3g vs wifi

[thursday]

what uses less battery power 3g or wifi?

[Ads]

[omnicious]

Pretty sure it's easier for the phone to get a signal from a router a couple of feet away than a satellite in space.

[dae3dae3]

Pretty sure it's easier for the phone to get a signal from a router a couple of feet away than a satellite in space.

Cell towers aren't in space.

"How easy" it is to get a signal has nothing to do with power usage. With that said, I don't know for sure the answer to the OP's question. I would assume that wifi would be much faster depending on how good the internet connection is behind the wifi router so that should be taken into account as well. You're trading speed for battery life.

If you made me guess I would think wifi would use more power since you constantly see posts reminding you to turn off the wifi to save power. I don't know if that is just when you're not actively using it though so I'm right back to not having any proof of the correct answer.

[bigdog9586]

Depends on how you look at it. At my house I have cable internet and using Speed Test from the Market I get anywhere from 9000 to 14000 bits per sec compared to 3g which I can get anywhere from 500 to just over 1000. So if I can use WiFi I do as it is 10 times faster which you could say makes it use less battery since I'm not on as long. Even at McDonalds I can usually beat 3g for speed. I never turn off Wifi and I can go all day on a charge and some days I still have 40 to 50% left but charge it overnight for those just in case days.

[renthorin]

Cell towers aren't in space.

Oh yeah? you ever been in space? I didn't THINK so! :-)

I found this on the web (so it must be true):

"From my test with Nokia Energy Profiler, it shows that 3G does consume more power than WiFi in streaming the 128kbps."

Eric's Corner: Which uses more power? WiFi or 3G?

[garath]

Anecdotal evidence points to wifi using less power. I have better battery life when I keep my phone on my wifi network all day instead of 3g

[bloodoak]

from what I've read, wifi is more efficient than 3g as far as power goes. You turn off the wifi when you're not at a hotspot so that the wifi constant seeking for a network doesn't cause battery drain. The drain from that is minimal though, especially compared to when your 3g signal fluctuates to 1x and your phone boosts its antenna power.

[surge]

I always use wifi for the performance. I turn off wifi when I'm out and about in an effort to conserve battery then turn it on and find a wifi signal when I want to browse the internet.

[Lee27519]

OK so - help me out.

If you're in your home and you have Wi-Fi enable to read from your router. You can't turn off the cell phone radio (or can you?) so, like in my home there are areas where I get 3g and there are areas where I'm 1X if anything at all.

So what's the difference then? I'll be using WiFi while the Cellphone radio is burning up the battery going from no signal to 1x to 3g and various points in between? So unless I can turn off the cell radio, WiFi will always be considered an additional/marginal burn of my battery power?




BTW - I haven't been successful with WiFi working all that well anyway. My router is N and I can't seem to keep a good signal with the router. (Different thread though)

[bloodoak]

Lee: when wifi is connected it turns 3g off. Especially noticeable on 2.2, your wifi "connected" icon will actually replace the 3g one instead of sitting next to it.