Wifi vs. 4G.....

[VTENGR]

So i have a decent 4G signal in my place. Should I stick with my 4G data or turn on WiFi when i'm sitting at home surfing the web?

I'm getting around 20 Mbs on my 4G and only around 9 Mbs on my Wifi... seems like a no brainer to stay on 4G b/c its so much faster, but is it gonna kill my battery??

 

[andr01d]

I use 4G full time. On mine it doesn't seem to hurt the battery life enough to make a big difference or be objectionable. Anyways, maybe just try 4G full-time for a few days and see/observe how it goes... have fun...

 

[trophynuts]

if your satisfied with the battery life using that then just stick with it. I would only swap to WiFi if i was having a problem.

 

[VTENGR]

I was stuck in my old way of thinking from living with my DINC where I had my phone automatically swap from data to Wifi when I got home, using the y5 battery saver program. But one day i was bored and started playing around with Speedtest.net to see how fast my connections were and noticed that on Wifi they were so much slower than my 4G. Needless to say, I don't switch to wifi anyomre if I have a 4G signal.

 

[trojanchick99]

I have poor signal at work and good signal at home. I don't use WiFi at home and haven't noticed a difference in battery life. I get a good 12 to 14 hours on one charge on my normal battery which is better than my Incredible.

I like to use my 4G just because I have unlimited data and well, I figure I should at least use some data. I generally use 1.5 to 2 gigs a month.

 

[Cares]

I always use 4G over WiFi...

 

[TxGoat]

If you don't have unlimited, stick with Wifi, if you do have unlimited, stick it to Verizon

 

[zazan]

I agree, I use WiFi more to avoid data charges. I may be less critical of speed than others but I don't see a practical speed difference between the two but I do see a big data use difference. Of course I'm old and ugly so what do I know?

P.S. I keep trying to kill that damn bug on TxGoats messages.

 

[andr01d]

^install a bug spray avatar!! j/k ok - v r not trying to unfriend u Tx!!

If we use 4G all the time (no wi-fi at all) we can turn off everything-wifi and it will not ask if we want to use wifi for this app or that app. Also the wifi will not turn itself on when we undock the phone, etc. bye

 

[Blacklight82]

If I was able get a reliable signal at my place, I would be on 4G all the time.

 

[NightAngel79]

Fact is the better the signal the better your battery life. If you are 2 feet from your router and miles away from a 4g tower then you will experience better battery life on wifi most times.

That said, my wifi is pretty close to my 4g speeds (16 to 20mbps). The main difference is latency, noise, etc.... 4G performs better due the fact that I have 4 to 8 devices hooked to my wifi at any given time....

Plus if you are at home then who cares about battery life, you can always plug in

 

[lou61166]

I have verizon fios 35/35 and only 4GB of data on my wireless plan so using WiFi is a no brainer

 

[BlueBiker]

But one day i was bored and started playing around with Speedtest.net to see how fast my connections were and noticed that on Wifi they were so much slower than my 4G. Needless to say, I don't switch to wifi anyomre if I have a 4G signal.

What were your latencies in both cases? If you're downloading huge files or streaming high bitrate video, then you might take advantage of the jump from 9 to 20Mbps (assuming the server on the other end can actually feed that fast), but in general you may have a more responsive experience with low latency. Suggest you try A/B tests, see which feels better to you. In my own case, I get about 75ms via 3G/4G and a muuuuch snappier 22ms over WiFi.

 

[ptco911]

What is 4G. Don't have it here yet, supposed to be this spring. Drooling heavily now.