal stuff, too - music and videos load, scan and skip where you need very quickly)
Bluetooth headsets work properly when the headphone jack is plugged in to speakers (or something) unlike on the Fascinate
It has a completely customizable LED indicator light! I love this feature and use it daily. I didn't have any idea what I was missing on the Fascinate.
You can pay for stuff with it (google wallet FTW)
Wiimotes work since Samsung's own software is not there to screw things up with the bluetooth stack
And I can even charge another cellphone with it.

This is the most amazing phone available in this country right now. I can't believe verizon didn't screw it up

Don't take my critique of your question as anything personal!! It certainly isn't. There is just a whole lot more that is unique to this phone than simply being 4G LTE capable. If it didn't have LTE capability, it would still be my top phone on Verizon right now. The decision between this and the Razr would've been harder, but I still would've went with the Gnex. I do have 4G turned off though, and when we get it here (supposedly this spring??) I will only turn it on when I need it, i.e. downloading a large app or video.

 

[4lph4num3r1c]

I leaves me 4g off til I needs to download something or wants to stream (hardly ever). Don't really need it on for anything else. Leaving it on would just drain the battery NEEDLESSLY.

 

[dhworph]

4G is always on:
1. Tethering is my main usage of the phone, 4G makes tethering a joy.
2. I am never far from a charger.

However, I'll turn 4G off when on a road trip. I'll start turning it off more if I ever install a custom ROM with a 4G toggle -or- if the 4.0.3 update comes with some similar option (if the update ever comes!).

For me 3G is basically unusably slow on a phone (3G is sufficient for tethering though), and 4G is just barely fast enough to make it usable for regular web surfing (but 4G is amazing for tethering).

The key reasons driving me to upgrade was 4G and unlimited data grandfathering. I just hope the LTE network becomes more reliable soon, say over the next year.

 

[Jrob80]

My 4G is off all the time. The closest 4G area is 170 miles from me. I haven't even been to a 4G area since I bought my phone. Kind of excited to use it here soon.

 

[chrisv79]

Always on for me unless I am in a no 4G area for an extended time. I am always near a charger at work or home so battery is not a huge concern for me. So far I have had only a couple of data dropouts but it has not been to the point yet to get me to turn it off.

 

[iowabowtech]

Yep I leave it on. I find myself near one of a few wireless networks each day. So I'm on them most of the time and when I'm not, I'm on 4G. If I happen to need a large download while in wi-fi, I'll disable it temporarily and use 4G instead.