How much battery does leaving WiFi on use?

[Larzo#IM]

Currently, I turn off WiFi in areas where I don't need to use it, but it's becoming a little more routine for me to just leave WiFi off altogether. Do I have to be doing this? I'm all about maximizing battery life, but I enjoy WiFi when I can have it. How much battery would be used by constantly leaving WiFi on? I know leaving bluetooth on shaves off about a half an hour.

 

[Alli]

Turning off WiFi when you know you're not going to be using it will save lots more than Bluetooth will. (I never found a huge saving in power by turning off BT.)

 

[Jeremy]

If you turned the 3G off on your phone along with leaving Wi-Fi on you'd save more battery than simply leaving 3G on by itself.

 

[mcdan333#AC]

The jailbreak app SBSettings makes it a snap to turn on only what you need, only when you need it. Without even leaving your current application. If you feel up to jailbreaking, that is.

 

[jglowe74]

n00b question: if in a WiFi area (i.e. my home network), there is NO benefit to leaving 3G turned on? just keep WiFi on instead?

it just seems silly, nay, rediculous to me that such a high-tech device needs to have it's configuration tweaked every time i enter a different building in order to save my battery.

here's a pipe dream: wouldn't it be a great feature if Apple would develop an optimization setting/application that would allow you to create personalized profile settings (think airplane mode). that way i could click on my "home" profile and it would turn off 3G, turn off BT & turn on WiFi with 1 button push. or better yet, develop an auto detect mode that would:
- auto detect WiFi & turn it on
- auto detect no BT headset is currently paired to it and turn BT off
- auto detect that 3G is not necessary and turn it off.

is this too Star Trek for today's iPhone technology?

 

[sting7k]

I leave WiFi turned on 24/7 and it uses barely any battery that I see when I am not actively using the phone and connection. Turn off "ask to join networks" so it doesn't always search and will only join networks it knows or are open.

With the latest OS (even with 2.2.1 I think) the WiFi seems not be active unless your using it, the icon goes away until I start to use it at my home when I know it is connected and says it's on 3G.

Far to much work to be constantly turning it on and off as I go throughout the day.

 

[Larzo#IM]

Nothing is too star trek for todays iphone technology haha. I was thinking about something like that this morning. I would love an app that would automatically turn "Airplane mode" on when there is no service in an area, and would turn it off when service was found. Such an app doesn't exist, no?

 

[Jeremy]

n00b question: if in a WiFi area (i.e. my home network), there is NO benefit to leaving 3G turned on? just keep WiFi on instead?

You would be correct. If you have Wi-Fi there is no reason to have 3G on. Might as well turn it off. Can't hurt anything. It is faster than 3G and uses less battery.

 

[sting7k]

You would be correct. If you have Wi-Fi there is no reason to have 3G on. Might as well turn it off. Can't hurt anything. It is faster than 3G and uses less battery.

Word, 3G is a murderer of the battery. Better to turn that off and just have EDGE and Wifi.

 

[JustinHorn]

You would be correct. If you have Wi-Fi there is no reason to have 3G on. Might as well turn it off. Can't hurt anything. It is faster than 3G and uses less battery.

It wouldn't really make a difference unless you are talking on the phone thought right? I mean if you are on WIFI any data should be sent over that instead of 3G.

 

[cobra302]

i went one day with wifi off, and one with wifi on. honestly, i didnt see a difference in my battery usage at all. i just keep it on all the time.

 

[anon(153966)]

It's a real shame that AT&T doesn't support UMA! If it did, well, that would solve a lot of issues...

 

[PocketAces21]

n00b question: if in a WiFi area (i.e. my home network), there is NO benefit to leaving 3G turned on? just keep WiFi on instead?

it just seems silly, nay, rediculous to me that such a high-tech device needs to have it's configuration tweaked every time i enter a different building in order to save my battery.

here's a pipe dream: wouldn't it be a great feature if Apple would develop an optimization setting/application that would allow you to create personalized profile settings (think airplane mode). that way i could click on my "home" profile and it would turn off 3G, turn off BT & turn on WiFi with 1 button push. or better yet, develop an auto detect mode that would:
- auto detect WiFi & turn it on
- auto detect no BT headset is currently paired to it and turn BT off
- auto detect that 3G is not necessary and turn it off.

is this too Star Trek for today's iPhone technology?

Voice quality is a little better over 3G than EDGE, but probably not enough to bother you.

Also, for your "Star Trek" idea, how do you suppose the phone will detect WiFi signals when the WiFi radio is off? If you jailbreak your iPhone and get SBSettings like someone here suggested, a quick swipe of the finger at the top of the screen will display a menu that lets you toggle all the different radios.

 

[jglowe74]

Voice quality is a little better over 3G than EDGE, but probably not enough to bother you.

Also, for your "Star Trek" idea, how do you suppose the phone will detect WiFi signals when the WiFi radio is off? If you jailbreak your iPhone and get SBSettings like someone here suggested, a quick swipe of the finger at the top of the screen will display a menu that lets you toggle all the different radios.

thanks for this suggestion. i'm still unfamiliar with all the potential a JB can open up for me. i'll definitely have to look more into it.

 

[SOV]

i really wouldnt even have a clue, when im at the house wifi is always turned on, until i leave the house.

 

[Duvi]

The phone can only auto-detect wifi when the feature is turned on.

Polling the area constantly to see if there is wifi signal actually drains battery more; just like pull vs. push. If your device is polling your email boxes for new messages (pull), then it's using battery power. If it's just pushing as it's received, then you're using enough to get the message unlike the other method which would do it whether you had new mail or not.

Bluetooth shaves a lot more battery power than wifi. I've never gone a whole day with wifi on, but I've gone whole days with wifi on. I have two bluetooth headsets that I don't use just because of the drain issue. I like the headsets better anyways.

 

[sting7k]

Duvi - "I've never gone a whole day with wifi on, but I've gone whole days with wifi on."

 

[lonbeehold]

it just seems silly, nay, rediculous to me that such a high-tech device needs to have it's configuration tweaked every time i enter a different building in order to save my battery.

ITA. Yesterday, I went down to 17% battery after 1hr 45mn usuage and almost 6 hrs. of standby. @@!!! I made an appointment at Genius Bar-phone itself/battery was fine. I think what was happening was my People app was 'hanging", draining the battery. The app is not comptiable with 3.0 and I think it just stayed on, trying to work, even after I clicked out of it. I deleted the app and things improved a great deal, tho' I still think battery life on this device is pretty dismal. Right now I am at 47% with 1hr 50mn usage and 5hr 10mn standby.