• Welcome to the all-new iMore Forums! - We're still moving some things around, so you may see a few quirks here and there, but we're working on getting things fully completed as soon as possible. For now, take a look around, and if you run into any major issues, please let us know in this thread!

roaming drain the battery?

Nov 3, 2011
196
2
0
does roaming significantly drain the battery on the iPhone 4S like it does on Android phones? customer I roam at home and maybe 2 hours out of the day when I am out
 

IIJBII

New member
Jul 24, 2004
255
3
0
does roaming significantly drain the battery on the iPhone 4S like it does on Android phones? customer I roam at home and maybe 2 hours out of the day when I am out

I don't have any concrete proof to back this up but in my experience roaming seems to drain more then when you are on the carriers network. It seems to me that while roaming the phone "works harder" to get a signal and perform task.
 

BrindawithanI

New member
Aug 16, 2010
974
83
0
I think it does. I work in a hi-rise bldg and my battery drains very fast during the "work" day as opposed to the weekends.
 

GingerSnapsBack

New member
Oct 18, 2011
1,928
33
0
The phone will always be looking for a signal while you're roaming, so yes, you will drain the battery faster. I know with my old BlackBerry I'd fall off 3G when I came inside the building. I work in a cave in the middle of the hospital and I was always switching between 3G and 1X. I drained my battery pretty quickly then.

Same thing for roaming. Your phone is always gonna try to not roam and will be using battery juice to find a signal where it won't be.
 

kch50428

New member
Oct 22, 2010
21,046
305
0
does roaming significantly drain the battery on the iPhone 4S like it does on Android phones? customer I roam at home and maybe 2 hours out of the day when I am out

It's not the roaming per se that's doing it... it's because phones will try to hang on to a native carrier's signal before it goes to a roaming carrier's network... once the phone "decides" to use your native carrier's roaming partner, it will drain a battery no worse then when on the native carrier service - it's the transition that does it.
 
Nov 3, 2011
196
2
0
You can turn off services while roaming. Settings - General - Network - then set data and voice to off.

no not that I mean like on android there is Automatic and Sprint Only and I have an application the has these options: Automatic, Home Only, and Roam Only.........any apps on the app store that do that? any way to edit roaming options?
 

StaticFX

New member
Oct 8, 2011
444
22
0
It's not the roaming per se that's doing it... it's because phones will try to hang on to a native carrier's signal before it goes to a roaming carrier's network... once the phone "decides" to use your native carrier's roaming partner, it will drain a battery no worse then when on the native carrier service - it's the transition that does it.

but while it is roaming, it will be constantly checking for you carrier network... therefore draining the battery