I did, using 3G most of the time because there's nominal difference in speed in my area.
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Anyone DISABLING LTE on their IP5?
- Thread starter Fanboi4life
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No way for me. 3G here is about 4-5 Mbps, LTE is 49Mbps. I love LTE; well worth the upgrade!
When I'm not using data at all and just for calls and texts I stay on 3G and turn off lte to see if it saves me any battery.
When every disable LTE under cellular I don't get back to 3G I just have not data at all. And I know I have data in my area because my ip4 has it. Btw I'm with AT&T
If I lived in a 3G only area then I would. But I live in Indy, and with VZW, LTE is plentiful so no way will I shut it off haha
LTE probably uses LESS battery than 3G overall.
Think about it.. to download a megabyte...
LTE: 40 megabits/sec = 0.25 seconds the radio is on.
3G: 5 megabits/sec = 2 seconds the radio is on.
Unless the LTE radio uses eight times as much energy as the 3G, you'll likely save more battery running LTE unless you're in a very weak signal area.
EDIT: I will say that the iPhone 5's 3G radio seems to be a lot better performing than the iPhone 4's. I was doing some tests and was getting 6-8 megabits/sec consistently with LTE disabled on the 5... On the 4 I rarely got over 2-3 megabits and that was on a good day!
Think about it.. to download a megabyte...
LTE: 40 megabits/sec = 0.25 seconds the radio is on.
3G: 5 megabits/sec = 2 seconds the radio is on.
Unless the LTE radio uses eight times as much energy as the 3G, you'll likely save more battery running LTE unless you're in a very weak signal area.
EDIT: I will say that the iPhone 5's 3G radio seems to be a lot better performing than the iPhone 4's. I was doing some tests and was getting 6-8 megabits/sec consistently with LTE disabled on the 5... On the 4 I rarely got over 2-3 megabits and that was on a good day!
The iPhone 4 only supported HSPA (up to 7.2Mbps). The 4S (and consequently the 5) added support for HSPA+ (up to 14.4Mbps).
Same, after I switch off lte it takes a while for the 2g to switch and then if I switch back I need to turn on/off airplane mode to get lte working again.
Off because LTE hasn't been turned on here yet, and I found with it enabled my phone's batter was worse (not sure if it was "looking" for an LTE signal or what). I will enable once LTE is live here.
It was my main decision to get the iPhone 5. Didn't need to upgrade, I had the 4S.On; was one of the main reasons I upgraded. LTE in NYC ranges from 5-20Mbps depending where you are, which is a lot better than I was getting with 3G which ranged from 1.5-4Mbps. And I'm getting 10-30 in Jersey instead of 3-6.
The real question of this thread should be--does disabling LTE save battery life?
I agree that no one would turn off LTE if the hit on battery life is identical to that of 3G unless they were so afraid of going over their capped data limits.
I think that until real world tests are done, we'll never know if the increased time in "idle" mode that LTE would give you due to the faster speeds will be offset by the lower 3G power consumption. I don't even know if 3G uses less power than LTE either, but it's assumed.
I think that LTE vs 3G battery life will also depend on usage patterns. If you are constantly changing websites, or looking at stock quotes, say, which refresh every 30 seconds, then I'm guessing LTE will be constantly polling and that will make 3G win out in terms of battery life. Whereas if you are reading a book and check the weather once every 6 hours, then LTE on or off may not make a difference.
I agree that no one would turn off LTE if the hit on battery life is identical to that of 3G unless they were so afraid of going over their capped data limits.
I think that until real world tests are done, we'll never know if the increased time in "idle" mode that LTE would give you due to the faster speeds will be offset by the lower 3G power consumption. I don't even know if 3G uses less power than LTE either, but it's assumed.
I think that LTE vs 3G battery life will also depend on usage patterns. If you are constantly changing websites, or looking at stock quotes, say, which refresh every 30 seconds, then I'm guessing LTE will be constantly polling and that will make 3G win out in terms of battery life. Whereas if you are reading a book and check the weather once every 6 hours, then LTE on or off may not make a difference.
iPhone 4 only supported hspa which maxed out a 7mbps
iPhone 4S supports up to 14.4 hspa+
iPhone 5 supports up to 42 hspa+ (AT&T only goes up to 21 Mbps though)
That's the reason for faster 3G speeds on the 5.
Thank you for clarifying! I had (wrongly) assumed there wasn't much of a difference between HSPA and HSPA+, especially since so many people were whining that they called HSPA+ "4G".