3G vs 4G

[urdaddi]

By placing the phone in 3G mode, how much battery life would this save compared to leaving it with LTE?

 

[empyreandance]

By placing the phone in 3G mode, how much battery life would this save compared to leaving it with LTE?

A LOT. Without delving into my settings, I get through a complete day, including probably 90 minutes worth of phone calls, 100 texts, words with friends for 20 minutes, 30 minutes of GPS navigation and maybe 20 minutes on facebook and still have about 20% around midnight. With 4G on, I'm lucky to get through half that time with much less usage.

 

[urdaddi]

A LOT. Without delving into my settings, I get through a complete day, including probably 90 minutes worth of phone calls, 100 texts, words with friends for 20 minutes, 30 minutes of GPS navigation and maybe 20 minutes on facebook and still have about 20% around midnight. With 4G on, I'm lucky to get through half that time with much less usage.

Thanks for that reply.

I just got my Charge 2 days ago, and I am trying to learn the device and see what my limitations are.

I may be wrong, but I am thinking that the only time I really need to be concerned with actually using 4G is when I am doing anything that requires data.

 

[Zohar127]

My experience has been completely different than the first responder. I've left it in automatic mode and as far as I can tell having it on 4G makes no appreciable difference in the battery life for me. I would consider my usage to be moderate. Lots of texting, checking websites, playing with widgets.

 

[bl4ke360]

Just get extra batteries and there's no problem. Unless you use a case, because it will be more inconvenient then.

 

[addictedtocars]

By placing the phone in 3G mode, how much battery life would this save compared to leaving it with LTE?

Why buy a 4G phone to run it in 3G, besides at elast here in ATL VZ 3G SUCKS, if VZ did nto have 4G I would go ATT as their fake 4G is far better than VZ 3G. The VZ 4G is awesome. With light use I went 10 hours with 28% left and that was with several calls, texts some media BT streaming and some minor web browsing.

 

[qgqlewis]

Why buy a 4G phone to run it in 3G, .

Prob. because they don't have 4g in their area YET but are planning on having it hopefully soon.

 

[spikederailed]

Why buy a 4G phone to run it in 3G, besides at elast here in ATL VZ 3G SUCKS

Here in charlotte the 3g and 4g are both very good. My reasoning for switching to 3g mode is I also use the phone for work, and getting through a whole day while in and out of the office is more important that blazing fast speeds, and battery life does seem better in 3g mode. Files I get in emails are typically no larger than 1megabyte so 3g works just fine, and i must say its soooo much nicer to view these files on the charge than it was on the old blackberry.

 

[BlueBiker]

I may be wrong, but I am thinking that the only time I really need to be concerned with actually using 4G is when I am doing anything that requires data.

Charge only supports simultaneous data & voice when in 4G mode, if that's something you'd find useful. It can be nice to search web or maps while you have someone on the line.

 

[smguy101]

I don't live in a 4G area yet so I turned the LTE off to see if the battery would improve and it has, so i just turn the 4G on when I enter a 4G area.

 

[shadowdude777]

Why buy a 4G phone to run it in 3G, besides at elast here in ATL VZ 3G SUCKS, if VZ did nto have 4G I would go ATT as their fake 4G is far better than VZ 3G. The VZ 4G is awesome. With light use I went 10 hours with 28% left and that was with several calls, texts some media BT streaming and some minor web browsing.

Verizon's 4G is "fake" too. It does not meet the 4G standards set out by the ITU. Both AT&T's HSPA+ and Verizon's LTE are pre-4G technologies meant to bridge the gap between 3G and 4G.

 

[BlueBiker]

Verizon's 4G is "fake" too. It does not meet the 4G standards set out by the ITU. Both AT&T's HSPA+ and Verizon's LTE are pre-4G technologies meant to bridge the gap between 3G and 4G.

True, but it beats every other US network right now by a wide margin. With great voice and data networks, they can afford to keep releasing junky and obsolete phones.

 

[smguy101]

Verizon's 4G is "fake" too. It does not meet the 4G standards set out by the ITU. Both AT&T's HSPA+ and Verizon's LTE are pre-4G technologies meant to bridge the gap between 3G and 4G.

It may be "fake" but it is very fast. It took me less than a minute to download a 100MB file.

 

[Bozz5384]

Last week using my phone on 4G minimally during the day, my battery went from 100% to 35% in 8 hours, so I switched it to 3G the next day and found the same result... I was hoping for much improved battery life but didn't get it.

My brother has an Incredible said I should be happy with that battery life... which surprised me. Moral of the story, I saw NO noticable difference between using 3G or 4G between the two days.

 

[treb1797]

I live in a 3G area and i am on vacation in a 4G area and no difference in battery life. But the difference from using 3G and 4G is AMAZING!!! Can't put my phone down right now as i am loving the 4G!!! The speed is just crazy fast!!!!

 

[greenmunky]

Verizon's 4G is "fake" too. It does not meet the 4G standards set out by the ITU. Both AT&T's HSPA+ and Verizon's LTE are pre-4G technologies meant to bridge the gap between 3G and 4G.

There's no such thing as "fake 4G." 4G is an abbreviation for 4th Generation... meaning it's the particular network's 4th upgrade to their data carry capabilities. Therefore it really means nothing in terms of speed, just the fact that it's the 4th major upgrade the company in question has made to their network. Just my 2¢

 

[shadowdude777]

There's no such thing as "fake 4G." 4G is an abbreviation for 4th Generation... meaning it's the particular network's 4th upgrade to their data carry capabilities. Therefore it really means nothing in terms of speed, just the fact that it's the 4th major upgrade the company in question has made to their network. Just my 2¢

You're wrong. 4G is an actual set of inter-network standards. A mobile network has to have a certain speed to qualify as 4G.

The current generation of mobile telecommunication networks are collectively known as 3G (for "third generation"). Although LTE is often marketed as 4G, first-release LTE does not fully comply with the IMT Advanced 4G requirements. The pre-4G standard is a step toward LTE Advanced, a 4th generation (4G)[3] standard of radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks.

So no, Verizon's LTE cannot, in any way besides marketing, be called 4G. They only call it 4G because "3.5G" sounds boring.

 

[fortesquieu]

All the terms are just for marketing purposes. Just look at your internet at home, when your provider says 20Mbps, do you get that speed? Probably not.

None of the cell carriers have a real 4G speeds, but Verizon is the closest to that threshold than any other carriers.

 

[greenmunky]

You're wrong. 4G is an actual set of inter-network standards. A mobile network has to have a certain speed to qualify as 4G.




So no, Verizon's LTE cannot, in any way besides marketing, be called 4G. They only call it 4G because "3.5G" sounds boring.

I stand corrected... I was simply regurgitating what I was told by a VZW marketing rep (obviously a bad decision). It just made sense to me considering what you confirmed above; that 3G is 3rd generation, therefore 4G must mean 4th generation. Didn't realize it was really only half way there.

 

[shadowdude777]

All the terms are just for marketing purposes. Just look at your internet at home, when your provider says 20Mbps, do you get that speed? Probably not.

None of the cell carriers have a real 4G speeds, but Verizon is the closest to that threshold than any other carriers.

Well of course, LTE is faster than HSPA+ or Wi-MAX, but it's still not 4G in any sense of the word.

Also, regarding the actual speeds of my advertised 15Mbps down, 5Mbps up Verizon FiOS connection:

I stand corrected... I was simply regurgitating what I was told by a VZW marketing rep (obviously a bad decision). It just made sense to me considering what you confirmed above; that 3G is 3rd generation, therefore 4G must mean 4th generation. Didn't realize it was really only half way there.

Yeah, don't listen to the VZW employees, they're just regurgitating what they were told in training!

The "generations" are set by an international committee on the matter, and a network can upgrade their network to a new protocol without changing generations, as seen with Verizon (CDMA to LTE), Sprint (CDMA to Wi-MAX and LTE in the future), AT&T (GSM to HSPA+ and LTE in the future), and T-Mo (GSM to HSPA+).

 

[Cilraaz]

As a possibly viable analogy, think of the generations of cell technology as the generations of WiFi technology. (1G, 2G, 3G, 4G) => (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n). Each of the WiFi generations, though most popularly "g", had incremental bumps in technology (ie "802.11g+", "802.11g with SpeedBooster", or "802.11g HSM") that made it slightly faster or longer ranged than the default 802.11 standard, but they weren't new "generations" on their own.

Just as WiFi standards are created by the IEEE, cell standards are created by the ITU. If a service doesn't adhere to the standard of a generation, they simply aren't in that generation.