WiFi and Battery...

[Scribble]

So I know if you have the WiFi turned on, and in use it will obviously drain more battery... right?

But what if you live in an area that just gets low reception? I live in the middle of the woods, so my reception tends to be like 1 bar to maybe 3 at the highest.

Which also uses up battery faster.

So... if I turn on the WiFi will it take over some of the activity that my phone uses 3g for automatically?

Like syncing the various apps? Gmail, twitter, calendar, weather, etc...

And if so, will this extend my battery?

I wonder.

Anyone out there with any knowledge or experience with this?

 

[poooookah78]

Well, in my experience, as long as you're not analog (3g obviously can't go analog) the battery drains WAY faster. I've never noticed a decrease in battery life just based on digital signal strength. I'm guessing staying on 3G would be your best bet as long as you're not roaming/analog.

 

[jasonb]

So I know if you have the WiFi turned on, and in use it will obviously drain more battery... right?

But what if you live in an area that just gets low reception? I live in the middle of the woods, so my reception tends to be like 1 bar to maybe 3 at the highest.

Which also uses up battery faster.

So... if I turn on the WiFi will it take over some of the activity that my phone uses 3g for automatically?

Like syncing the various apps? Gmail, twitter, calendar, weather, etc...

And if so, will this extend my battery?

I wonder.

Anyone out there with any knowledge or experience with this?

from what i have read wifi actually uses less battery. look at the specs on the Nexus one for example. they list the battery life on wifi to be longer than the battery life using 3G.