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When to turn Wifi on and off (New iPhone user)

E

evanmav

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2011
11
0
Okay so I recently got an iPhone 4s and love it. I've had an ipod touch since forever so I'm fairly familiar with the system and everything. My question is though when I should be keeping wifi on and when i should be turning it off to maximize my battery life. Now I searched the forum and found out that using wifi will be better for battery life then using 3g. Now what im confused about is say im at home playing a game that requires no internet or 3g such as tiny wings or tetris, should I be turning wifi off and let my iphone use 3g since I wont be using internet then my phone wont be using the 3g. Im not sure if that makes sense but basically I want to know is if wifi uses more battery than 3g when NOT using the internet, is wifi using more battery just being connected then if wifi wasn't connected. Also another question is when I go to sleep at night and keep my iphone on should I turn the wifi off and keep just the 3g on? and then finally say Im going on a drive somewhere in my car should I turn the wifi off, I know I would be connected to 3g when driving but not sure if turning off the wifi will help the battery? Sorry if this is a newbie post im just confused as to when it would be more beneficial to just keep 3g on and when it would be better to just keep wifi on :D.
 
evanmav said:
Okay so I recently got an iPhone 4s and love it. I've had an ipod touch since forever so I'm fairly familiar with the system and everything. My question is though when I should be keeping wifi on and when i should be turning it off to maximize my battery life. Now I searched the forum and found out that using wifi will be better for battery life then using 3g. Now what im confused about is say im at home playing a game that requires no internet or 3g such as tiny wings or tetris, should I be turning wifi off and let my iphone use 3g since I wont be using internet then my phone wont be using the 3g. Im not sure if that makes sense but basically I want to know is if wifi uses more battery than 3g when NOT using the internet, is wifi using more battery just being connected then if wifi wasn't connected. Also another question is when I go to sleep at night and keep my iphone on should I turn the wifi off and keep just the 3g on? and then finally say Im going on a drive somewhere in my car should I turn the wifi off, I know I would be connected to 3g when driving but not sure if turning off the wifi will help the battery? Sorry if this is a newbie post im just confused as to when it would be more beneficial to just keep 3g on and when it would be better to just keep wifi on :D.
Click to expand...

Honestly, the only time I hassle with turning WiFi on and off is when I'm specifically trying to conserve battery life because I know I need to for whatever reason. I tend to leave it on whether I'm connected to a hotspot or not.

But if you're just sitting at home playing a game, your phone is still periodically using the internet connection in the background to check mail and what have you. It's ultimately your choice. You will have slightly better battery life with WiFi turned off (when not connected--because it's listening for connections), but you might find it's less of a hassle to just leave it on.

When it all boils down, turning WiFi off will improve battery life, but it isn't going to drastically improve battery life to the tune of an added several hours of use or anything.
 
Back in the iPhone 3G days I used to turn it off when I left the house. It seemed to make a difference then.

But on every iPhone model since then I don't notice much difference. It's not worth the hassle of doing it anymore. The gains you get by doing it are so small it's not worth having to remember to switch off and on twice a day.

I turn it off when I go on vacation and I know I won't be near my own wifi for several days, but that's mostly because I hate when it joins airport and hotel networks and then tells me I need to pay for them.

But on normal days I just leave it on.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Only time I turn it off is when I connect to a wireless network that turns out really slow
 
I always have mine on at home. Usually have it off when away from home, but I forget sometimes. I do not like to leave it on when away as I do not like it to automatically connect to a free network that I've connected to before intentionally.

Mike
 
When I had the 3GS I would turn 3G off and turn WiFi on when I was at home or in a decent WiFi zone for a good period of time. Naturally, when I'd leave home (or the WiFi area) I would turn WiFi off and turn 3G on.

Now, on my 4S, since there is no more "Enable 3G" switch, when I'm home, I turn cellular data off and turn WiFi on. Likewise, when I leave, I turn cellular data on and turn WiFi off.
 
Yep, leave it on, like everyone has been saying. I only turn it off during trips when I know I'll be without a wifi connection for several days.
 
i keep mine off because only place i'd use is at home. from what i hear wifi will be faster and save battery. but if wre i am does't have wifi...by turning it off am i saving much battery? also aren't most wirless' have password protection

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DuckSoup said:
I always have mine on at home. Usually have it off when away from home, but I forget sometimes. I do not like to leave it on when away as I do not like it to automatically connect to a free network that I've connected to before intentionally.

Mike
Click to expand...
is that bad?

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Senex said:
When it all boils down, turning WiFi off will improve battery life, but it isn't going to drastically improve battery life to the tune of an added several hours of use or anything.
Click to expand...


i figured off would = more battery life, for the most part. unless you're around a hot spot the entire time...


is wifi typically always faster than 3g
 
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Okay thanks for the replies guys. It seems like it would be too much of a hassle to constantly be worrying about it so I'll just leave it on :D
 
himynameiscody said:
iis that bad?
Click to expand...

Well, I admit I am naive on the topic, but I fear that perhaps a free network could be a source for nefarians to abuse it and steal information. So when I DO connect to a free network on purpose, I am somewhat careful with what I do on that network. I just do not want to automatically re-connect to non-home, non-work networks.

I am sure some experts know a lot more on this than me.
 
I used to keep mine on all the time. But now i only turn on wifi when my 3G connection is slow, like if i'm out somewhere with not so great signal.

I have unlimited data, might as well use it.
 
I turn it off when I leave for work and on when I get home. I don't have access at work so what's the point. When I'm running around though there are lots of free wifi points so it's on. if you know you don't have wifi for extended time might as well turn off. However onthe days I forgot not much difference in the battery.
 
himynameiscody said:
is wifi typically always faster than 3g
Click to expand...

Typically, but this can vary if the WiFi is the gateway to a terribly slow internet connection in the first place. My 3G connection will usually give me about 4 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up ...while my WiFi/home internet connection will yield 30-40 Mbps down and 10-15 Mbps up.
 
It could be a security issue if you connect to a free access point. I'm not sure if the iPhone connects automatically to an unprotected SSID. There might be an option like Connect Automatically that you could disable, I'm not sure. I have an old iPod Touch that's running iOS 3.

Personally I leave the wifi on all the time and connect as necessary on my BB.
 
I turn it off when I start to wonder off to the edges of a wifi network and my web pages, iMessages, etc. start to slow down because it keeps trying to use wifi...other than that I leave it on now. I used to turn it off allot, but I've had my iPhone for a year now and it gets less use (don't worry I still love it ;) ) since I'm on my MBP more often now for a variety of reasons.
 
I leave it on normally. Turn off the ask to join new networks.

AustinIllini said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Only time I turn it off is when I connect to a wireless network that turns out really slow
Click to expand...

That. And when traveling and don't want to join untrusted networks.
 
I leave mine on all the time, even though I don't have wifi access at work. It's just a hassle to turn it on and off all the time. Then again, I'm probably one of the few that leave Bluetooth on all the time, too.
 
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