Do widgets use more battery?

[JohnJSal]

Even if you have things set not to sync automatically, does simply having a widget on one of your home screens drain the battery at all?

 

[t1jordan]

good question

 

[CureMS]

Thanks for asking. I'm still watching for an answer also.

 

[Brent Pierce]

I wouldn't think that "non-update" widgets would drain the battery. Most widgets do, however, use an update. But I would think that widgets like Pandora, Music, Picture Frame, etc. that DON'T require any sort of communication when not in use, DON'T use more battery, just more processor. Like when you scroll through the homescreen with widgets on it, it will get a bit lagier.

That's my take on it. But someone smarter than me might know better.

 

[Slick1020]

Widgets that drain battery are those that need access to data (internet) like weather, news, stocks, friendstream, facebook, mail, etc

 

[JohnJSal]

Widgets that drain battery are those that need access to data (internet) like weather, news, stocks, friendstream, facebook, mail, etc

So just the fact that a widget is there on the homescreen won't actually cause the battery to drain more? I didn't know if having a widget active (even without syncing) caused it to remain "Running" in the app list.

 

[Slick1020]

So just the fact that a widget is there on the homescreen won't actually cause the battery to drain more? I didn't know if having a widget active (even without syncing) caused it to remain "Running" in the app list.

Widgets for the music player or youtube for example, those widgets freeze when your phone goes to sleep. They do not cause any battery drainage. Widgets that need to update themselves through an app will drain your battery depending upon how often you have the app associated with the widget set to update. If you have an app set to update every hour, well that widget will update every hour and cause you to lose a lot of battery power since it needs to update via 3G, 4G, or Wifi. If you have an app set up to update once a day, then the app associated with that widget will cause minimum battery drainage because it will pull data from 3G, 4G, or Wifi only once a day opposed to pulling data every hour. Make sense?

 

[JohnJSal]

Widgets for the music player or youtube for example, those widgets freeze when your phone goes to sleep. They do not cause any battery drainage. Widgets that need to update themselves through an app will drain your battery depending upon how often you have the app associated with the widget set to update. If you have an app set to update every hour, well that widget will update every hour and cause you to lose a lot of battery power since it needs to update via 3G, 4G, or Wifi. If you have an app set up to update once a day, then the app associated with that widget will cause minimum battery drainage because it will pull data from 3G, 4G, or Wifi only once a day opposed to pulling data every hour. Make sense?

Yeah, I understand as far as syncing goes. Just wasn't sure about the widget itself causing any kind of drain, in the same way that simply running any program would drain the battery. Even if an app is completely offline, like a game, simply using it would drain the battery. So I wasn't sure if widgets did this also (obviously to a lesser extent, but still).

But you seem to be saying that just their presence alone won't drain the battery?