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3G or not 3G?

Anamacha

Anamacha

Well-Known Member
Earlier today I eas looking for battery information on this forum, and it was suggested to turn off 3G data (Settings > Wireless & Network Settings < Mobile Networks > uncheck Data Enabled )

Since then I have noticed a dramatic decrease in battery loss. I mean really dramatic.

So I'm wondering -- why would I want 3G on? Ever? What's the benefit to having it on versus having it off?

I'm not really noticing any performance difference thus far.

I should note that I am at home right now, and I'm connected to my WiFi network here. The Wifi icon is showing in my status area, but not the 3G icon.
 
I turn my 3g off most of the time when I'm home and just use wifi. My signal sucks (but they are building me a me tower!) so it just kills my battery. You don't need your 3g on all the time, wifi is fine. Besides, when everyone goes to tiered pricing it will help.
 
Basically, if 3G is on at all times (even if you only actually have 2G coverage) the phone will drain battery just looking for the 3G network.

I keep my data (including WIFI) off unless I actually use it, which gives me great battery life. Principally because I don't really care about Facebook, and don't get important emails very often.
 
3g data speeds are dramatically higher than 2g. If you only call and text, you don't need it, but if you use data, 3g should be on. I never turn 3g off unless I'm abroad or something, because I don't have a problem with the battery life and turning 3g on every time I want to use data is too much of a hassle to me.
 
Anamacha said:
Earlier today I eas looking for battery information on this forum, and it was suggested to turn off 3G data
Click to expand...
Don't blindly apply fixes. Determine what is specifically using your battery for your situation and address the top battery hogs first. If you can verify that 3G is eating up your battery then consider disabling it. If it'sa minor battery user then you'll see little benefit to disabling it.

skunkonkrunk said:
I keep my data (including WIFI) off unless I actually use it, which gives me great battery life.
Click to expand...
I keep 3G, WiFi, BT and GPS on. Negligible impact on battery life.
 
I keep 3g/4g on at all times. If battery charge is an issue, buy more chargers :P. I keep a charger at work, car, and home.
 
well, yeah, I've already figured that I don't need to have it on all the time. That's pretty cool. But I was also hoping to find out what 3G WAS -- what benefit it provided, etc. The Wikipedia page isn't really much help as it has infromation about standards and acronyms that mean little to me.
 
Anamacha said:
well, yeah, I've already figured that I don't need to have it on all the time. That's pretty cool. But I was also hoping to find out what 3G WAS -- what benefit it provided, etc. The Wikipedia page isn't really much help as it has infromation about standards and acronyms that mean little to me.
Click to expand...


3G is a higher frequency signal. Designed primarily for mobile data services, HSDPA (high speed data packet access) is basically the same thing. Gsm services (voice and text) have much lower bandwidth (the amount of information that can be sent). The only time you'll notice a major difference, is if you actually use data services out and about, where you will get a noticeable speed boost. If you only use your phone for the net while on WIFI, leave it off.
 
skunkonkrunk said:
3G is a higher frequency signal. Designed primarily for mobile data services, HSDPA (high speed data packet access) is basically the same thing. Gsm services (voice and text) have much lower bandwidth (the amount of information that can be sent). The only time you'll notice a major difference, is if you actually use data services out and about, where you will get a noticeable speed boost. If you only use your phone for the net while on WIFI, leave it off.
Click to expand...

cool, that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the explanation!

I suppose 4g is an even higher frequency signal ... correct?
 
takeshi said:
Don't blindly apply fixes. Determine what is specifically using your battery for your situation and address the top battery hogs first. If you can verify that 3G is eating up your battery then consider disabling it. If it'sa minor battery user then you'll see little benefit to disabling it.


I keep 3G, WiFi, BT and GPS on. Negligible impact on battery life.
Click to expand...

I agree, blindly applying fixes is a bad idea. In this case, however, I observed that my battery life got much better after I started disabling 3G if I didn't need it (and even if I kept Wifi on at the time).

I'd disable Wifi as well, to see about battery performance then, but I'm usually too bleary in the morning to figure out how to turn on Wifi :) Then again, maybe I should not be reaching for my phone as the first thing after I wake up. :D

I've also observed that GPS eats battery like nobody's business. Anyone else seen this?
 
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