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Having WiFi greatly increases the battery drain on my iPhone 5C, so I always turn it off when I'm not using it. I'm not using the phone all the time so there ar
by Nition 9y ago
Having WiFi greatly increases the battery drain on my iPhone 5C, so I always turn it off when I'm not using it. I'm not using the phone all the time so there are long periods where it doesn't need to be on, but I still want to receive messages etc (and hence can't use Airplane mode).
Edit: I originally said that having wifi on "at least doubles" the power drain on my phone but since I haven't actually taken hard stats on that, I'll just say "greatly increases."
- notfcctool 9y agoThese kind of bullshit statements are exactly why iOS and Android SHOULD make it difficult for users to do stupid thing. placebo. effect. Turning off your wifi may give you a few extra minutes. It doesn’t double your goddamn battery life you stupid fucking liar. You probably think homeopathic treatments work too.
- djrogers 9y agoThe WiFi radio uses less power than the LTE one, so if you’re in range of WiFi you save battery by leaving it on.
- Nition 9y agoI don't have a data plan so I always have mobile data off.
- jwong_ 9y agoThat doesn't turn off your LTE radio though...
- Nition 9y agoBut djrogers was saying that if I had WiFi on it'd save power because LTE would be off. Surely they only mean the data component? I thought the basic mobile connection was active all the time (unless there was no signal). Are you saying if I turn WiFi on, and I receive an SMS (not through iMessage) or a phone call, it's actually coming through WiFi and the mobile connection is totally off? Surely not.
- jsjohnst 9y agoIt’s possible, depending on your carrier, that it uses Wi-Fi for calls, but doubt that’s what he meant. Either way, in your specific use case, I agree, turning off Wi-Fi would save power, I just don’t believe it’s 2x difference though.
- Nition 9y agoI just looked it up and found the official page on Wifi calling[1], but yeah, that option isn't there on my phone. [1]https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT203032 https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT203032
- djrogers 9y agoThat's a pretty rare use case, and not one that I expect most smartphone makers to optimize for.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoNot on my Android phone, a Motorola Moto X Play. Wifi is by far the largest battery hog.
- rmwaite 9y agolol man. thats because it is used the most. in order to determine which uses more energy you would need to run a series of controlled tests where you transfer specific amounts of data over time with one radio or the other.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoI did do that. Using my phone normally, it uses a lot more battery to have wifi on. I have a generous data plan, so I don't need to use wifi to preserve it.