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If you do, does it KILL your battery life?
I am currently using HSPA+ (not sure if that's 4G or 3.5G, but whatever)
On a full charge, I eeked out 13-14 hours with heavy usage during the day, with brightness on just under half (40-45%).
I am sick of loading times on facebook and even when browsing so I'm pondering enabling LTE.
I disabled LTE on the premise that it isn't good for battery life.
Thoughts?
It definitely won't help battery, but if you have strong LTE signal in your area it's not that bad. The drain is HORRIBLE however when you are getting less than two bars (roughly -98 dB or higher).
You should still be able to manager 11-12 hours HEAVY usage, with around 3-4 hours onscreen time with LTE.
It should be noted however that if you want to maximize battery life and use LTE, stick with gb and custom kernels that can undervolt. LTE and ics is a b**ch, it KILLS my battery
just my 2c
portable charger, extra battery...
why buy a super phone, and not use all its premium features??
If There's No LTE Yet..
So in my area of Long Island LTE is not running yet (probably not until late 2012) so will I get extra battery life by switching to using only GSM/HSPA?
That's on GB
Here in Bakersfield CA we are on hspa and i get about 7.5 down no lte though but i get about 15+ hours but i cant really use my ohone at work so thats why i get good battery life lol. I havent gone to L.A. To try out lte but im pretty happy with hspa. (i was a sprint user.... Sad)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717
docfreed said:
So in my area of Long Island LTE is not running yet (probably not until late 2012) so will I get extra battery life by switching to using only GSM/HSPA?
That's on GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely, battery life will greatly increase
wase4711 said:
portable charger, extra battery...
why buy a super phone, and not use all its premium features??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...i agree. Plus, if someone is able to use LTE then that means he or shred is already paying for it. It's kind of stupid to pay for something you dont to use.
I simply wish I could turn off LTE when not needed and just use hspa+. It def drains the battery hardcore. I use wifi when at all possible.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
erick161 said:
I simply wish I could turn off LTE when not needed and just use hspa+. It def drains the battery hardcore. I use wifi when at all possible.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah if only it were possible...
-Once you go NOTE, you'd say 4 inches a Joke
SKyRocKeting727 said:
Yeah if only it were possible...
-Once you go NOTE, you'd say 4 inches a Joke
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Click to collapse
Well apparently if you flash certain roms they have that capability (the switch). IMO it should be integrated into the stock build
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
I get it at work. After 12 hours my phone is down to 60-70% depending on how much I screw around at lunch. LTE isn't as bad a drain as people would have you believe. The screen will always be the selling point and the battery drain on this thing
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
If you are stock, there isn't an option on whether or not to use LTE if it's available in your area. I live in the Washington, DC suburbs, and we have a very strong LTE network. I don't have the option to not use LTE ... it's in fact my only option. I am not used to this. With Sprint, I was able to turn off my 4G WiMax and use 3G. I wish I could do so with AT&T. It doesn't matter all that much. I don't notice significant battery drain and I use WiFi whenever I'm at home or whenever it's available on the go.
fbauto1 said:
...i agree. Plus, if someone is able to use LTE then that means he or shred is already paying for it. It's kind of stupid to pay for something you dont to use.
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Click to collapse
I live in Houston and have great LTE service, except in my house of course but I use my wifi instead. I never turn off my LTE nor do I want to, I went from an iphone with 3g to this and don't want to go back! When I purchased the phone I bought a spare battery/charger set before I left the store. Just looking at the screen, plus the LTE radio screemed battery eater. I was using Saurom with Juice Defender with a custom setup and set cpu to over/underclock and my battery life greatly increased. Now i'm back on DAGr8's alpha 2 ICS with the tablet mod and have not had enough "regular" use to see how the battery life is.
erick161 said:
Well apparently if you flash certain roms they have that capability (the switch). IMO it should be integrated into the stock build
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
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Click to collapse
Agreed
Send from the Noteorious BIG 5.3" Bell Canada
Two things, LTE isnt a battery drain on AT&T because it isnt the same technology as used on CDMA (Verizon or Sprints' 4g network).
Cellular data however IS a battery drain when you dont have a strong signal.
If your scratching your head, here is the distinction. Lets say you dont have LTE in your area and your 3g signal is weak, THIS will drain the battery. If you DO have LTE but again the signal is weak, this will ALSO hurt your battery life.
The reason is, your phone will push more power to the antenna in order to get you enough signal to get a reasonably decent connection on the best available connection available.
LTE uses the SAME ANTENNA as the 3g antenna on GSM networks that use HSPA, THIS is 'the'e distinction between Sprint & Verizon CDMA networks which use a different antenna for their 3g and another antenna for their '4g', power has to be provided for BOTH antennas whereas GSM networks have ONE antenna.
If you are suspecting LTE is killing the battery, its either going to be a weak signal OR a rogue app (possibly using your cellular data connection). My suggestion is to start with looking at your signal strength, if it is relatively strong, you need to start looking at other potential battery drains. It isnt LTE.
Hope this helps.
Want to know more?
http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/110711-what-is-lte/1
Its a massive 7 page article explaining exactly what LTE is and how it works. If you want to jump ahead to the section dealing specifically with battery life, go to page 5 (change the '1' in the link I provided above to a '5').
littlewierdo said:
Two things, LTE isnt a battery drain on AT&T because it isnt the same technology as used on CDMA (Verizon or Sprints' 4g network).
Cellular data however IS a battery drain when you dont have a strong signal.
If your scratching your head, here is the distinction. Lets say you dont have LTE in your area and your 3g signal is weak, THIS will drain the battery. If you DO have LTE but again the signal is weak, this will ALSO hurt your battery life.
The reason is, your phone will push more power to the antenna in order to get you enough signal to get a reasonably decent connection on the best available connection available.
LTE uses the SAME ANTENNA as the 3g antenna on GSM networks (currently, LTE is only available on GSM), THIS is 'the'e distinction between Sprint & Verizon CDMA networks which use a different antenna for their 3g and another antenna for their '4g', power has to be provided for BOTH antennas whereas GSM networks have ONE antenna.
If you are suspecting LTE is killing the battery, its either going to be a weak signal OR a rogue app (possibly using your cellular data connection). My suggestion is to start with looking at your signal strength, if it is relatively strong, you need to start looking at other potential battery drains. It isnt LTE.
Hope this helps.
Want to know more?
http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/110711-what-is-lte/1
Its a massive 7 page article explaining exactly what LTE is and how it works. If you want to jump ahead to the section dealing specifically with battery life, go to page 5 (change the '1' in the link I provided above to a '5').
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting, I've never read that before. However, if ATT uses the same antenna for 3g/4g/LTE, why does it matter what processor it uses?
ATTs HTC OneXL with the S4 supports LTE because the tegra3 does not, but if the same antenna is being used...why is this the case?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
erick161 said:
That's interesting, I've never read that before. However, if ATT uses the same antenna for 3g/4g/LTE, why does it matter what processor it uses?
ATTs HTC OneXL with the S4 supports LTE because the tegra3 does not, but if the same antenna is being used...why is this the case?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your statement (second paragraph) is not accurate. The S4 AND the Tegra 3 'can' use LTE (if the hardware - ie. antenna, exists). However, the Tegra 3 is not optimized for use with LTE. Right now, you will run into many issues with trying to use the Tegra 3 (primarily battery life issues and slow/sluggish performance over cellular data). It also costs more to build the Tegra 3 with this compatibility. OS updates are also a problem.
This person said it better than I could so I quote Draiko's entire post which answers your exact question (if you look at the very first post in the thread - link at the bottom, the same exact question you asked is there, this is a users response).
"The Tegras are not incompatible with LTE radios. They don't integrate the radios like the S4 does (yet) which makes a device with the Tegra 3 SoC and the separate 2G/3G/4G radios more expensive to build and maintenance (OS updates) trickier. The battery life also suffers a bit compared to an integrated solution and the main board is bigger.
nVidia bought Icera last year and they'll be integrating the Icera softmodem into future Tegras in order to better compete at the phone level (which will actually make the Tegra very versatile). They couldn't get Icera tech integrated fast enough for Tegra 3 (since the Tegra 3 was already sampling before they bought Icera).
The S4 has fewer faster CPU cores and integrated radios but a slower GPU. The Tegra 3 is a better non-phone solution which is more power efficient in a wifi-only loadout. Hardcore mobile gamers aside, most users won't notice a difference.
Bottom line: It's business, not a hardware limitation."
Source: (Post #3)
http://androidforums.com/motorola-photon-4g/531481-food-thought-quad-cores-lte.html
Hey XDA,
I'm running Android Revolution HD 3.0.0 with S-OFF and SuperCID. I am using Mobilicity as my carrier. When I first installed Revolution HD, I did not back up my APN's (it didn't say to do that in guide). After booting up for the first time, I was unable to use Mobile Network until I posted here asking why it wouldn't work, and I was told to put my APN's in.
After putting the APN in for Mobilicity, Mobile Network began to work. Here's the problem though - my phone is trying to use 4G on a network that hardly supports 3.5G. Prior to installing Revolution HD, my phone would switch between using 3G and HSDPA to manage battery consumption better. Now when I turn Mobile Network on, it consistently stays on 4G, burning up more power than before.
I can tell you that 4G is useless on Mobilicity because my data speeds are about 2Mbps download (Speedtest.net App).
Could someone provide me with APN to disable 4G from turning on, or if a different APN is not the solution, provide me with an alternative method.
Thank you so much XDA, you've been great,
Robert
Actually ARHD is based on T-Mobile's ICS, which actually switches between 3G and H (on T-Mobile they label it 4G but it's actually H), as I was saying, it actually switches but T-Mobile had HTC modify the system files to show 4G whether the phone is on 3G or H, it just shows 4G all the time, so calm down.
Next point is, your phone switching between 3G and 4G, it's not a form of saving power, it's just your phone showing what coverage it has, therefore your phone is constantly switching between the two, so your power consumption isn't to blame on your coverage if you're in basically the same areas as you were before flashing and your coverage remains similar, but most likely on some programs you have running in the background or well, you just find the phone more usable with ARHD and you're just glued to it more than you used to be. APN settings have nothing to do with 3G or 4G, most if not all carriers use a general apn, it's upto the devices capabilities to determine what data type would connect and what data coverage they provide.
Alternative to reduce power us would be to switch your phone to GSM (2G) coverage only, which would be slow, compared to your current 3G.
Okay thank you for your reply, but I will dispute the fact that ARHD does not use more power than Stock (or just the same).
Using the built in battery monitor, it shows me how fast my battery dies based on the type of usage (it has that graph thing, i'm pretty sure most android phone have it). The phone remains pretty much stagnant with battery usage when its screen is off, but when I turn the screen on, BAM, the battery begins falling vertically. If I get a chance I will upload a picture of my battery usage.
It is literally the same as stock, I honestly get no better battery life with ARHD than before. Although I am not saying that ARHD does not have its advantages such as running the OS much smoother and ICS being awesome.
Robert
Check if your brightness level is too high, I use auto brightness, ARHD is basically stock, just tweaked and a few additions to make it better and smoother.
You can also check the Amaze Bible thread for tips and tricks on improving battery life, it's a general list, so should be able to help, at least a bit.
I don't know enough about the technology to determine if this is odd or even impossible but I have noticed that while my 4G signal is pretty good (about -70 dbm) my 3G signal in the exact same location is terrible (from -100 dbm to -120 dbm). Is there an explanation? I like to switch to 3G when phone screen will be off for a while but it isn't practical. I'm using a Sense 3 rom with older radios (1.48.00.0906w_1, 0.01.78.0906w_2) . My radios have always worked fine in the past and my rom isn't brand new either.
Shouldn't 3G and 4G signals both be good if 4G is good?
I don't think they use the same towers. Right now i have great 4g signal. But if i switch to 3g, the signal is very weak.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2
they deff changed something recently because mine does that too and never did that a few weeks ago.. when im in 3g its always low bars compared to other 3g verizon phones
LTE (4G) uses the 700mhz spectrum, so the lower frequencies will penetrate buildings better. AFAIK Verizon uses 800 or 1900mhz for CDMA (3G) depending on your location, so it won't penetrate buildings as well (the latter is worse obviously).
It's also possible they're coming from different sources, or your 3G antenna just sucks
I'm assuming you wanted to shut off 4G while the screen is off in order to save battery? In that case you should check out Tasker, its an expensive little app but IMO one of the most powerful for android.
It lets you make profiles and tasks (a trigger and settings to apply to your phone). Right now there isn't a way to disable 4G with Tasker but you can disable a ton of other data options. My phone is set up to turn off WIFI, sync, mobile data, and GPS when I turn it face down.
This should save you plenty of battery life, if that was your intention of course.
If you do go and buy it, it can be a bit intimidating so don't hesitate to ask me about setting up your profiles.
-Nex
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Thanks ✟
Moving to Q&A
Anyone who has LTE care to compare?
Some say that the integrated LTE modem means that LTE won't drain your battery any more than 3G will. I highly, highly doubt it (just my guess).
Thanks
im not sure how clearly i can explain this so bare with me here and tell me if you have no idea what im talking about.
the 3g (cdma) and 4g (lte) radios are both built into the processor so right off the bat they use less power than usual but since there is no lte anywhere yet, no one can accurately say just how much it will use but from what i have been reading, people have been ball parking it and saying that it shouldn't use any more battery than the 3g. their reasoning behind this is the fact that the setting for 3g is tied to the lte so if you turn on the 3g radio your essentially turning on both at the same time and lte will connect and take over the 3g and switch to the lte network whenever possible. now you can set it to only use 3g when you turn on the 3g radio but then there is no other way to toggle lte. since i got my phone i have had it so that it turns them both on at the same time and since i have seen no severe drain i would have to say that if it was infact using the lte network that it wouldn't use anymore than the 3g would at any other time (if i had to guess)
to help explain what i am talking about with the settings, here is a few pics that should make it clearer.
https://www.box.com/s/4d3ae71dea2265ce859a
https://www.box.com/s/a2733587f93ceb8958d1
edit: so in short, no, it won't drain any more battery
That would be awesome. My Samsung Epic sucked the battery dry when 4G was turned on, so I never used it.
The goal with Sprint is to REPLACE 3G with 4G, and not just have it as a secondary like Wimax, or Verizon LTE is now. They are tuning is so much in battery efficiency so that it drains no more, if not less than 3G, since LTE can burst a dl quickly then go back into idle mode much more than 3G, when in use it should take less battery in theory.
Afteraffekt said:
The goal with Sprint is to REPLACE 3G with 4G, and not just have it as a secondary like Wimax, or Verizon LTE is now. They are tuning is so much in battery efficiency so that it drains no more, if not less than 3G, since LTE can burst a dl quickly then go back into idle mode much more than 3G, when in use it should take less battery in theory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the theory better now, but in practice, it seems that the AT&T version of the One X does drain more battery? Although you can not turn off LTE so I'm not sure how people are comparing it to HSPA+.
PhxkinMassacre said:
im not sure how clearly i can explain this so bare with me here and tell me if you have no idea what im talking about.
the 3g (cdma) and 4g (lte) radios are both built into the processor so right off the bat they use less power than usual but since there is no lte anywhere yet, no one can accurately say just how much it will use but from what i have been reading, people have been ball parking it and saying that it shouldn't use any more battery than the 3g. their reasoning behind this is the fact that the setting for 3g is tied to the lte so if you turn on the 3g radio your essentially turning on both at the same time and lte will connect and take over the 3g and switch to the lte network whenever possible. now you can set it to only use 3g when you turn on the 3g radio but then there is no other way to toggle lte. since i got my phone i have had it so that it turns them both on at the same time and since i have seen no severe drain i would have to say that if it was infact using the lte network that it wouldn't use anymore than the 3g would at any other time (if i had to guess)
to help explain what i am talking about with the settings, here is a few pics that should make it clearer.
https://www.box.com/s/4d3ae71dea2265ce859a
https://www.box.com/s/a2733587f93ceb8958d1
edit: so in short, no, it won't drain any more battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking the same way you are,no LTE here yet of course,but I do have it set to 3g,LTE mode not 3g only and have been getting excellent battery life.I'm assuming it must at least occasionally check for LTE coverage.
Of course, no actual LTE yet. But I have run full days with LTE on and off and have noticed little or no difference in battery life. Maybe a little better data speed even on 3g, but not enough in my area to prove it with speedtest.
I believe what it is is the Radio no matter what looks for a signal from CDMA or LTE either way BUT I believe the options only opts as to what type of signal is allowed to be USED by the radio as the primary signal technology. So basically either way it searches for both since they are both integrated into one on the processor but accepts the best one available according to the settings in OS(Best As In LTE if available and CDMA if not, not Best as in terms of signal strength).
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I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
StarrLimit said:
I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In what? Battery or speed? Good or bad? Numbers to back it up?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
StarrLimit said:
I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
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Click to collapse
Your defiance astounds and impresses me.
Believe that both 3G and LTE run on the 1900 radio, where the WIMAX used a 2500 separate radio that killed the WIMAX battery life. Plus the LTE phone battery life with the larger battery and ICS (and less HTC crapware polling the network all the time) has lasted all day with moderate use and power left to spare.
Was disappointed that there wasn't an easy switch to turn off the LTE like in WIMAX phones but then if both 3g and LTE are truly tied together that it would be impossible to turn off.
Although Anandtech has not yet reviewed the LTE EVO, most of the battery and performance benchmark tables in their recent review of the Gallaxy S III have results for the EVO included in the table. See here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6022/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review-att-and-tmobile-usa-variants/3
kronemerk said:
Although Anandtech has not yet reviewed the LTE EVO, most of the battery and performance benchmark tables in their recent review of the Gallaxy S III have results for the EVO included in the table. See here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6022/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review-att-and-tmobile-usa-variants/3
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Click to collapse
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
It looks like the Evo 4g lte isnt much worse or better than the SGS3. Pretty much expected that.
sgt. slaughter said:
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
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Click to collapse
I think it's because they have a updated radio 1.75 to 1.85 while the Elte hasn't had any updates to its radio or any software updates at all yet. Maybe
sgt. slaughter said:
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
supers2k said:
I think it's because they have a updated radio 1.75 to 1.85 while the Elte hasn't had any updates to its radio or any software updates at all yet. Maybe
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Click to collapse
While the cell radios aren't transmitting data, they're still on, waiting for texts and calls. I think GSM radios are more efficient than CDMA ones, so that could be part of it. Or maybe the Sprint signal just wasn't as good.
A more accurate test would have been to turn on the phones' airplane mode, then enable wifi, but since the test doesn't mention it it's very possible the cell radio was left on while doing the wifi test.
sgt. slaughter said:
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd guess it's due to they have got updates on their radios and software.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Anandtech, while clearly, CLEARLY, the best review site available on the internet, has always posted battery life claims on their laptops and smartphones that I never get in the real world.
I take them to be relative comparisons under standardized test conditions, but not real world test conditions.
In other words, do I think that I could browse over 3G for 6 hours? Unequivocally not, which is what their test results show. I've got an international HTC One X and under no circumstances can I ever get 7 hours of 3G web surfing as their graphs show.
What I take the results to mean is that the EVO 4G LTE is among the most battery efficient smartphones out there right now. In other words, if anyone has a problem with the battery life (raises hand), they would have a problem with all smartphones' battery life.
Saneless One said:
While the cell radios aren't transmitting data, they're still on, waiting for texts and calls. I think GSM radios are more efficient than CDMA ones, so that could be part of it. Or maybe the Sprint signal just wasn't as good.
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Click to collapse
The sprint phones always seem to lag behind their gsm counterparts. I remember that was the case with my Epic 4G.
Saneless One said:
While the cell radios aren't transmitting data, they're still on, waiting for texts and calls. I think GSM radios are more efficient than CDMA ones, so that could be part of it. Or maybe the Sprint signal just wasn't as good.
A more accurate test would have been to turn on the phones' airplane mode, then enable wifi, but since the test doesn't mention it it's very possible the cell radio was left on while doing the wifi test.
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Click to collapse
while pulling your main data over the wifi test i have a hard time believing that the gsm radio yields almost 2hr better when its not being used hardly at all....if it was doing the 3G data battery test then maybe, but not during the wifi one...