Another battery question - Do you leave GPS on?

[fishepa]

I usually keep mine on, it seems to lock on to the satellites easier.

 

[Dragoro]

I leave mine all the time, doesnt hurt my battery at all.

 

[IIIunityIII]

I use the power widget on my home screen, which makes it easy to turn these functions on and off. I turn gps off when I'm not using it (my gps locks on fast when I turn it on), as well as wi-fi and bluetooth. The only function I leave on all the time is the sync.

 

[racklefratz]

I left my phone on all night, woke up to it dead. Do most of you leave GPS on?...Most users on here turn GPS off?

What you're gonna' find is that replies to your question will be all over the ball park. Some people seem to believe that it makes no discernable difference in battery life if they leave EVERYTHING on 24/7. Either they don't have a clue, or they're being argumentative. Either way, they're wrong. These would be the people who are not home owners and who have no experience paying household electric utility bills. A homeowner who carelessly leaves all their electrical appliances on learns very quickly what the impact is when the utility bill shows up and reality sets in. The same principle applies to leaving everything powered up on a Droid.

It DOES matter what resources you keep powered up, and if you want to maximize the duration of your phone's battery, you'll use some common sense and exercise a few simple conservation measures.

The Droid has four separate radios: the phone transceiver, the bluetooth transceiver, the wifi transceiver, and the GPS receiver. There is no advantage to leaving any of those radios powered up if what you're doing with the phone doesn't require them to be turned on. If you wish to maximize your battery endurance, you'll use only the resources you need to get the job done.

 

[takeshi]

I left my phone on all night, woke up to it dead.

Were you charging it? If not, why not?

Do most of you leave GPS on?

Don't know about others but I do. If it's not actively being used it won't use much battery.

no need to leave the GPS on if you're not using it right?

Do you turn your Droid off entirely when you're not using it?

Some people seem to believe that it makes no discernable difference in battery life if they leave EVERYTHING on 24/7. Either they don't have a clue, or they're being argumentative.

It DOES matter what resources you keep powered up, and if you want to maximize the duration of your phone's battery, you'll use some common sense and exercise a few simple conservation measures.

Of course it does use more power if left on. For the GPS, unless you're actively using it the battery impact is negligible. Test it out for yourself rather than just making an assumption (talk about just being argumentative for the sake of it :icon_rolleyes. I leave mine one all the time on several different devices and have plenty of battery power at the end of the day unless I've used a nav app, in which case the device is connected to a car charger.

In any case, I don't see the point in taking a poll. Turn it off if you want. Turn it off if it makes an impact in your daily use. Don't if you don't want to.

Use the battery info screen. It will tell you exactly what is using what percentage of the battery.

 

[racklefratz]

How much battery does the GPS really use if one of the associated apps (Maps, Nav, weather) isn't actually being used?

Answer is, the GPS is constantly trying to maintain contact with the satellites regardless of what "app" you're using or not using. If you are inside a building or otherwise in a protected area where the GPS receiver cannot get a position fix, or you simply don't need a GPS position for what you're using the phone for, you're just wasting your battery.

 

[bluedust]

I didn't think there were any people that thought Wifi / GPS didn't kill the battery, hell Motorola released a graph that showed Wifi and GPS as the biggest battery killers.

 

[freakintoddles]

I have experimented with it on all the time and off, and found that it is not always trying to get a signal. It will only try to get a signal if you are using an app that requires it to do so... google maps etc.

 

[racklefratz]

I have experimented with it on all the time and off, and found that it is not always trying to get a signal. It will only try to get a signal if you are using an app that requires it to do so... google maps etc.

Right. Same as if you leave wifi and bt on all the time, they're only running when you're connected to a wifi network or another bt device.....right. BTW, you'd be wrong, bud. If they're on, THEY'RE ON.

Why do you think we have the option to turn these radios off? If they didn't use any power unless their "app" was running, why would we need an on/off switch? Think about it.

 

[rlb]

GPS has been on since the day I bought it.

Phone has been unplugged for 13.5 hours. Battery is at 70%. Played some music today, made a few quick phone calls, browsed the web for a bit too.

I charge it every night. I also pay the electric bill.

 

[freakintoddles]

Yeah they are on, i'm not saying they arent. What I am saying is the GPS isn't sitting there draining your battery trying to locate satellites all day. I have left it on all day @ work in a building with no satellite signal and there was not any significant battery drain. It was still at 70% battery life when I left work where as it might be at 80% otherwise.

So yeah my point is leaving it on isn't going to leave you with a dead battery at the end of the day unless you are using apps that will make the gps try to locate a satellite, which requires much more power.

I have experimented with it on all the time and off, and found that it is not always trying to get a signal. It will only try to get a signal if you are using an app that requires it to do so... google maps etc.

Right. Same as if you leave wifi and bt on all the time, they're only running when you're connected to a wifi network or another bt device.....right. BTW, you'd be wrong, bud. If they're on, THEY'RE ON.

 

[racklefratz]

GPS has been on since the day I bought it......I charge it every night. I also pay the electric bill.

Nobody cares how long your GPS has been on. And nobody cares if you pay the electric bill. But if what you're trying to say is that running your GPS receiver all the time doesn't use any of your limited battery power, you'd be wrong.

That's what this thread is about.

 

[freakintoddles]

:clap::clap::clap::clap:

GPS has been on since the day I bought it.

Phone has been unplugged for 13.5 hours. Battery is at 70%. Played some music today, made a few quick phone calls, browsed the web for a bit too.

I charge it every night. I also pay the electric bill.

 

[Aluminum21]

how do you turn off the GPS? I've used it before, I didn't realize it was always on

 

[bluedust]

how do you turn off the GPS? I've used it before, I didn't realize it was always on

There's a Power widget you can pop out, it allows you to quickly turn off bluetooth, wifi, gps, brightness, sync..