how big of a role does wifi play in GPS? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I don't use wifi at all, I have unlimited internet and never need wifi, I only leave it on to improve GPS. we have glonass now, how big of a role does wifi play in fast/accurate locks?
does wifi not being connected to anything really drain that much juice?
also wondering about Bluetooth, I connect it to my car, does it use that much juice? any solutions?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA

When Google drive about doing their street maps they collect data on router and WiFi info and location.
So when you connect to any WiFi and you share location with them, Both Google and your phone know your approx GPS position until GPS locks, and updates this more accurately.
Don't use BT, sorry can't give specific advice there.
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soraxd said:
I don't use wifi at all, I have unlimited internet and never need wifi, I only leave it on to improve GPS. we have glonass now, how big of a role does wifi play in fast/accurate locks?
does wifi not being connected to anything really drain that much juice?
also wondering about Bluetooth, I connect it to my car, does it use that much juice? any solutions?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA
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I don't have my GS3 yet, but on my GN, BT uses next to nothing. Really. I can stream BT audio for hours with the screen off and use very negligible battery stores. I know, not very specific, but it's really light. Nothing like your 3G/4G radios, Display, etc... Especially if it's just connected to your car while your in it and you're not really using it.

Wifi won't give you better accuracy, maybe just improve the time of the initial lock when you start Google maps. It's more useful when you can't get good gps/glonas signal, i.e. indoors.
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I have had my GS3 since the EU launch and have used BT everyday so far and it uses so little battery it's awesome I clocked in 1 day 22 hours and 37 mins using Bluetooth - wifi - live wallpaper and full brightness the whole time.

Related

Wifi vs 3g

I have a question to everyone. I understand wifi drains less battery than 3g. But what if you are not surfing the web? Which would drain less battery while using the phone but not surfing the web?
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Depending on what you're doing...
If you have a strong 3G signal, that's probably your best bet.
If you leave wifi on, it will continually search for available networks, which drains battery. However, if you're somewhere with little or no cell reception, the phone uses more power to search for a cell network.
If you're not actually using any online service, airplane mode is unquestionably best.
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Get the smoda widget.
One button, one click. And ur data is off.
Helps w battery. I font know how much. But I ALWAYS download that widget first when I restore my phone
my second widget is from droidmania. Get the wifi one
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At home I have weak 3g signal. Overnight, 8 hrs, WIFI conected to home network uses about 6-7% while weak 3g about 40%.
I leave Wifi, 3g, GPS, and bluetooth on all day and use my phone a lot and my battery lasts a whole day. We shouldn't have to **** around with enabling settings anytime we want to use the damn thing. If however you are running low on juice, then at that time you should start turning things off, and lower the screen brightness. Note: the auto brightness setting uses more juice than manual settings.

[Q] Whats the GPS on Atrix like

Considering buying an ATRIX but I need good GPS, whats locking speed and accuracy like and is it fast even with Data connection off?
I consider it great....but I always have connection on....
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Not sure about with data off, but in regular use its great, and is one of the main reasons I switched from the iPhone. It also seems to calculate real time traffic into your ETA.
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keep mobile data off 85% of the time. almost never use the gps. connects within seconds indoors without downloading data. ive had a g1, droid, and acer iconia tab. this blows them away gps wise.
I was shocked at how fast it connected and started navigating. Last week I tried my g/f's inspire. Took like over 5 mins to lock. My Atrix takes seconds.
The Atrix has a fantastic gps. Even better than my son's low-end Garmin. I used it for a 600-mile trip to Spokane and it never missed a beat. I loaded my route before leaving, and it cached all the maps. Hence, it worked well even in areas without data service. I was so impressed that I bought the car dock when I arrived in Spokane just to have better access to the gps features in the car.
Best GPS on any phone. I have ever used.
mobileweasel said:
Best GPS on any phone. I have ever used.
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same here. but i used to own a galaxy s so really anything is an improvement. locking is super fast & accurate - perfect for all of those golf apps.
The Balvenie said:
same here. but i used to own a galaxy s so really anything is an improvement. locking is super fast & accurate - perfect for all of those golf apps.
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Rofl seriously my captivate gps would have me driving a mile away through houses, driving in one direction while pointing in another direction, and tell me I was accurate to 30m all at the same time. Atrix gps is awesome.
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Agreed, i'm very happy with the gps. It didnt occur to me to test without data before but i just tried it.
I went into airplane mode, went into Gps Test app and turned gps on. It immediately located the first satellite and others, and ~6-7 seconds later it had full lock. This is from my 3rd floor office of a 4 floor building.
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GPS is awesome on these phones. I don't know about with the data off though, you have to get maps from somewhere. With Google maps, you can set it to cache your route and that helps if you're in poor service areas. I use mine almost everyday, and all day long, it never misses a step.
I came from the Captivate and I can tell you it's excellent. I get an approximate location within 2-3 seconds, and an accurate location within about 7-8 seconds. And by accurate within 5 feet or about 1.5M. I was surprised how fast and accurate the GPS was on my phone. This was while indoors, I'm sure if you went outside you could lock on a few seconds faster.
I think you have your answer OP.
Keep in mind Google Maps will use the cell towers to get location. Google will even work if you disable the GSP. I use Navigon. I like having the maps on my phone just in case. I also use BackCountry Navigator. Both these programs will only use the GPS. The Atrix GPS is great. I has always lock in 10 12 seconds or less. If you use GPS Status to download the A-GPS XTRA Data, it will lock in 1 to 3 seconds. The Atrix GPS seems to be very accurate also.
I found it to be awesome on froyo and real iffy on gingerbread.

Cell Standby?

So I just bought a 3.6 Player and I'm wondering why the majority of the battery use is by Cell Standby. For that matter, why the hell is there a toggle for airplane mode?
Sent from my beastly Galaxy S 2.
Airplane mode doesn't just switch off cell, it also disables wifi, Bluetooth, fm radio, and GPS. Concerning cell stanby, I had that problem when I used a gt-i9000 settings.apk, but I don't think it actually drains anything (at least in my case.
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I kinda figured, since it has almost zero battery loss when not in use. Now if only the 2.3.6 could be rooted...
Sent from my beastly Galaxy S 2.
Hi. Was wondering why i had Cell Standby account for 90% of my battery too. I found this thread but it's quite old, not sure if it's better to "necro" an old thread or open a new one.
Does somebody actually managed to find why a device with no cell communications does show cell standby using Battery? Is it related to some other signals (GPS, FM Radio receiver, Bluetooth)? I turn off BT and WiFi when i don't need them and my battery isn't really drained when in standby, but if there is still some small drain, i would like to know where it comes from and how i can address it.
My guess has been that there's just a flaw in the reading of battery stats and it's just throwing whatever random drain due to just time in under cell signal. There's never a lot of actual standby drain going on, no matter what it says.
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Weird wifi problem

Hello, my Atrix wifi keeps turning on automatically after some time. Not sure what's causing it to turn on by itself. I don't want to use wifi all the time, but every time I turn it off, its back on after an hour or so. I'm running neutrino 2.9, and undervolted the CPU. Performance is excellent and the battery lasts more than a day easily. Just trying to fix this one little issue.
Any suggestions to fix this? Many thanks in advance.
Cheers
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Go to Settings -> More Settings -> Mobile Network and see if there is an option for Automatic Connections.
I've not used neutrino in years, but one possible reason is Wi-Fi supposedly saves more battery compared to 3G. So it might be set up to always seek hotspots to save battery.
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Thanks. Looked around but I don't see any setting. But your point makes me think. If wifi saves battery then maybe that's what I need. I intended to turn off wifi to save battery since my emails sync just fine with mobile data. I'll read more and find out. Thank you!
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I don't use 3G, just 2G with Wi-Fi is always on, GPS is always on, Bluetooth is always off. I get about 7-8 hours of constant use. (screen on entire time) and about 14-18 hours with average use. This is using CM10 and were about the same with MROM.
Attached screenshot shows a decrease of about 10% every hour. If you're getting better battery, then 3G is probably better.
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Keeping WiFi vs Off for battery life

Ever since I got my SGS3 last year, I noticed that WiFi would drain battery rather than save battery. For whatever reason I always got better battery life with WiFi off rather than on.
I noticed a lot more wake locks too. I don't know if it was because with a solid WiFi conneciton, apps tend to refresh a lot more than they normally do.
Enter the HTC One. I have noticed the same type of effects. I've only had it for 2 days but I am noticing better battery life without it.
So I want to collect some data using a poll. Do you get better battery life with it on or off?
Off..
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hutson23 said:
Off..
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Can you please add your vote to the poll? I just want to resolve this for people complaining about the battery life. It might be their WiFi.
SlimJ87D said:
Ever since I got my SGS3 last year, I noticed that WiFi would drain battery rather than save battery. For whatever reason I always got better battery life with WiFi off rather than on.
I noticed a lot more wake locks too. I don't know if it was because with a solid WiFi conneciton, apps tend to refresh a lot more than they normally do.
Enter the HTC One. I have noticed the same type of effects. I've only had it for 2 days but I am noticing better battery life without it.
So I want to collect some data using a poll. Do you get better battery life with it on or off?
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My best setup is with wifi always on, but I set it up so Tasker turns mobile data off as soon as my phone connects to my home or office wifi network.
Newcron said:
My best setup is with wifi always on, but I set it up so Tasker turns mobile data off as soon as my phone connects to my home or office wifi network.
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Shouldn't mobile data turn off automatically when WiFi connects?
SlimJ87D said:
Shouldn't mobile data turn off automatically when WiFi connects?
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It goes inactive, but it doesn't actually get 'turned off'. If I don't have it turned off, what happens is when my wifi goes to sleep then mobile data goes back on. I don't want that.
of course you get better battery with Wifi turned off. but doesn't Wifi consume less battery than cellular data? my balance is to keep Wifi on ANYTIME i'm in a trusted wireless network and manually toggle off cellular data when I'm using Wifi.
It burns battery when it isn't connected and on but I get better battery with it on and connected
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