As we all know, the ability to turn off the 3G will be an option on the new iphone, and this will be helpful for saving battery life. My question is; is there a point to having 3G on when you are not browsing the internet? why would you need the faster network while talking. I'm not very tech savvy, but it seams pointless to drain the battery while not on the internet. Any clarification would be appreciated. thanks!
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Question about 3G and when to have it on
- Thread starter busterbluth
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I wondered this. Seems very very odd that talking on 3G takes double the battery life of talking on 2G.
Be a right pain to turn it on and off all the time, be nice if you can just set it to only use 3g for internet automatically.
Does 3G use more battery power when the phone is just in standby or listening to music? Or only when on calls/internet?
Be a right pain to turn it on and off all the time, be nice if you can just set it to only use 3g for internet automatically.
Does 3G use more battery power when the phone is just in standby or listening to music? Or only when on calls/internet?
3G still uses battery when in standby or listening to music, but not as much as calls, and calls not as much as internet.
If you're not on the internet, there's really no point to use 3G. Sure, the call quality may be better (provided the other person is using a 3G phone) but it's not worth the battery drain.
If you're not on the internet, there's really no point to use 3G. Sure, the call quality may be better (provided the other person is using a 3G phone) but it's not worth the battery drain.
Thanks! I doubt it, but maybe there will be a setting option to only activate 3G during internet usage.
I also would be surprised if they are wise enough to include this, but it will be very very annoying if they don't!
My usage structure will be along the lines of:
1 hr standby
6 hr 30min music playback with 10 mins internet /texting every hour
20 min internet/games
9 hr standby / minimum text/games
7 hour charge
repeat
I'd like to think it could do this fairly easily even with 3G on. Do you think it'd need to be off?
I agree in that it should be able to do this with 3G running all day. I would really like the 3G capability to be built into apps that need it such as Safari so that it is switched on ONLY when Safari is running or a 3rd party app that has built in uses for 3G that would utilize a speed increase, otherwise why not save the battery? Thoughts?
3G also has the benefit of not making speakers near your phone make that annoying "dit, dit-dit-dit, dit-dit-dit, dit" noise, since WCDMA is a constant stream to your phone. The interference noise comes from GSM connecting/disconnecting on an as-needed basis. That may explain why GSM gets better battery life.
During standby, 3G uses significantly LESS power than GSM. In fact, the 3G standby time is about double the GSM time. Since phones spend most of their life in standby, 3G is considered to be more power efficient than GSM.
During calls, 3G uses more power, but also has better call quality and can receive data (such as push email, sms, etc.) while calling.
For data transmission, 3G uses more power when active, but since downloads go much faster, the active time is shorter and total power to download a certain amount of data can be lower on 3G when in good conditions (good signal, tower is not oversaturated with users).
The only reasons to turn off 3G are if:
a) you are going to be talking on the phone continuously for a long time, and you don't care about lower call quality or lack of background data
b) If you know you are in an area without 3G service, turning off 3G will save a little power (just like turning off wifi when there are no hotspots around)
During calls, 3G uses more power, but also has better call quality and can receive data (such as push email, sms, etc.) while calling.
For data transmission, 3G uses more power when active, but since downloads go much faster, the active time is shorter and total power to download a certain amount of data can be lower on 3G when in good conditions (good signal, tower is not oversaturated with users).
The only reasons to turn off 3G are if:
a) you are going to be talking on the phone continuously for a long time, and you don't care about lower call quality or lack of background data
b) If you know you are in an area without 3G service, turning off 3G will save a little power (just like turning off wifi when there are no hotspots around)
Absolutely. I would love that too, but I can't see it happening. However if jettoblack is right (see quote below) then it could be a moot point.
Do you have any evidence for this? This sounds like very good news and I hope you are right!