Iphone 4 Battery:How much does wifi drain?

[gianthobbit]

Previous smart phones I owned turned wifi off when the screen went dead. So essentially wifi didn't really drain any battery and wifi was easier on the battery then 3g when actively pulling down data.

So now I am on a 2gb plan (previously on unlimited) and sensitive to this I keep my wifi on all the times to use my home connection when possible. My battery however is barely getting through a full day. My wife was getting solid days but she had wifi off. Do you think that this is effecting it? I use my phone quite a bit throughout the day...

Thanks much!

 

[Snowman3459]

Previous smart phones I owned turned wifi off when the screen went dead. So essentially wifi didn't really drain any battery and wifi was easier on the battery then 3g when actively pulling down data.

So now I am on a 2gb plan (previously on unlimited) and sensitive to this I keep my wifi on all the times to use my home connection when possible. My battery however is barely getting through a full day. My wife was getting solid days but she had wifi off. Do you think that this is effecting it? I use my phone quite a bit throughout the day...

Thanks much!

Umm no it should not drain that much.

Once you lock your iPhone, your WiFi sort of turns on "standby" and won't be activated until you unlock your phone to use it again.

Do you have an app that constantly needs a connection?

Do you have Push on with a lot of apps?

 

[steve knight]

well with my 3gs I hardly turned wifi on unless I needed it and I charged it for a hour while playing games on the way to work I would be about 40% now with the 4 I have wifi on all the time play 1 to two hours and I am at 30% when I get home. so it has far less impact then it did on the 3gs.

 

[gianthobbit]

Umm no it should not drain that much.

Once you lock your iPhone, your WiFi sort of turns on "standby" and won't be activated until you unlock your phone to use it again.

Do you have an app that constantly needs a connection?

Do you have Push on with a lot of apps?

That is good to hear. What do you mean by apps that need a constant connection? Nothing in iOS does background connections from my knowledge. The navigator icon is not present so I know its not that.

I do have push mail on but as far as push notifications. Isnt that just like getting a sms? Meaning each app is not activly open waiting for this notifications, there pushed server side as just a general notification to the phone. It has no impact on battery life (so 20 apps with push or 1 app with push not difference). Unless my knowledge of how iOS functions is totally off here that does not seem to be sound logic.

I am going to try a day with wifi off and see if it has any impact. Any other ideas/suggestions?

 

[Daveoc64]

Once you lock your iPhone, your WiFi sort of turns on "standby" and won't be activated until you unlock your phone to use it again.

With iOS 4.0 and up WiFi remains on all of the time.

 

[Snowman3459]

With iOS 4.0 and up WiFi remains on all of the time.

Yes it doe. Didn't realize that.

That is good to hear. What do you mean by apps that need a constant connection? Nothing in iOS does background connections from my knowledge. The navigator icon is not present so I know its not that.

I do have push mail on but as far as push notifications. Isnt that just like getting a sms? Meaning each app is not activly open waiting for this notifications, there pushed server side as just a general notification to the phone. It has no impact on battery life (so 20 apps with push or 1 app with push not difference). Unless my knowledge of how iOS functions is totally off here that does not seem to be sound logic.

I am going to try a day with wifi off and see if it has any impact. Any other ideas/suggestions?

I'm talking about Voip or something that is constantly running. Such as a Skype app or Pandora or something of that nature.

And as for push, not exactly. It constantly looks for updates and notifications within your apps, so your phone has to constantly pull a connection to do that. So it does use more battery.

 

[-aggie-]

Wifi doesn’t drain the battery much when you’re at home or at a wifi hotspot. When not, it does drain the battery, but not as much as 3G. I’ve forgotten and left wifi on all day at work, and it wasn’t an appreciable drain.