Develop Bugs

3g or Wifi?

Does wifi use up more battery then 3g? or is it the other way round

for Sure 3g drains more
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk

cheers, on the wifi > advanced menu, which is the best wi-fi sleep policy to use? at the mo mine never sleeps

actually, i think you'll find Wifi uses more.
Put it to 15 minutes, cos if you leave wifi on all the time, it'll drain your battery quite heavily.

rhedgehog said:
actually, i think you'll find Wifi uses more.
Put it to 15 minutes, cos if you leave wifi on all the time, it'll drain your battery quite heavily.
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Click to collapse
hmmm i was thinking this, but if possible i like to keep google talk on at all times, so it seems i have to keep wifi on 24/7, i may start using aeroplane mode when i go sleep though

rhedgehog said:
actually, i think you'll find Wifi uses more.
.
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This dosent appear to be true,
And logicically it isnt.
To send data further away, must take more power?
Fon22

Fon22 said:
This dosent appear to be true,
And logicically it isnt.
To send data further away, must take more power?
Fon22
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's true if you're comparing a 3g tower that's close to one that's far away. Wifi though is a different standard than 3g and so uses more power to transmit data, more data faster.
You'll find that if you're downloading a big file wifi is better because the file is downloaded much faster but for regular use 3g is better because it is a uses less power in general.

thats good to know cheers

4g Data On/Off Program?

Has anyone found an app to toggle the 4G on/off yet? I realise it is disabled in Android 2.3, but I see they have it working for the Evo and maybe others. I also saw at least one paid app that says it works, but I don't want to pay for it and then find out it doesn't work.
Thanks,

All the 4g toggles I've tried work on WiMax only

Why do you want to disable 4g? Its not like an lte out Wimax radio that causes massive battery drain so why turn it off?
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.

Data Enabler Widget
really? i did not know this. I'm not sure what Sprint uses, but i know when i had sprint if i disabled my mobile data it made my battery last MUCH longer.
most of the standard 4g toggle widgets included in most widget packs, i.e. widgetzoid, do not work on this phone.
the one toggle i have found to work is called "Data Enabler Widget" by "farproc" it is available on the market.
Be aware that picture messaging does NOT work without 4g data on, and you must re enable it before you use it. (wifi too for some stupid reason)

why disable?
I want to disable it primarily because i don't have unlimited data, but also to extend battery life as well. If there is no toggle switch that works I will just have get used to the extra steps of turning it on and off through the settings menu.
Yesterday I used 50% of the data that I would normally use in a month, because I thought I was using wifi, but apparently was not. That tells me that the phone either is not holding the wifi signal at home very well or the wifi is not overriding the data connection. Either way, I need to be turning off the data connection when I am at home or using a wifi hotspot.

if you would take the time to read my post, i just provided you with the exact app you are looking for. it is a widget available on the android market. it is called;
DATA ENABLER WIDGET by farproc.
kthx.

bikemaker said:
I want to disable it primarily because i don't have unlimited data, but also to extend battery life as well. If there is no toggle switch that works I will just have get used to the extra steps of turning it on and off through the settings menu.
Yesterday I used 50% of the data that I would normally use in a month, because I thought I was using wifi, but apparently was not. That tells me that the phone either is not holding the wifi signal at home very well or the wifi is not overriding the data connection. Either way, I need to be turning off the data connection when I am at home or using a wifi hotspot.
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Another option then is any this party power control app. You can turn off mobile data through those.
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.

I always used the power control app on my Hero, but unfortunately the one for this phone doesn't include a data toggle.

reata Enabler Widget
ApexZeph,
I tried the Data Enabler Widget you mentioned and it works perfectly! Thanks!

Sprint's 4G is not the same as HSPA+. HSPA+ is just 3G, or if you wanna feel better, 3.5G. It runs all the time and doesn't use extra battery because you're still only using the 3G radio. Sprint's 4G is WiMax, which is basically glorified Wifi and requires a totally separate radio. It works like Wifi; you turn it on, wait for it to scan and connect to the 4G network (which doesn't even deserve to be called 4G because it sucks ****).
Since you guys are on GSM, what you could do is disable 3G data and that would do it. You'd go to EDGE, but you'd save a ton of battery. Again, 4G is just a marketing term for you guys; you're still just using fast 3G.

kenvan19 said:
Why do you want to disable 4g? Its not like an lte out Wimax radio that causes massive battery drain so why turn it off?
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.
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Its not?
4G on idle 2 hours: 18% drain from 100%
EDGE idle 2 hours: 5% drain from 100%.
4G is a bleeder.

kenvan19 said:
Why do you want to disable 4g? Its not like an lte out Wimax radio that causes massive battery drain so why turn it off?
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.
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Click to collapse
HSPA+ uses a lot more power than EDGE. Programs like Juice Defender use this fact to their advantage and disable HSPA when the screen is off, and I hear it just about doubles idle battery life.

manekineko said:
HSPA+ uses a lot more power than EDGE. Programs like Juice Defender use this fact to their advantage and disable HSPA when the screen is off, and I hear it just about doubles idle battery life.
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HSPA+ = 3G. Yes, 3G uses more power than EDGE. It has always been and will always be that way. There is no magical "4G" toggle because HSPA IS 3G. So the only way to turn off your faux-G is to turn off 3G data and fall back to EDGE.

There is no 2g/3g(4g) toggle that works on the stock roms. It will just take you to the settings page where you have to choose GSM/HSPA, GSM only, or HSPA only.

knickfan5745 said:
There is no 2g/3g(4g) toggle that works on the stock roms. It will just take you to the settings page where you have to choose GSM/HSPA, GSM only, or HSPA only.
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Click to collapse
GSM only = 2G only
HSPA = 3G/4G only (remember, they use the same radio)
GSM/HSPA+ = whatever is available, with HSPA having priority.

Hey everyone,
I spent 4 hours this evening reading up on how to Root, CWM, and Flash a ROM onto my SGS2. Contained in one of the threads (I believe it was [ROM][NOV 14]Bombaridier V.2.0) I came across a brief mention of a program which allows the user to toggle 4g Data on/off simply by clicking the icon. I downloaded it, and just now I flashed Bombaridier (awesome ROM btw). That problem is now gone (obviously) and I can not, for the life of me, remember what it was called. I'm hoping someone can throw me a bone here so I don't have to sift through hundreds of pages again in order to find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks
Nate

You are probably speaking of Juice Defender but Ill let you know of another program that is better IMO. It's called LLama its event based. I have two events 1. Mobile data on when screen is on and 2. Mobile data off when screen is off. Juice defender does the same thing but every fifften mins turns on 4g grabs emails etc and then turns off again. The reason I think LLama is better is because in my job Ill forget about my phone while working and pick it hours later. yesterday my phone went 2hrs before it dropped from 100% to 99%.

the only problem I find with having mobile data off when screen is off (llama) personally is that I use GV as my text app. and if my mobile data is off, then I won't know that I've received any text.
When in the office, i do not have wifi, so I rely on my data connections for texts. Is there a condition where when the screen is off for 1 minute, then mobile data will be turned off and turn on again every 10 minutes or so (like juice defender) to help me check if i received any text?

Does WIFI use power if its not connected?

I See my wifi has used 30% of my battery but ive been on 3G all day, does it drain the battery searching for networks?

It does use some power when searching for networks. There is probably an APP or settings that you can change to set the Freq of checks maybe. Or you can just turn of the Wifi radio when you know your not going to use it.

DroidHam said:
I See my wifi has used 30% of my battery but ive been on 3G all day, does it drain the battery searching for networks?
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Yes it uses a lot of power if its regularly searching for networks. Especially if you're moving around and seeing dozens of WiFi spots. Just turn off WiFi when not in use, simple as that.

A lot of custom ROMs have less aggressive Wifi seeking intervals. You can usually set it manually with ease too. Lots of apps out there if you don't want to do it manually.

All that was said is true, but still I find that 30% usage for Wifi just for searching nearby networks is a little too much...
Although I haven't got anything to compare with, I always turn wifi off if I'm not using it during long periods.
Regards

I turn wifi off when it is not needed and battery life goes from one to two days.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

I've been using Tasker to turn wifi on at home/work and off when I'm elsewhere. It's using cell towers to determine location, so hopefully it won't impact the battery much.

I leave wifi on 24/7, today it has used 2% of the 60% battery i've used.
I travel through london so I assume it is constantly finding new wifi signals.
Sent from Mobile..

Y5 Battery Saver .. on the market, free. Turns on/off Wifi based on known networks and cells in the area of the AP.

str355 said:
I leave wifi on 24/7, today it has used 2% of the 60% battery i've used.
I travel through london so I assume it is constantly finding new wifi signals.
Sent from Mobile..
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I leave wifi on all the time as well, and I also only have used 2% of the 70-80% battery I used up already.
Try going into wifi settings, then advanced wifi settings, then turn off the new wifi network available notification option.
This increased my battery life slightly.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Y5 - Battery Saver helps out tremendously! I barely ever use more than 2% when home all day...although that may be a bug but I started a thread for that already.

eddie_gordo said:
All that was said is true, but still I find that 30% usage for Wifi just for searching nearby networks is a little too much...
Regards
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Click to collapse
That 30% displayed can be deceptive since it's based on the amount of battery discharged and not entire battery capacity.

Well wifi, when on is looking to connect to known networks. If the signal is weak it will disconnect and connect to another network near by if there is that has better signal. This process does use some battery. The biggest drain will occur when you are actively using wifi, that is when you download or upload. So the best way to save battery, is to close wifi when not needed. If however you want wifi you can set it to never sleep. This way even if the screen goes off wifi will be connected and your device wont use the 3G which is way more power hungry.

App idea 2g when screen off

Does any sort of app exist? I'm rooted and for battery saving purposes, would it not be a good idea to switch to 2g automatically when the screen is off for more than a minute? Then when the phone is woken up switch back to 3g?
I'm not talking about turning data off completely as this would stop whatsapp messages coming through.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

kevz65 said:
Does any sort of app exist? I'm rooted and for battery saving purposes, would it not be a good idea to switch to 2g automatically when the screen is off for more than a minute? Then when the phone is woken up switch back to 3g?
I'm not talking about turning data off completely as this would stop whatsapp messages coming through.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Dont know if it helps but I just made this post a few hours ago.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1765911
Not sure if that's what you need though.
It uses mobile data though... For 2g and 3g I'll try to create a new app for that
But for now yeah that's what I have

Would Tasker not be able to do that?
(I've only used it a few times recently but sounds within its capabilities)

r2b2 said:
Would Tasker not be able to do that?
(I've only used it a few times recently but sounds within its capabilities)
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Click to collapse
It is built using tasker.

I tried to use Tasker for this but not sure how to configure it. Anyone successfully configure please share the steps..

yltan said:
I tried to use Tasker for this but not sure how to configure it. Anyone successfully configure please share the steps..
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if you turn off the 3g while the screen is off, you wont receive any emails is this correct?

2g... Data is data. Psst, you can watch Youtube without 3g!
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

Hi
kevz65 said:
Does any sort of app exist? I'm rooted and for battery saving purposes, would it not be a good idea to switch to 2g automatically when the screen is off for more than a minute? Then when the phone is woken up switch back to 3g?
I'm not talking about turning data off completely as this would stop whatsapp messages coming through.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that simple and probably not worthwhile. 2G and 3G on standby are pretty close in terms of power usage, the only time you usually find an advantage with 2G is where the 3G signal is weaker, so less power is used keeping in touch with the 2G tower. If you fix the phone to 2G, you also save some power if moving around as the phone is only talking/listening to 2G cells, and less likely to be swapping about. When you have "auto" selected and you are moving around the phone has to monitor both 2G and 3G cells to be ready to make a handover decision, so that is extra power.
If you have the phone constantly dropping 2G to go to 3G when you turn on the screen, then back again, that all takes extra power to negotiate with the cells. Also if you get a phone call and the phone switches to 3G, this will drop all connections when the setting is changed, as you can only have a smooth handover when the phone is in "auto" mode and has already established a handover strategy.
Then you need to factor in data usage. When any applications sync while your phone is in standby (screen off) if on 2G that sync is going to take longer, and the longer it takes the longer your phone has to stay awake to wait for it to happen, and the radio is on longer transmitting, so more power is used than there might have been on 3G.
The net effect of such a setting is likely to use more power overall.
Regards
Phil

Battery drain on bad reception

Hey, guys.
I have my phone now for 4 month and I've checked following thing: the battery drain is incredible on bad mobile coverage. In my apartment I have really pur reception, all phones loose the reception permanently (in this way one x is much better than my wife's Iphone 4).
It is normal, that the phone consumes much energy, but one x consumes just to much. For example, if I'm at home, the drain is like 2 or even 3 procent in hour even on sense roms, and if I'm in place with good reception, it's like 1 procent in 2 and more hours, so the overall batter life is waaaay much better...
Now the question is, if I could do something to make my phone to be not so aggressive on searching for the network? I know, it can bring worse network, but it is not really a problem for me.
P. S.:switching to flight mode is not an answer for me
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

flight mode is the first thing i would have said, but not an option, so the next thing i would look at is something like vodafone suresignal - check with your network provider, they might offer a service similar, basically you get a little box from them, plug into your internet connection, and it will give your phone signal.
can't really think of something apart from a kernel tweak of some sort that would stop the phone scanning so much for cell towers, but i'm not sure where that would be, or even if it is possible..

its normal when signal drops out the phone turns the phones radio on full to scan for a network.
i would try going to settings > mobile network ( click the word not the switch) > network mode
and set it to GSM only, this will force the phone to only use 2g signal, means you don't get 3g internet so it will be very slow for internet, but 2g uses less power than 3g.
i do this alot as where i live there is low/2g signal only so i force it on to the 2g to stop it looking for a 3g network
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app

treebill said:
its normal when signal drops out the phone turns the phones radio on full to scan for a network.
i would try going to settings > mobile network ( click the word not the switch) > network mode
and set it to GSM only, this will force the phone to only use 2g signal, means you don't get 3g internet so it will be very slow for internet, but 2g uses less power than 3g.
i do this alot as where i live there is low/2g signal only so i force it on to the 2g to stop it looking for a 3g network
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app
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I use this option a lot, this is not directly what I asked for. I just want my gsm radio to be not so aggressive. Just like changing cpu governors values
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

Hi
Zlotin said:
I use this option a lot, this is not directly what I asked for. I just want my gsm radio to be not so aggressive. Just like changing cpu governors values
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
If there is no reception at all the phone radio shouldn't use much power, this is because it is just listening for a signal and will not be transmitting anything. If the radio is consuming more power, it is likely because it can hear the transmitter (they obviously transmit with much more power) and so the phone on hearing the mother ship is trying to reply at full transmit power available to it, but this isn't enough to be heard which drains more power. It doesn't taking many attempts at transmitting at full power to have a battery draining faster than usual.
Some applications on having no data connection might start waking the device a lot in a panic and don't back off trying, so every few seconds they will be waking the phone trying to connect to a remote server somewhere. Do you have Wi-Fi on to keep applications happy if they want to keep phoning home?
You have few options really,
1) is to just the mobile phone part off and leave Wi-Fi running which should help. You can do this by switching to flight mode then enabling just the Wi-Fi, or there will be widgets available I'm sure to just turn off the mobile phone part.
2) Turn off syncing to see if it is an application getting panicky, again you will have widgets you can add to your home page to easily switch this setting
3) You can use a Phone Schedule type application and have your phone go to flight mode automatically timed for when you are usually at home and overnight to save battery drain, free ones at the Play store.
4) If you have internet access at your apartment and depending on your mobile phone operator you might be able to get a femtocell, this will give you a full signal and service at home.
Regards
Phil

Its not just the HOX that does this, its all phones and it is bloody annoying.
My wifes parents live in the middle of nowhere and if we didnt' change our phones (inc, hox, s2,n900,iphone3...) to flightmode when there over night they would be flat.

treebill said:
its normal when signal drops out the phone turns the phones radio on full to scan for a network.
i would try going to settings > mobile network ( click the word not the switch) > network mode
and set it to GSM only, this will force the phone to only use 2g signal, means you don't get 3g internet so it will be very slow for internet, but 2g uses less power than 3g.
i do this alot as where i live there is low/2g signal only so i force it on to the 2g to stop it looking for a 3g network
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
I don't have that option. What's up with that? Does AT&T lock that option on their phones?

Tcndeb said:
I don't have that option. What's up with that? Does AT&T lock that option on their phones?
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dial *#*#4636#*#* and goto phone information, scroll down, and you'll have all different modes there.
sometimes this doesn't stick though
that option would probably be there on a normal custom rom (unless this isn't actually possible on at&t??)
i could be misinformed, im from uk, so a little un educated on how the networks work over there..