The biggest power hog in your phone

[Paul Verizzo]

After lots and lots of tests shutting off every possible app, live tile, you name it, then adding things back on to see what changed the standby discharge rate, only one service made a significant difference: Data speed.

That 4G Need For Speed is your battery killer. My slightly informed guess suggests that the old 2G, GPRS, and EDGE (2.75G?) uses the same voice radio as always. It was GMS's solution to move data over voice years ago. 3G and 4G might require an additional data radio to actualize. They also use different frequencies and perhaps that requires this additional radio. Sort of like having an AM radio, but if you want FM, you have to turn another unit on. Another perhaps is that moving data faster probably requires a stronger signal and your phone keeps the power ramped up to perform. Quite willing to hear otherwise from a qualified individual.

If all you need data for is SMS, MMS, some photo uploads, simple web pages, and/or are usually on wifi, consider 2G if battery life is a concern. If you "need" to watch full length movies on your data plan, obviously not.

When I switched to 2G, battery life jumped by 50%, if not more. You can do this by going into Settings/cellular and at carrier, have it search for, well, carriers. In my case, it pops up with T-Mobile 4G, TM 2G, and any other GSM carriers there.

The second biggest hog is GPS, er, Location Services. What's amazing is how little power it does take, compared to technologies just a few years ago. My Android battery used to get very warm and run only maybe 4 hours. Kudos, MS and Nokia!

 

[mrZoSo]

Facebook by MS is my biggest hog, but only when I leave it logged in. I usually leave GPS, BT, etc. off too, until I need them.
At home and work I'm always connected to WiFi, as to not let the 4G drain the battery as much.
I get excellent battery life by doing these few things.

 

[ratsttam]

3g and 4g required seperate radios. In the past couple years, 3g has been built into the same SOC as the 2g/edge radio, allowing battery savings. When LTE was brand new, Verizon had major battery issues with the phones that supported it. It required a separate radio, on a separate chip, and resulted in 2000mah+ batteries being killed in a matter of a couple short hours. As LTE gets put into the main SOC's, it too will draw less power to operate. You may even start seeing a savings, as the phone will be able to communicate at a much quicker pace, having to keep the radio on a very short time, and allowing the phone to drop back to low power mode for longer.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

3g and 4g required seperate radios. In the past couple years, 3g has been built into the same SOC as the 2g/edge radio, allowing battery savings. When LTE was brand new, Verizon had major battery issues with the phones that supported it. It required a separate radio, on a separate chip, and resulted in 2000mah+ batteries being killed in a matter of a couple short hours. As LTE gets put into the main SOC's, it too will draw less power to operate. You may even start seeing a savings, as the phone will be able to communicate at a much quicker pace, having to keep the radio on a very short time, and allowing the phone to drop back to low power mode for longer.

OK, so I was essentially correct. Thanks for that. But what about 3G and T-Mobile's UTMS (???) 4G implementations? My take, after readings, is that once EDGE, operating on voice channels was left behind, it was a whole new (other chip) world.

 

[Jason Drum]

My battery hog is that for 8 hours a day at work, I'm on the very edge of a wireless signal. So the phone is constantly searching, connecting, disconnecting. The other hog is listening to iHeartRadio at work and after work at home.

 

[taymur]

I don't get it, so after extensive research you realized that turning of 3g/4g to get only 2g is the largest battery saver? seriously? I thought that was common knowledge.

the more you move from being a smartphone to a dumbphone the more battery you save that's pretty much it.

where the parito principle surely works here, locate the 20% of apps/ features that drain 80% of the power and you will be fine (such as always on IMs, VOIPs, and social networks, and finally GPS and 3g/4g)

 

[rdubmu]

If I turn on Facebook messaging my battery just drains

Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Tapatalk

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Taymur, the difference is that I did controlled experiments rather than taking (usually ill informed) other folk's word for it. And to see actual numbers, not a sweeping generality. Everyone knew that heavier items fell faster than light items until Galileo proved otherwise.

I admit I didn't address the social networks apps because I don't do them. What a waste of time, to say nothing of battery life.

 

[foxbat121]

T-Mo's 3G/4G and AT&T's 3G basically is the same technology like rest of the world. Yes, 2G or turn data off is the best way to conserve battery (you can easily double or triple battery life). But there are draw backs: no simultaneous voice and data when in 2G mode and very slow data speed (200kbps max). That and on a lot of AT&T phones, you don't get to choose.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

My battery hog is that for 8 hours a day at work, I'm on the very edge of a wireless signal. So the phone is constantly searching, connecting, disconnecting. The other hog is listening to iHeartRadio at work and after work at home.

Can't speak to iHeart Radio, but you've hit on a very important cellular fact that few know about, in the general population. And why, when discussing battery consumption issues, you can't compare A's time on the phone with B's. The farther you are from a cell tower, the more power your phone uses. And if your phone is losing connection and regaining, you KNOW it's on maximum power all of the time. Conversely, if you have a strong signal, the tower turns down the transmitter in your phone to save battery. Very cool.

 

[nocial]

Probably have to be games, processes running in the background like sync, searching for network , update etc.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

t just keeps getting bettter and better. How about over 38 days standby?

I ran my 2500mah battery all the way down the other night and then charged it up, of course. This makes charge/discharge cycle #4. Popped it in, reset my battery monitor (Battery Sense, it has some features none of others do.) and went to bed.

I had all apps approved to run in the background. Glance and Triple Tap on. I don't "do" FB, so that's off the radar. I have wifi on, set to turn off with the lockscreen (default), all live tile apps, and 2G only data service. No GPS, I know where my bed is.

Upon awakening, my phone was still at 100%. It wouldn't even start the charge process when I tried. It was going down .1% an hour, and calculated to run on these standby conditions for over 38 days!!!! For those following the other discussion I started about extra duty batteies, please note that yesterday AM with my standard 1800mah battery, it was proportional, about 28 days (Can't remember exactly.) So, yes, this alleged 2500mah battery probably is.

Lessons: For long battery life, change from 4G to 2G, don't run Facebook, or GPS. Don't worry about Glance, Triple Tap, Live tiles, battery app running, or anything like that. And despite the naysayers and dire warnings about fully discharging, I prove my point once again.