Battery life - wifi vs. usb ethernet adapter

[conchshell]

For those who have both, does the usb ethernet adapter require noticeably less power than the wifi? I would assume so but I was wondering if this is actually the case before I get the adapter. Thanks

 

[jlbrown23]

The USB ethernet will undoubtably give you better battery life - next to the display, the wireless is probably the biggest power consumer(unless you are spinning the hard drive a lot for some reason).

My question would be if you are somewhere where you HAD an ethernet cable, why not just plug your laptop power cord in and just use the wireless? I think that people get nervous giving up the security of old technology(optical drives, wired connections), but once you are used to not having them you realize it isn't a big issue. And this is from someone who first worked on computers with tape drives and 16K of memory.

But if you are in some situation that I can't forsee where ethernet cables are available & power outlets are not, you are probably better off with the USB adapter(and you can probably find one much cheaper than Apple's, although it likely won't look as good).