Battery Drain, Wi Fi vs. 3G

[hakr100]

I upgraded the OS on my new 4s to 5.0.1. yesterday.
I wasn't working today so the phone has been idle (standby) most of the day.

With wi-fi on at 7:45 am, the battery was at 100%.

I checked every half hour. through 11:39 am, about four hours. The battery was still at 100%.

Then I switched on "3G" in network settings. The phone remained in standby. An hour later, the 100% dropped to 97%, and a half hour later, to 95%.

Just an observation...not proof or evidence of anything.

 

[Greg.]

3G has always been more battery intensive than Wi-fi.

 

[hakr100]

Oh, I was aware 3G was more battery intensive, as you put it, but I hadn't quantified it before with previous "smart" phones. The difference seems phenomenal, and is justification enough for Apple to code a "switch" for the home page that allows turning 3G off/on without having to drill into "settings."

 

[FNDchairman]

I have experienced the same issue, hakr100. I have always known that 3G drained the battery faster, but the problem seems to be aggravated on the new iPhone 4s. For example, if I am on WiFi, the battery barely drains at all. I can get up to 9 or more hours easily with constant use. However, on 3G, there is no way I can get even the 6 hours Apple claims above. With constant usage, I'd be lucky to get 2 hours. The battery drains 1% every minute. That's 100 minutes, or 20 minutes less than two hours.