Help 2g on the evo?

[El_rey]

I hope this isnt too much of a newbie or stupid question but I havent seen any options to have my 3g off and just have a 2g connection to save battery life. anyone know of an option?

thanks.

 

[EarlyMon]

Coupla ways, but the one I use is to have a screen with these desktop widgets:

Power Control (Android)

And these others are all under Widgets -> Settings

Mobile Network (that's the 3G on/off switch you're looking for)

4G

Airplane Mode

And to round it out as useful and visually appealing as two full rows, I also added the widget for LED Light, free from the Market.

~~~~~~

You can also do a long-press on the power button and then choose Mobile Network on/off, but where's the fun in that? Besides - with the desktop widget you don't have to remember - you can see if you left it on or off.

PS - Welcome to the forum!

 

[Caloy]

I never turn off my 3G and I still have a respectable battery life. If you want you can install a 3G toggle widget to your home screen. Just click the plus (+) sign and click widgets/settings/Mobile Network.

I'm not sure if there's a 2G toggle though.

 

[El_rey]

I was aware of the mobile networks on and off but I dont get any internet connection then (like a good ol fashion 2g). The widgets you mentioned do that then?

 

[EarlyMon]

Yes, they do that. 2G was the step up to digital voice, and some carrier-specific data options such as SMS and email tagged along.

With the Mobile Network (3G) off on Sprint, you get no internet access of any kind - but you still get digital voice and SMS.

To turn off 2G, we'd have be able to go to 1G - analog radio. I don't think I've had a phone with that since my StarTac (great phone, still miss it, sob, sob). Could be wrong - maybe my RAZR had it, too... anyway - those days are gone.

 

[El_rey]

ok got it. I was under the impression I would be able to still do internet stuff on a 2g connection on here but I guess it's 3g/4g or nothing. Just thinking of ways to sacrifice my battery life. thanks for the help!

 

[mogulust]

This is wrong information. I don't know what 2g means to everyone, but the Evo can do 1xrtt data, evdo revA (3g) data, and wimax (4g) data. With the Evo there was a design decision or maybe an overlooked flaw in that it displays the 3g icon even if you're downloading over a 1xrtt connection so there's no way to tell what type of connection you have besides the speed difference or maybe looking in epst tools. There is no way to force a 1xrtt connection without disabling data altogether because the mobile widget switches both 3g and 1xrtt on/off together. I think gsm android devices can switch this because there are 3g/2g toggle widgets on the market that only work for gsm devices.

My old windows mobile phone was a bit more customizable in this respect. I would often force 1xrtt for streaming internet radio when there was a very weak evdo signal that it wanted to connect to. It gave me slow but consistent data speeds, where as the 3g connection would lag and constantly reconnect. I do miss that option with the Evo since I'm often in rural areas with strong 1xrtt signals and very weak evdo reception.

 

[EarlyMon]

This is wrong information. I don't know what 2g means to everyone...

Then I'm happy to help you with that.

CDMA2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1G - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2G - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3G - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4G - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1xRTT was not 1G, as I think you note it's 2G, and any data services beyond SMS were carrier specific.

Not sure what information you found wrong here.

And whatever music you were streaming on your WinMo with 1xRTT, it was limited by a top speed in a low neighborhood.

And the toggle widget for Mobile Network (3G) - it works just great on this CDMA phone, as it is provided by the maker, HTC.

 

[mogulust]

On a 1xrtt connection with sprint you can do any kind of data transfer. Web, streaming radio, wifi tethering, anything you want as long as you don't mind slow speeds. The mobile network toggle widget turns on and off the data connection altogether, for evdo and 1xrtt. It would be better if we could turn off evdo and still use 1xrtt for data, but there's no way to.

Are you arguing these facts? I think you're confused about what the OP was asking, though you were trying to be helpful.

 

[EarlyMon]

I'm saying I have an Evo, and when you turn off Mobile Network on either, the only data you can get is SMS and MMS, period.

No web, no email, nada else, at any speed.

Those are facts.

(Edited correction - on the Moment, it appears you can go into Airplane Mode.)

 

[mogulust]

Yeah, I know. What the OP was asking is if you can turn off 3g and use 1xrtt for data such as web browsing without it connecting to evdo, and the answer is "not on a sprint android device, but yes on a sprint windows mobile device". The network and hardware capability is there but it's not enabled in the software. I wish it was because sometimes a forced 1xrtt connection with a strong signal is faster than a weak evdo signal.

 

[EarlyMon]

I stand corrected. For Windows, 1xRTT is 2G. OK, you're right, the Android phones are different.

As for the EVO -

View attachment htc_evo_ug-3G-1xRTT-a.pdf

View attachment htc_evo_ug-3g-1xRTT-b.pdf

As far as your insistence that you can get data on 2G on Windows - perhaps, I was merely answering from the EVO perspective.

And the Moment? How does it identify 3G?

View attachment samsung_moment_ug-1xRTT-a.pdf

I didn't read the OP's question as whether or not he could have various incarnations of 1xRTT work. I thought he'd said - "I hope this isnt too much of a newbie or stupid question but I havent seen any options to have my 3g off and just have a 2g connection to save battery life."

And if I were to believe that 1xRTT is part of the 3G standard - per the first Wikipedia link I'd provided - then you can see my confusion.

Here - this clearly states how 2G-ish 1xRTT truly is:

What is 1xRTT? - Definition

So, maybe I thought I was being helpful when I was wrong - or maybe I'm aware of that you can turn 3G off - all 3G - when using an EVO and you're rather confused that 1xRTT is somehow 2G.

Maybe you're thinking of the 2.5G language so popularized a few years back by things like the OpenMoko and so forth... but that was never a spec and it's my understanding that that language has been cleared up.

Seriously, in all good spirits - I hope this helps clarify this for you.

PS - I agree about the 1xRTT thing - even with my 3G feature phone on Sprint, it was pretty darned good.

 

[Cleetis]

No more news about this? Still not an option on the EVO?

 

[novox77]

No more news about this? Still not an option on the EVO?

nothing has changed. if you disable 3G, you are on 1xRTT, which does not allow you to have full data access, like using your browser.