Battery lasts longer in one than another country??

[miragebg]

Can someone explain to me why does my battery last longer in my native country Bulgaria (with bulgarian sim card inserted) than in Germany, where I live (with german sim, not roaming). Both are on LTE with fair signal stability, but somehow the german provider O2 gives me around 15-20% less battery life with same usage of my side..
Does all of this have something in common with bands frequencies? 800 for O2 vs 1800 for Mtel (the bulgarian's provider I use)?

 

[Gav.Winters]

This is probably due to the difference in energy required to communicate with the cell towers in both locations. Your phone will use as little power as possible to connect to a network but presumably it's using more in Germany.

 

[miragebg]

Thanks for your response!
Is it going to make any difference if I change my network provider?

 

[Gav.Winters]

I couldn't say yes with any conviction but theoretically it would make sense to suggest that it might help if you switched to a network with more coverage. It's probably worth a try.

 

[CTHarrryH]

Personally, I find battery usage varies tremendously with signal strength. So seemingly small differences make large differences - also signal strength on the phone display doesn't always mean speed / strength of data signal.

 

[Shirasaki]

If you search the Internet, there is a way to let your phone display actual signal strength number than five dots. Restart or hard reset does not remove that number.

In many cases, even though you see the signal strength are both 5 dots in both carriers, number is different. I think, the larger signal strength number is, the lower energy consumption your phone will have.

 

[Applejuiced]

Signal strength and flunctuation comes into play with battery.
But how do you definitively say that you used the device exactly the same way on both days? Same time of usage and amount of usage of various apps and concluded that it consumed 15% more battery?
Even if I tried I couldn't exactly duplicate my 24 hour daily activities, amount of use, different apps used for various amounts of time and data pulled and come out and say my battery is depleting this much more or less.

 

[Septembersrain]

It's mostly about the signal. I have T-Mobile and my battery is absolute rubbish when I travel outside of the -100 DBm range.

 

[Mlrollin91]

As stated above, signal strength is very important. I have had my iPhone 7Plus go from 100% -> 20% battery in less than 4 hours just because of having no service (didn't touch the device once). It is truly the fastest way to kill your battery, even faster than heavy usage, such as gaming or recording 4K video.

 

[deano1972]

As stated above, signal strength is very important. I have had my iPhone 7Plus go from 100% -> 20% battery in less than 4 hours just because of having no service (didn't touch the device once). It is truly the fastest way to kill your battery, even faster than heavy usage, such as gaming or recording 4K video.

Basically this^

I changed network around a year ago due to a poor signal on site at work where it would range from no signal to 2 bars on average depending on exact location. My new network is always between 1 and 3 bars (usually a solid 2) at work and the battery lasts almost twice as long on the same phone (5s)

 

[44267547]

Basically this^

I changed network around a year ago due to a poor signal on site at work where it would range from no signal to 2 bars on average depending on exact location. My new network is always between 1 and 3 bars (usually a solid 2) at work and the battery lasts almost twice as long on the same phone (5s)

Agreed. I live in heavily populated metropolitan area. And it's a huge benefit to have full bars and how it contributes to battery life.