Question about battery drain, what uses less - edge, 3g, wifi?

[iPhone envy]

Last night I used the MLB at bat streaming radio app and it sucked the life out of my phone. As I was at AT&T park and had a bevy of connection options I got to wondering, which is the best choice to save battery life.

So, given any connection type (edge, 3g, wifi), which should I choose to get max time streaming audio at a game?

Aside from turning off location settings, wifi, auto updates, what else can I do to preserve power for an app that is a heavy drainer?

Thanks!

 

[Small White Car]

In that exact case, EDGE would have been best.

There are other situations when I would give different answers, but in an audio-streaming situation, EDGE will be your best bet.

 

[iPhone envy]

Do you have any idea how much of a diffrence using 3G instead of Edge has on battery performance?

 

[Small White Car]

Do you have any idea how much of a diffrence using 3G instead of Edge has on battery performance?

I think it's impossible to say. I spent a few days at my brother-in-law's house and I found that 5 bars of 3G at his house gave me MUCH better battery life than the 5 bars of 3G at my own house.

I think that signal strength and overlapping signals from towers (or not overlapping) all have an effect on battery life.

So given that I can't even compare 3G to 3G in two different spots, I don't think there would be reliable numbers on 3G vs. EDGE. There's too many variables.

 

[AppleFan360]

I have found that WiFi uses less than 3G. I would suggest using WiFi when possible especially when streaming.

 

[Gathomblipoob]

I've used MLB At Bat on all three networks. EDGE is pretty decent for audio streaming, in my opinion, and easiest on my battery. Between 3G and wifi, 3G is the bigger battery drainer..

 

[bigmouth]

I would have guessed wifi, but am admittedly unsure of the EDGE comparison. Regardless, I've noticed that MLB's app is a major battery drain -- far moreso than other streaming audio programs I've used. My guess is the problem may have as much to do with processor demands as your internet connection.

 

[Almy]

Not sure if the edge vs 3G even matters. If I'm not mistaken Edge is in use even when 3G is (Edge for voice/text, 3G for data.) So 3G would feel like it takes more because the phone is using both Edge and 3G.

Edit: hmm with streaming my point doesn't really apply. So ignore me.