Should I leave LTE on of off?

[MrMars]

I recently had a Apple store employee tell me it's best to leave LTE off unless your downloading large files. Any opinions...does everyone feel the same?

Thank you.

 

[SaberSerene]

Re: LTE on or off...

Oh really? Lol haha man anything below LTE wastes your battery away.

LTE is battery friendly on the 5/ 5S

 

[BLiNK]

Re: LTE on or off...

i just use my phone as it was intended

don't want to micro manage that too

 

[MrMars]

Re: LTE on or off...

Oh really? Lol haha man anything below LTE wastes your battery away.

LTE is battery friendly on the 5/ 5S

I was a little surprised. He claimed it would also save battery power.

 

[SaberSerene]

Re: LTE on or off...

I was a little surprised. He claimed it would also save battery power.

Toggling off LTE brings you to HSPA+ or 3G. That technology isn't battery friendly.

 

[kch50428]

Re: LTE on or off...

The only reason to turn off LTE is if you are in an area where there is no LTE service, or - you're in a fringe area... but if you're in good coverage - that advice is poppycock.

 

[MrMars]

Re: LTE on or off...

The only reason to turn off LTE is if you are in an area where there is no LTE service, or - you're in a fringe area... but if you're in good coverage - that advice is poppycock.

Thanks. I was just wondering what the iMore masses thought. I'm turning it back on.

 

[Duvi]

Re: LTE on or off...

Thanks. I was just wondering what the iMore masses thought. I'm turning it back on.

If you have 4-5 bars of LTE, then it uses less battery. If less and if you device is searching for better service, then it will use more battery than HSPA+/3G.

 

[jclisenby]

It'll save battery because you won't have that additional radio connected or searching for signal. I wouldn't recommend turning it off though. Going from 25+ Mbps to less than 5 will definitely show when web browsing.


Tappin and Talkin from my iPhone 5

 

[Sekelani Zwambila]

I recently had a Apple store employee tell me it's best to leave LTE off unless your downloading large files. Any opinions...does everyone feel the same?

Thank you.

It's recommended to switch off LTE to save battery and to avoid going over your data plan. It's up to you weather you wanna take the advice.

 

[Eileen89]

There really is no need to turn LTE off unless you're in an area that doesn't have a very good LTE signal, or you have no LTE available at all. Otherwi8se, I would say it is perfectly fine to leave it on. I always leave LTE on on my iPhone 5 and now 5S. Both iPhones continue to have great battery life even with LTE always on.

 

[dkhmwilliams]

I leave mine on all the time. It never even occurred to me to turn it off.

 

[sting7k]

I recently had a Apple store employee tell me it's best to leave LTE off unless your downloading large files. Any opinions...does everyone feel the same?

Thank you.

I leave it off. AT&T's HSPA+ is plenty fast in my area and I get noticeably better battery life using that instead of LTE. There is no LTE in my home city at this time.

 

[John Yester]

I have not seen a difference on or off... But as others mentioned, if signal is week, 4G or 3G the battery will go fast...

 

[Massie]

If you have good coverage?which is different than just having coverage in general?should actually help provide for better battery life. So IF you have good coverage I'd leave it on.

 

[vic236]

Great forum, I checked this bcs I wanted to do what was right. But it seems a fight between saving your battery life on the bases of you manually turning on/off LTE depending on your signal strength. REALLY!! in today's technology you would think Apple, Samsung and all the rest would have this sorted. I am a user I don't give a ......, my time is worth more.
I assess the phone and it's performance to my use and needs, and when it fails I throw it out do not buy it again. And then give it a bad rep on forums, see simple.
Then everyone else can either chose to buy it based on it faults to not deliver or choose to buy something else.

 

[rubyvelic]

I recently had a Apple store employee tell me it's best to leave LTE off unless your downloading large files. Any opinions...does everyone feel the same?

Thank you.

Hi please turn off LTE I had turned on I didn’t know I had the poorest service and data ever in mine life I called customer service no one told me or helped me so I decided to go on settings and play but I didn’t had good service or internet at all when I turned LTE off now my service and data is awesome

 

[kataran]

Hi please turn off LTE I had turned on I didn’t know I had the poorest service and data ever in mine life I called customer service no one told me or helped me so I decided to go on settings and play but I didn’t had good service or internet at all when I turned LTE off now my service and data is awesome

Welcome to iMore

This Thread is 4 to 6 years old so back then LTE was in its infant stage.

What device are you using as well as your service provider so we can better help you?

 

[amandaewriting]

Welcome to iMore

This Thread is 4 to 6 years old so back then LTE was in its infant stage.

I’m going to resurrect this thread further because the person’s post helped.

I have been having no internet access on my iPhone XR when using LTE in the last few months for some reason. I tried nearly every solution and then decided just to see what would happen if I switched my phone back to 3G.

Well, I have internet access again by switching to 3G. Strangely enough, it isn’t as slow as I remember it being. (Maybe because so few use it now?)

Note: My LTE service in our area is between 2-3 bars, usually only 2, and it used to work fine until a few months ago. Switching to 3G, now I can actually search and load webpages when before it would time out or send up some strange error.

So even in 2021, though ridiculous (because now there is 5G!), it is still helpful advice!