Keeping your WI-FI on can help you save battery?

[CrossIsHere]

I always turn off Wi-Fi to save battery but today I noticed this.

Keeping WI-FI on can help you save battery life? Is it true? Have you noticed it?

 

[Abhishek P]

If you use wifi a lot, then keeping it on males sense.
Coz, keeping wifi on saves you battery than turning it on and off every single time you use wifi.
But, in case you don't use Wi-Fi much, then turn it off.

 

[ooklah]

To add to that, I think they are saying if you are connected to WiFi it will save battery and data. WiFi being on but not connected will obviously do nothing for data. I turn mine off out of habit when I leave home, but I don't know if it makes a big difference for the battery life or not.

 

[anon6002755]

Wifi on most occasions will use less battery than cellular data. Thats what is meant by keeping it on will save battery. Wifi instead of cellular will save battery not wifi and cellular. Less radios running equals less power draw.
Sent from my...

 

[CrossIsHere]

I don't use cellular data and I use Wi-Fi a lot. So, should I keep my Wi-Fi on?

 

[jfa1]

Yes you should try it out for yourself.

 

[Timbre70]

My 1520 has mobile data off and wifi always on. Hardly uses any battery when left on its own.

 

[switch side method]

WiFi and a NFC is always on, on my 1520 and battery Is fine for me

 

[mariusmuntean]

You can keep wifi on as long as you uncheck to always search and notify of hotspots automatically. It will only auto connect to known networks. Battery won't be affected in this way.

 

[Rasetech]

You can keep wifi on as long as you uncheck to always search and notify of hotspots automatically. It will only auto connect to known networks. Battery won't be affected in this way.

I would not sign this. Because also to connect to known networks the phone needs to search for networks on regluar basis.

 

[CrossIsHere]

Okay. I got it. Thanks for the responses.

 

[Rodrigo Mendes]

You can keep wifi on as long as you uncheck to always search and notify of hotspots automatically. It will only auto connect to known networks. Battery won't be affected in this way.

This option is not available after Preview for Developers 8.1 or Cyan Update. I think automatically works like this now, but have no option to turn off.

 

[weisman87]

I suspect this could be related to the LTE radio using more power when in use compared to WiFi. That's only a theory, though. I don't know what the consumption rates for these radios are.

 

[Clad14]

I suspect this could be related to the LTE radio using more power when in use compared to WiFi. That's only a theory, though. I don't know what the consumption rates for these radios are.

Now you know.
LTE, 3G or Wifi?
According to this article by Huang et al., and based on their usage scenario, LTE is the least energy efficient protocol, then comes 3G while Wifi offers the best energy efficiency. Under the test scenario, LTE consumed 5 to 12 times more than Wifi and 3G 5 to 8 times more.
Also, uplink on cellular network consumes much more energy because your signal has to reach a distant tower. There is a comparison of uplink/downlink power consumption for the 3 technologies in this article (figure 9). The conclusion to this is that you should refrain from uploading data to the "cloud" while on 3G/LTE connectivity.
I read somewhere that turning Wifi is bad because with cellular already on, that means you now have two power hungry processes. This is a wrong interpretation of how communications work. Power consumption rises up only during transmission, while idling is designed to be energy efficient (figure 3). Therefore, using Wifi to transmit data should save you energy even though cellular is on at the same time.
Remember that your local network coverage can significantly alter these results. Poor Wifi might result in increased power consumption and cellular data might then become more interesting.

 

[RTGent]

This option is not available after Preview for Developers 8.1 or Cyan Update. I think automatically works like this now, but have no option to turn off.

I still have two options to check or uncheck, after Cyan update, under settings -> Wi-Fi -> manage. I check the hotspots option, but leave the second unchecked. Not sure of the battery effect, but I don't need/want any info sent to discover nearby Wi-Fi, nor do I want to get annoying related notifications. Such sending and notifying has to use some battery, and I routinely opt to avoid such features.

 

[weisman87]

Now you know.
LTE, 3G or Wifi?
According to this article by Huang et al., and based on their usage scenario, LTE is the least energy efficient protocol, then comes 3G while Wifi offers the best energy efficiency. Under the test scenario, LTE consumed 5 to 12 times more than Wifi and 3G 5 to 8 times more.
Also, uplink on cellular network consumes much more energy because your signal has to reach a distant tower. There is a comparison of uplink/downlink power consumption for the 3 technologies in this article (figure 9). The conclusion to this is that you should refrain from uploading data to the "cloud" while on 3G/LTE connectivity.
I read somewhere that turning Wifi is bad because with cellular already on, that means you now have two power hungry processes. This is a wrong interpretation of how communications work. Power consumption rises up only during transmission, while idling is designed to be energy efficient (figure 3). Therefore, using Wifi to transmit data should save you energy even though cellular is on at the same time.
Remember that your local network coverage can significantly alter these results. Poor Wifi might result in increased power consumption and cellular data might then become more interesting.

Look at that, Clad14 is clutch. So basically you're telling me I'm right.