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iP5- Turning off LTE = No Affect in Battery Life

S

solo118

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 16, 2011
1,325
178
So, to help battery consumption last night I totally drained my battery and turned off LTE (phone now says 4G)

This was just an experiment, but it appears that battery life is nearly identical with 4G instead of LTE. Every day at noon my usage is about the same, 1 Hour and I have 80% battery.

Right now its a little after 12, and I am 79% with 1 hour, 9 min of usage.

So I guess the good old myth of turning off LTE will improve battery is just hogwash.

I am not going to complain, as 5 hour usage with no Wifi is decent, but I was hoping this would help me on those days I am not near a charger.

I am going to take the plunge and download 6.1.2 today to see if things improve (as I always have exchange on)
 
its because the cellsite serving you is the same as the LTE. the only difference in them is the data transfer.
 
solo118 said:
So, to help battery consumption last night I totally drained my battery and turned off LTE (phone now says 4G)

This was just an experiment, but it appears that battery life is nearly identical with 4G instead of LTE. Every day at noon my usage is about the same, 1 Hour and I have 80% battery.

Right now its a little after 12, and I am 79% with 1 hour, 9 min of usage.

So I guess the good old myth of turning off LTE will improve battery is just hogwash.

I am not going to complain, as 5 hour usage with no Wifi is decent, but I was hoping this would help me on those days I am not near a charger.

I am going to take the plunge and download 6.1.2 today to see if things improve (as I always have exchange on)
Click to expand...

Apple reinvented the way the radios are setup inside the phone. LTE and the regular radio chip are not two separate chips. They are combined in one chip so turning off LTE will not turn the chip inside the phone off because the chip still has to stay on for the regular 4G. This is a way of saving battery life that apple is using. Other phones have a chip for 4G and a separate chip for LTE and in their case, turning off LTE would save battery power.
 
shehrammajid said:
qualcomm reinvented the way the radios are setup inside the phone. Lte and the regular radio chip are not two separate chips. They are combined in one chip so turning off lte will not turn the chip inside the phone off because the chip still has to stay on for the regular 4g. This is a way of saving battery life that apple is using. Other phones have a chip for 4g and a separate chip for lte and in their case, turning off lte would save battery power.
Click to expand...

ftfy
 
When I first got my i5, I lived in area where LTE was already rolled out on AT&T. I have since moved to a more rural area where there is spotty LTE coverage. Since then I turned LTE off on my phone and I really never saw a difference in battery performance from when I had LTE to now just having HSPA+.
 
Last edited:
I'm pretty sure that having LTE on only drains your battery more if LTE is unavailable in your area. In that case, then it's a good idea to turn LTE off.

But in LTE coverage areas, your battery life is probably going to be the same, either way.
 
the iPhone 5 drains this quickly be design , if the battery lasted a full working day you wouldn't need to buy another two or three spare proprietary cables at outrageous prices.

:apple: Think, How to gouge people for more money, but in a different way :D
 
scaredpoet said:
I'm pretty sure that having LTE on only drains your battery more if LTE is unavailable in your area. In that case, then it's a good idea to turn LTE off.

But in LTE coverage areas, your battery life is probably going to be the same, either way.
Click to expand...

Thanks all for the info, I will keep LTE on at all times as I am in NYC and we have excellent LTE coverage.

Myth has been busted in my little experiment :)
 
shehrammajid said:
Apple reinvented the way the radios are setup inside the phone. LTE and the regular radio chip are not two separate chips. They are combined in one chip so turning off LTE will not turn the chip inside the phone off because the chip still has to stay on for the regular 4G. This is a way of saving battery life that apple is using. Other phones have a chip for 4G and a separate chip for LTE and in their case, turning off LTE would save battery power.
Click to expand...

No they did not reinvent anything. They just passed the standalone LTE chipsets( and hence 4S without LTE) and bought the LTE integrated chip from Qualcomm
 
I figured as such since the toggle doesn't say it uses more battery like the 3G toggle did on older devices.
 
Nightarchaon said:
the iPhone 5 drains this quickly be design , if the battery lasted a full working day you wouldn't need to buy another two or three spare proprietary cables at outrageous prices.

:apple: Think, How to gouge people for more money, but in a different way :D
Click to expand...

Since the phone lasts the vast majority of users through a full day, I'd say they're pretty bad at that particular form of gouging.
 
Asuriyan said:
Since the phone lasts the vast majority of users through a full day, I'd say they're pretty bad at that particular form of gouging.
Click to expand...

I hear about these mythical people who have an iPhone that lasts a full day, much like BigFoot, i have yet to meet one in person, or see proof they exist that i can believe.

Going off the iPhone users in my office who complain about the battery life, and the number of emails that go out around 2pm begging to borrow a charging cable, id say that not lasting the day is the normal, and that lasting a day makes you a special minority.
 
Nightarchaon said:
I hear about these mythical people who have an iPhone that lasts a full day, much like BigFoot, i have yet to meet one in person, or see proof they exist that i can believe.

Going off the iPhone users in my office who complain about the battery life, and the number of emails that go out around 2pm begging to borrow a charging cable, id say that not lasting the day is the normal, and that lasting a day makes you a special minority.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm part of the "special minority" too. :rolleyes: Unless I'm streaming music or playing games I have no problems going a whole day.

signed,
Bigfoot

P.S. Those people either didn't plug in their phones at night or work in an area with poor cell coverage.
 
decafjava said:
I guess I'm part of the "special minority" too. :rolleyes: Unless I'm streaming music or playing games I have no problems going a whole day.

signed,
Bigfoot

P.S. Those people either didn't plug in their phones at night or work in an area with poor cell coverage.
Click to expand...

i have excellent cell coverage, and charge everynight, couldn't get an iPhone 4S to last past midday.

Currently my iPad mini is my "goto" device, and it runs down to around 40% by the time i get home.
 
Nightarchaon said:
the iPhone 5 drains this quickly be design , if the battery lasted a full working day you wouldn't need to buy another two or three spare proprietary cables at outrageous prices.

:apple: Think, How to gouge people for more money, but in a different way :D
Click to expand...

So that's why my iPhone only lasts 9 hours a day. Good to know

----------
decafjava said:
I guess I'm part of the "special minority" too. :rolleyes: Unless I'm streaming music or playing games I have no problems going a whole day.

signed,
Bigfoot

P.S. Those people either didn't plug in their phones at night or work in an area with poor cell coverage.
Click to expand...

Or have push email, location services turned in for a zillion apps that are all pinging their GPS all day, some janked up app that was miscoded so that something isn't really shutting down, etc
 
LTE will only drain the battery more if you are in a weak LTE area and the phone is trying to maintain LTE harder.

Even in devices with two separate radios you won't see much if any, better battery performance by turning off LTE.

The hardware is still powered the device just isn't using it when set to off.

I have an old Xoom that came shipped with 3G and later upgraded to LTE. Even in airplane mode there is a noticeable difference between it having LTE and it not having it. Some people even remove the LTE card if they decide to make the device wifi only after their contract expires.
 
charlituna said:
So that's why my iPhone only lasts 9 hours a day. Good to know

----------



Or have push email, location services turned in for a zillion apps that are all pinging their GPS all day, some janked up app that was miscoded so that something isn't really shutting down, etc
Click to expand...

i can rule out the Apps doing that, and the Push mail, both myself and two friends back in the day we owned iPhone 4S's all had the battery life issues, so we wiped the phones, and left no email and no 3rd party apps on them, just web browsed, and watched Video + listened to Music all via the built in apps.

managed to get an extra 2hrs out of the device, (probably because of no games being loaded) but that still meant that at around 2-3 pm, after undocking at 6AM when i get up for work i was out of charge before my commute home begins at 530pm.

i have one friend left on an apple phone, he is on the iPhone 5, and has had to purchase an addition cable for the office, cable and charger for his car, and spare cable and charger to carry "just in case", as he puts it "the iPhone 5 is a wonderful tethered phone with just enough battery life to get you comfortably from charging point to charging point during the day"
 
Nightarchaon said:
i can rule out the Apps doing that, and the Push mail, both myself and two friends back in the day we owned iPhone 4S's all had the battery life issues, so we wiped the phones, and left no email and no 3rd party apps on them, just web browsed, and watched Video + listened to Music all via the built in apps.

managed to get an extra 2hrs out of the device, (probably because of no games being loaded) but that still meant that at around 2-3 pm, after undocking at 6AM when i get up for work i was out of charge before my commute home begins at 530pm.

i have one friend left on an apple phone, he is on the iPhone 5, and has had to purchase an addition cable for the office, cable and charger for his car, and spare cable and charger to carry "just in case", as he puts it "the iPhone 5 is a wonderful tethered phone with just enough battery life to get you comfortably from charging point to charging point during the day"
Click to expand...
And there are others that have the phone last them a couple of days before they need/want to charge it. And many many more that get through at least a whole day before they want/need to charge it.

Doesn't really say anything one way or another for anyone specific as usage, signal, and various factors affect things and are different for different people at different times and places.
 
C DM said:
And there are others that have the phone last them a couple of days before they need/want to charge it. And many many more that get through at least a whole day before they want/need to charge it.

Doesn't really say anything one way or another for anyone specific as usage, signal, and various factors affect things and are different for different people at different times and places.
Click to expand...

but what seems odd is that any number of android phone seem to be able to last the full day on the same usage pattern , but the iPhone does not,

Points to an underpowered battery in the iPhone i would suspect.
 
Nightarchaon said:
but what seems odd is that any number of android phone seem to be able to last the full day on the same usage pattern , but the iPhone does not,

Points to an underpowered battery in the iPhone i would suspect.
Click to expand...

Yes, because Android OEMs use superior batteries across the board. :rolleyes:

One of my coworkers has a Galaxy S3 that he pretty much constantly has to keep plugged in at his desk. I only ever have to juice my iPhone 5 mid-day if I've taken the bus and streamed music for a solid hour on my way in and plan on doing the same on the way home. Even then, the only reason I would charge is if I knew I was going out before coming home.

Also, it's nice that you have a job where you can watch videos on your iPhone all day. For most of us living in the real world that's not an option, and therefore we can maintain a charge through our workdays.
 
Nightarchaon said:
but what seems odd is that any number of android phone seem to be able to last the full day on the same usage pattern , but the iPhone does not,

Points to an underpowered battery in the iPhone i would suspect.
Click to expand...

I'd say only a specific number of Android phones can out last an iPhone. Namely the Razr Maxx and Note series just cause they have very large batteries. The rest depends on usage.

I can't make it through the day on a single charge on my 4S because I'm on it all day. On the weekends when I'm hanging out with friends it easily last an entire day or more.

I do agree I think the battery in the iPhone should be larger. I personally would sacrifice thinness for more battery. I also believe iOS could be required to be held back some due to conserving battery power because its very limited.
 
Nightarchaon said:
but what seems odd is that any number of android phone seem to be able to last the full day on the same usage pattern , but the iPhone does not,

Points to an underpowered battery in the iPhone i would suspect.
Click to expand...
Hasn't been my experience in the past--had Android phones that would die on me before the day is over, while an iPhone would last well into the next day (if I didn't simply decide to charge it at night, as I usually do on a nightly basis, for peace of mind at least).

Again, ultimately, as I mentioned: different people, different usage, different places and different times all make a difference which makes comparisons essentially "apples vs. oranges" type of things at best.
 
blasto2236 said:
Yes, because Android OEMs use superior batteries across the board. :rolleyes:

One of my coworkers has a Galaxy S3 that he pretty much constantly has to keep plugged in at his desk. I only ever have to juice my iPhone 5 mid-day if I've taken the bus and streamed music for a solid hour on my way in and plan on doing the same on the way home. Even then, the only reason I would charge is if I knew I was going out before coming home.

Also, it's nice that you have a job where you can watch videos on your iPhone all day. For most of us living in the real world that's not an option, and therefore we can maintain a charge through our workdays.
Click to expand...

I watch videos on my hour and a half commute to and from work, also on my lunch, and occasionally steam work "town hall" meetings when i cannot attend.

I still think that apple need to add 50% again to the thickness of the iPhone 5 and give us the extra battery power to get a full day between charges

----------
C DM said:
Hasn't been my experience in the past--had Android phones that would die on me before the day is over, while an iPhone would last well into the next day (if I didn't simply decide to charge it at night, as I usually do on a nightly basis, for peace of mind at least).

Again, ultimately, as I mentioned: different people, different usage, different places and different times all make a difference which makes comparisons essentially "apples vs. oranges" type of things at best.
Click to expand...

Ill admit, if your android phone gets an app that goes wild, it can run flat in under an hour (as well as get hotter than the surface of the sun it would appear)

which ill admit to suffering from occasionally as my android ownership began after my jumping ship from the iPhone, now i know how to keep the apps in check, the battery lasts 16-21hrs depending on usage (usually longer at weekends because i dont watch the 1.5hrs of netflix steaming, and the fact its on wifi more)

Id rather have 16hrs, and live without my iApps, than 5-6hrs and have to keep the thing tethered to a charging point during the day at work
 
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