Battery drains like crazy on 3g, but no problems on wifi

[californiakick]

I have an LG Optimus Elite from Virgin Mobile. When at work, I use the 3g network for mobile data. This drains the battery like crazy, as my phone will not last a day without a charge. However, when I am at home and I switch of the 3g and use my wifi for mobile data transfer (e-mails, etc), I can go a few days on a single charge. Is this normal???

I checked, and there is a reasonable 3g signal at my work.

 

[Ranhead]

I don't know if it's normal, but my Elite reacts the same way. Fortunately for me, I rarely need 3G, so I keep it off.

 

[Murf1]

I've heard the same thing about 3g draining more than WiFi.

When I have my WiFi on, and phone goes to standby, when I turn it back on I notice the 3G is back up. Then after several seconds the 3G goes off and the WiFi comes back on. It is like when it goes to standby, it automatically disconnects WiFi and starts 3G back up.

The stock "Power Control" widget doesn't have a "3G On/Off" button. I'll have to look if there is an app for it that maybe keeps it off.

 

[kwknott]

3g does kill battery faster than wifi. Takes more power to communicate with a cell tower however far away than it does communicating with a wifi access point in same Building.

The stronger the signal the less power to communicate with it hence better battery

When your phones goes to standby it does terminate the wifi and coverts back to 3g. There is a way to change this behavior but not sure off top of head how to do it

 

[Murf1]

There is the free app "Power Toggles", but I'm afraid to try it because it has a "WiFi Hotspot" feature. Don't want to kill my phone with that like the Sticky at the top of the main page talks about.

Anyone know of a good power control app that is free and no "hot spot" feature and allows to shut off 3G?

 

[ktb83]

There is the free app "Power Toggles", but I'm afraid to try it because it has a "WiFi Hotspot" feature. Don't want to kill my phone with that like the Sticky at the top of the main page talks about.

Anyone know of a good power control app that is free and no "hot spot" feature and allows to shut off 3G?

I use the Power Toggles (formerly Power Controls) widget you mentioned. You can easily customize the widget - add/remove toggles. As you know, the important thing is to avoid the hotspot feature, so just remove that toggle. Be careful, I mistakenly turned on the hotspot feature (yup, error 67), because it was the first toggle (from the left) by default and I thought it was just a WiFi toggle at first.

 

[Murf1]

I'm fine with the stock power widget. I guess all I really needed was a 3G switch. So I'm trying "Data Switch" by Hongyu Wang. I think my phone locked up when I restarted the 1st time. Fine the 2nd time. I wonder if I need to have 3G turned on when I turn phone off to have a quicker boot (and avoid a lock-up)? I'll have to remember to turn in on for I power it off at night.

 

[Ranhead]

I use the Power Toggles (formerly Power Controls) widget you mentioned.

Me too .... works great and easy to set up.

 

[riggerman0421]

Go to settings-wifi, press the menu button and select advanced. You can set the Wi-Fi sleep policy from there.

 

[Murf1]

Go to settings-wifi, press the menu button and select advanced. You can set the Wi-Fi sleep policy from there.

Thanks! I had forgotten (or never knew) that was there. Got it :thumb:

 

[kwknott]

I never knew that was there

 

[Murf1]

FYI - Since turning 3G off, I've noticed a big difference in how much longer a charge lasts! They need to add that "Switch" to the stock power control widget.

I guess the only thing you would miss by having 3G off (and wifi too) is things like weather, ebay, email, etc. alerts. Right?

 

[kwknott]

Yeah those plus mms messages need 3g

 

[Artine]

I believe that anything 3G covers, WiFi covers as well, with the exceptions of Activation and MMS.

 

[Ranhead]

When I do get a MMS, the phone shows a download button. So it's just a matter of turning 3G on for the time it takes to download the MMS. This is where Power Toggles comes in handy.

 

[fisterkev]

Uh... simple solution: Airplane Mode. Download the app Airplane Mode Toggle. Put the phone into airplane mode when you are not using it. This turns off the radio (and 3G) and Wifi. It also stops all apps from trying to do things in the background.

What kills your batter is not the fact that the radio is on, it's the fact that a bunch of apps are *constantly* trying to send and receive data. This consumes battery. Turning off the radio (3G, with airplane mode) stops this. I guarantee that you will greatly extend battery life doing this.

If you simply don't ever want to turn off the radio then you are SOL.

Also, turn off all apps and check running apps in settings. You probably have apps running that you don't even know about, and that shouldn't be running. Lots of widget apps, keyboard apps, things like that are killing batteries. Uninstall them and go with stock widgets and keyboards. Also, uninstall task killers (they don't work, Android simply turns back on whatever it thinks it needs) and antivirus apps (as there is pretty much no virus threat on Android).

Do all of this and your battery life will be greatly extended.

 

[elhamda]

Anyone know of a good power control app that is free and no "hot spot" feature and allows to shut off 3G?

I use this 3G OnOff widget. It is small, does not require any permissions and works really well for me.

After installing, it does not appear as an app. You need to activate it as a widget.

 

[Ranhead]

Uh... simple solution: Airplane Mode.

Sure you could go with Airplane Mode, some peeps may even want to shut down thier phone overnight. But I just looked at my phone, it was idle with Wi-Fi on for the last 10 hours. Two apps upgraded last night and the battery is still at 84%. So for me, I think Airplane Mode would be overkill.

 

[Murf1]

Uh... simple solution: Airplane Mode. Download the app Airplane Mode Toggle. Put the phone into airplane mode when you are not using it. This turns off the radio (and 3G) and Wifi. It also stops all apps from trying to do things in the background.

I presume in Airplane Mode, you cannot receive Text messages and phone calls.

While in airplane mode do text messages queue up and you get them when you turn airplane mode off, or do you just never get them?

Thanks

 

[fisterkev]

Murf1,

While in airplane mode you will not get texts or receive calls, though after you turn it off (turn the radio back on) any texts, email, or voice mail sent to you will show up.

 

[Curtis1973]

no need for an airplane toggle app,just hold the power button for a sec and the airplane option is listed

 

[MacFett]

With the Optimus Elite, it is not "the fact that a bunch of apps are *constantly* trying to send and receive data" it is that the Elite has a hard time connecting to and maintaining a reliable 3G connection. It is constantly getting 3G then dropping off of 3G and reconnecting. Sometimes throwing the device into airplane more for a couple seconds will fix this, but not always.

The TWS bug is also rampant in this device. I typically have upwards of 70% TWS and that is even with the TWS bug fix (put device into airplane mode just after boot and then toggle it off after a minute or so).