Possible Battery saving tip with 4G

[OldDogEyes]

We don't officially have 4G in Denver yet, but I've found two locations that I get a good 4G signal:

1. Near Elitch Gardens (LoDo)
2. I-36 near Sheridan

So the other day I was messing around with the 4g and accidentally turned off the "Mobile Network" option in Settings > Wireless & networks. When I was in the 4G area I didn't notice because everything worked fine. But when I left the area, I had NO DATA coverage.

Of course I thought that the Sprint network was down (3G) maybe due to upgrading and eventually called Sprint to see what the deal was. Of course eventually realized that the network wasn't down so it was my phone. Was going to be driving by a Sprint store anyway, so I stopped in. Rep noticed my stupid error right away and re-enabled the "Mobile Network" and data came back to life instantly.

But that got me thinking... Did I really have 4G working without the "Mobile Network" enabled? If so, that means that when I'm in a solid 4G area, I can disable "Mobile Network" and save some battery.

Was I imagining this? Or can you really turn off 3G to save battery while on 4G (or Wi-Fi)?

Hoping this is the case!

 

[neodorian]

Think of "4G" or Wimax as you think of Wifi. It's a hotspot of coverage that allows you access to a higher speed data connection. The only difference is that Wimax hotspots cover cities rather than homes and office buildings. Basically, toggle on your Wimax radio if you are in a Wimax coverage area and want to download a big file or stream high bandwidth media. If you don't need it for anything, toggle it off. The main difference here is that I think Wifi uses less battery power than EVDO ("3G") to connect whereas Wimax uses more.