Help which uses more battery? wifi or 3g

[jaliy]

i'm pretty sure wifi drains more battery but did some research some say 3g uses more

 

[Slug]

Wifi consumes less when connected, but more if unconnected but still scanning.

 

[matttye]

Wifi consumes less when connected, but more if unconnected but still scanning.

What about when the 3G connection is unreliable and the phone keeps trying to connect to a bad 3G signal?

 

[Slug]

Iirc the poorer the signal the more power required to "hang on" to it, but that's from memory.

 

[Gearu]

If you're talking data downloads, Wifi wins. I sometimes listen to internet radio all night until the battery goes dead, when on wifi it's still going when I wake up, getting another 2-3 hours out of it on volume 1 with original headphones.

 

[matttye]

Iirc the poorer the signal the more power required to "hang on" to it, but that's from memory.

That's what I thought. I think it's the same as WiFi; when you don't have a signal the phone is constantly looking for one. So a good signal should use less power as the phone isn't scanning for a signal all the time.

My battery stats seem to indicate that too.. cell standby is much higher when I've had a rubbish signal for a long time.