5 replies to this topic

[BoneZ]

I thought using WiFi would conserve battery and 4G would use more. But my tests this weekend have been the total opposite.

For the last 2 days, I've had WiFi turned on on my phone (with 4G on also) so that while I'm home, it uses WiFi only for data and 4G turns white instead of blue. At the end of the last 2 days, my MAXX had about 53% battery left with the battery usage stats indicating the screen was what caused the most battery usage. However the screen was hardly turned on at all this weekend.

Today, I turned WiFi back off, same amount of usage and I'm at 93% battery with it being 8 hours off the charger and phone idle being the battery hog, if you will. At this rate, I'll be in the 85% range at the end of my day.

How does having WiFi turned on use almost twice the amount of battery? Since 4G is still turned on, is it constantly seeking that 4G signal and that's why the battery is drained so much? Do I have to disable data on 4G completely to keep the battery from being discharged so much?

I refuse to believe that we have to manually disable 4G to use WiFi and keep the battery from being drained. And then have to manually disable WiFi and re-enable 4G if we want to wander away from our WiFi.

[tucstwo]

I was told by VZW tech support that if I don't need wifi, shut it off. Apparently in order to stay connected to your router takes more juice than the phone does to stay on the network. Wifi is still cheaper on the long run if you use a lot of data and aren't unlimited.

[BoneZ]

Almost double the juice. When I get a chance, probably tomorrow, I'll turn on WiFi and turn off 4G completely and see if there's any change in battery usage. That will rule out 4G searching while WiFi is on.

[BoneZ]

So, turning off 3G/4G data completely and only using WiFi still sucks the battery down. Go figure...

[tucstwo]

So it appears to be confirmed. People, shut off wifi if you're not using it.

[srzero]

Actually I have way better battery life shutting off my data and only using Wi-Fi. I even have my GPS running at this time for my smart actions to work.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2