I think I know why the battery dies faster for some than others

[Captain Sexy]

I used to get my battery to last from 8am to about 10pm at night with it in the red zone. Recently though I have been working more from home and now have an airave and connect to the wifi network. Now all of a sudden when I go to bed I'm over half maybe even 3/4 of the battery is left.

My thinking is some of the battery drain may be caused by poor reception. For those of you with battery issues or issues on some days and not others, look at how much reception your getting in addition to use and radios and all that. Maybe the problem is sprints network.

 

[meyerweb]

No question that a weak signal, or roaming, will drain the battery faster. Even with a strong signal, though, 3G or 4G still uses more battery than WiFi.

The problem isn't Sprint's network any more than any other network. EVERY carrier has some locations with poor coverage, and if you're in one of those then yes, your battery will drain faster. All you've really demonstrated is that staying on WiFi uses less battery than 3G.

 

[backdown]

This has been figured out way before you have posted this. It is a constant strain on the battery if it has to keep on searching for a signal.

 

[Captain Sexy]

No question that a weak signal, or roaming, will drain the battery faster. Even with a strong signal, though, 3G or 4G still uses more battery than WiFi.

The problem isn't Sprint's network any more than any other network. EVERY carrier has some locations with poor coverage, and if you're in one of those then yes, your battery will drain faster. All you've really demonstrated is that staying on WiFi uses less battery than 3G.

So going from one bar to 5 bars with the airave doesn't help battery drain? I have 5 cell towers in my area and they can't get through my walls. That's a problem with sprint.

 

[blozout]

No question that a weak signal, or roaming, will drain the battery faster. Even with a strong signal, though, 3G or 4G still uses more battery than WiFi.

The problem isn't Sprint's network any more than any other network. EVERY carrier has some locations with poor coverage, and if you're in one of those then yes, your battery will drain faster. All you've really demonstrated is that staying on WiFi uses less battery than 3G.

Agreed, but I think this is also a CDMA issue more than a GSM one. I'm sure someone on these boards can explain better than myself, but doesn't CDMA use more power than GSM, or something along those lines...

 

[i.have.droid]

So going from one bar to 5 bars with the airave doesn't help battery drain? I have 5 cell towers in my area and they can't get through my walls. That's a problem with sprint.

Hook up to WIFI if you are at home and have an airave. I do that and now I have full bars at all times with wifi. When I turn off wifi, it drops to 1bar at my house.

Wifi will disable 3g searching, so your battery will be spared.

 

[dr g]

I suppose then the apps that turn off 3G when the screen is sleeping would be a huge boon in areas with weak signal.

 

[mityman50]

Yeah, I get just enough reception at my house to receive texts and call, but too little to get anything more than .08Mbps down and .04MBps up. Thank God for Wi-Fi.

Of course, if I'm at my house, it's charging, so this is a null problem.

 

[talz13]

So going from one bar to 5 bars with the airave doesn't help battery drain? I have 5 cell towers in my area and they can't get through my walls. That's a problem with sprint.

That sounds like a problem with the house. 5 towers sounds like quite a lot, and there's probably not much more they can do from their end, aside from providing you with an airave or something

 

[Captain Sexy]

It will never cease to amaze me how some people that spend all day on here that know everything get upset that those of us that have a life and don't spend all day on here don't know everything.

I'm sorry I don't spend all day on here. I will work on dropping everything I do and spend all my time on here and thus being able to add the wonderful helpful post of "search" and other unhelpful posts. Good job on contributing.

 

[Oridus]

It will never cease to amaze me how some people that spend all day on here that know everything get upset that those of us that have a life and don't spend all day on here don't know everything.

I'm sorry I don't spend all day on here. I will work on dropping everything I do and spend all my time on here and thus being able to add the wonderful helpful post of "search" and other unhelpful posts. Good job on contributing.

Forums are filled with those people. Ignore them. As far as the 5 cell towers, do you know if they're actually Sprint's or some other towers you're roaming off? Is there a possibility they may be towers for other stuff?

How thick are your walls and such? When i'm at work, I get great signal throughout the entire building, except when I have to go back to the prep room, and then my signal drops hardcore (And notice a battery loss of course due to searching for a stronger signal).

 

[Captain Sexy]

Forums are filled with those people. Ignore them. As far as the 5 cell towers, do you know if they're actually Sprint's or some other towers you're roaming off? Is there a possibility they may be towers for other stuff?

How thick are your walls and such? When i'm at work, I get great signal throughout the entire building, except when I have to go back to the prep room, and then my signal drops hardcore (And notice a battery loss of course due to searching for a stronger signal).

Not sure if they are all sprints, that what sprint said when I asked for the Airave. I would bet some are verizons though.

My walls are normal, average middle income american house. I get good signal at work and I know those walls gotta be thicker than here.

 

[Slug]

As already pointed out,

Please don't make pointless rude/nonconstructive replies. "This thread sucks," etc.

Ignore this (and the rest of the Forum Rules) at your peril.

 

[eric3316]

As already pointed out,



Ignore this (and the rest of the Forum Rules) at your peril.

I totally understand this but this forum should encourage people to search before starting new threads.

This is a topic that has been beaten to death. This is also something that has been known since CDMA has come out.

In general, you can say this thread isn't even directly related to the EVO. It is more related to any Sprint phone out there.

 

[Slug]

The search tools are there to be used but they're not mandatory. The Rules are crystal-clear on this.

If a topic has been covered previously, then it is helpful to direct the user to that source or at least give them help in locating it.

The OP was obviously making reference to the EVO, therefore it's a valid topic in this forum.

/discussion

 

[meyerweb]

So going from one bar to 5 bars with the airave doesn't help battery drain? I have 5 cell towers in my area and they can't get through my walls. That's a problem with sprint.

No, it's a problem with your location. Do you know for a fact those 5 towers have Sprint antennas on them? Where I work, I get 5 bars on Sprint, and 0-1 on Verizon. Does that mean Verizon's network is no good?

Even with 5 bars, WiFi still uses less power than 3G. On every phone, and on every carrier.

I suppose then the apps that turn off 3G when the screen is sleeping would be a huge boon in areas with weak signal.

Except for the fact that 3G and voice use the same radio, so you wouldn't receive any calls or texts when the screen was off.

Agreed, but I think this is also a CDMA issue more than a GSM one. I'm sure someone on these boards can explain better than myself, but doesn't CDMA use more power than GSM, or something along those lines...

Yes, CDMA does use somewhat more battery power than GSM, but not by huge amounts. I seem to recall that the GSM version of a particular Treo model got perhaps 10-15% better battery life than the CDMA version. And both technologies are affected the same way be weak signals. Basically, when the tower is farther away (and delivers a weaker signal), the transmitter in the phone uses more power to ensure the signal reaching the tower is adequate.

 

[jbsg02]

I experience the same thing. When I go to my grandparents or my girlfriend's, my reception drops quite a subsequently my battery drains much much faster. However, if I'm at home where my wifi is connected, I can leave my phone on overnight and it will only drop 1 or 2 percent in 8 hours