Battery vs Mobile Network

[doogald]

I don't think stuff gets pushed to your phone over WiFi. Does it? For me it didn't/doesn't.

What do you mean by "stuff"?

If you mean standard gmail, contact, and calendar sync, it most surely does.

 

[bjanow]

What do you mean by "stuff"?

If you mean standard gmail, contact, and calendar sync, it most surely does.

Agreed. However, when I'm on 3G, at least here, my email comes in before my Exchange server hits my OWA. With wireless it does not, and Smacky has a very good point in wanting it posthaste.
FYI, 16 hours later with full daily use, 80%. 12 hours wireless, 4 hours nothing but phone. Not too shabby.

 

[smacky]

Now I remember. When the phone is asleep, it will not push if you select to urn WiFi off when the phone is asleep.

 

[bjanow]

Now I remember. When the phone is asleep, it will not push if you select to urn WiFi off when the phone is asleep.

Where is that setting?

 

[smacky]

Where is that setting?

Hmm, that's weird. It was definitely on 1.5. Can't find it on 2.1. I guess it does it automatically now? I dunno. I don't get emails pushed to my phone using Wifi, I know that. I wake up, wake the phone up, and then a minute later it's a barrage of notifications.

1.5 did have the option of having WiFi sleep when the phone slept so as not to drain battery or whatever. Not sure where it is on 2.1.

 

[thenestor]

Go to settings, wireless & networks, wireless settings, and then hit menu and choose advanced settings, wi fi sleep policy to choose your option.

 

[cableguynoe]

Where is that setting?

Go to Wi-fi settings and then hit menu. Click advanced. There you have the wi-fi sleep settings

 

[bjanow]

Go to Wi-fi settings and then hit menu. Click advanced. There you have the wi-fi sleep settings

Got it thanks. I had it set to 15 minutes, I guess by default. I'm wondering if I set it to never will it drain the battery? And what happens if I set it to "never while plugged in"?

 

[cableguynoe]

Never when pluggen in, i'm guessing will keep it awake while charging. So for example, overnight while your sleeping.
But i'm guessing it will still sleep when the screen turns off during the day. I prefer never.

 

[thenestor]

Regarding wi-fi, I keep my sleep policy set on "never" but I only turn on the wi-fi when I'm at home. A handy app called Wifi Status reminds me to shut it off if I leave (so that it's not constantly looking for a network). The wi-fi shouldn't use any more battery than the 3g, unless it's having to constantly search for a network.

Note that "push" notifications might not work when connected to wi-fi, though. Hence the 15-minute sleep policy being the default.

 

[eghill1125]

I have mine set to never on sleep for WIFI also.

I noticed something yesterday when I turned everything off. I do not get much as far as Gmail to begin with, so I do not have a constant push coming and using battery. With everything turned off, I noticed no big savings on battery from the day before with Mobile Network, WIFI, and GPS turned on with the Power Control widget. My battery was about the same when I left work on both days.

What I did notice was that my battery in the morning at work will be really good and barely lose any % for a few hours.. on all days... until I text or get a text message. Then it starts to drop rather well. After that first text, seems like the battery starts to lose % fairly consistently. Until then, only a couple of % for hours. I use Handcent for texts.. Could this be from both the Messenger and Handcent activating on texts? If you look at what is running in Menu, settings, Applications, mine always show data for both messengers even though I have never used the stock messenger. Not just start up data either. About the same data on both applications, I believe.

Not sure what that would show, but I have mentioned it to my wife before and she has said the same thing. We used to be able to text on the old EnV 2 phones all day long and not get hit with battery draining, but our Eris phones seem like they use a lot of battery just texting. Hopefully this is somehow connected to the radio settings and screwy signal meter that I have seen were supposed to be looked at on an OTA of 2.1

 

[bjanow]

With wireless set to never sleep everything works as well as 3G. Just need to see if that drains the battery much more than when it sleeps. Now I'm really just trying to nail down the battery drain problem knowing I can virtually eliminate it with all internet off. I text a fair amount and have not found that to kill my battery, but I could be mistaken about that since I'm not a heavy user of text. I only use Handcent with no notifications coming to the default mes app. If it's the 3G alone that is the major cause, then there is a big problem imo.

 

[smacky]

Go to settings, wireless & networks, wireless settings, and then hit menu and choose advanced settings, wi fi sleep policy to choose your option.

There we go. Forgot how I did it originally with 1.5.

Either it kept the settings from then, or it set at 15 minutes after turning off as the default.

 

[cableguynoe]

HI,with my Eris it is the same.. using mobile network drains my battery, using WIFI it doesn't at all so when I'm at home..I work from home I always turn Mobile Network off also, more battery life with WIFI then mobile network.. Glad you posted this I wondered the same thing

I found an app/widget that in theory should work great. It's called Toggle Data.
It's supposed to turn off 3G, saving a ton of battery life, but still allow MMS messages to be sent and received. Which would be very uselful in my case, since i dont always need web access. But i do receive a lot of MMS messages.

However, i have not been able to get it to work.
Has anyone else used this?

In the app description it says something about needing a separate MMS access point, which i dont really understand. MAybe that's where i'm screwing up.
But if I could get this to work, i'm sure it would work great.

Anyone care to try it?

 

[smacky]

I found an app/widget that in theory should work great. It's called Toggle Data.
It's supposed to turn off 3G, saving a ton of battery life, but still allow MMS messages to be sent and received. Which would be very uselful in my case, since i dont always need web access. But i do receive a lot of MMS messages.

However, i have not been able to get it to work.
Has anyone else used this?

In the app description it says something about needing a separate MMS access point, which i dont really understand. MAybe that's where i'm screwing up.
But if I could get this to work, i'm sure it would work great.

Anyone care to try it?

On 2.1, right? I had it working on 2.1 v1, I THINK, but definitely on 1.5. Somewhere on one of the upgrades it lost its functionality. It's in the market, but the icon goes on and off, but the network does not.

 

[cableguynoe]

On 2.1, right? I had it working on 2.1 v1, I THINK, but definitely on 1.5. Somewhere on one of the upgrades it lost its functionality. It's in the market, but the icon goes on and off, but the network does not.

No. I'm on 1.5. So then it doesn't work?

Any apps like it?

 

[smacky]

Nah.

With the widget, I used to turn 3G on and off when I was and wasn't using it. Since then, I just leave it all the time, syncing and the battery life is the same, maybe better (but possibly due to other factors).

 

[bjanow]

Nah.

With the widget, I used to turn 3G on and off when I was and wasn't using it. Since then, I just leave it all the time, syncing and the battery life is the same, maybe better (but possibly due to other factors).

And I have found the complete opposite. I wonder if there is a problem with the radio on some of these models? I know it's not the syncing because I don't lose battery with Wifi set to never sleep and on all day. Very odd and also wondering if they are fixing it with the newer model phones.

 

[cableguynoe]

Very odd and also wondering if they are fixing it with the newer model phones.

LOL. How does that help us?

 

[bjanow]

LOL. How does that help us?

Haha, good point. It probably will not, although there might be a scenario that could. If there is a flaw in the radio we have cause for either a replacement or an upgraded phone. I also wonder if the newer, more powerful phones will draw more battery if they remain the same radio. To be perfectly frank I have an upgrade on my lines and I'm seriously thinking about the Incredible, taking off the insurance on my phone and keeping the Eris as a backup. Not sure yet, depends on the footprint of the phone.

 

[eghill1125]

I have gone back to having my Mobile Network turned on. I did not see any real savings with it on or off. Now my battery has been really good for the past 3 days. I have been at work all day with poor signals strength and I have had Mobile on the whole time and I am sitting at 91% right now on my battery. The only thing I have changed in the last 3 days that has made a big difference was I took off Sportstap. It seems like it was the culprit on my phone for using way too much battery. I run Helix and Beautiful Widgets and the 2.1 V2 leak. Now my battery has been great since.