If you do, does it KILL your battery life?
I am currently using HSPA+ (not sure if that's 4G or 3.5G, but whatever)
On a full charge, I eeked out 13-14 hours with heavy usage during the day, with brightness on just under half (40-45%).
I am sick of loading times on facebook and even when browsing so I'm pondering enabling LTE.
I disabled LTE on the premise that it isn't good for battery life.
Thoughts?
It definitely won't help battery, but if you have strong LTE signal in your area it's not that bad. The drain is HORRIBLE however when you are getting less than two bars (roughly -98 dB or higher).
You should still be able to manager 11-12 hours HEAVY usage, with around 3-4 hours onscreen time with LTE.
It should be noted however that if you want to maximize battery life and use LTE, stick with gb and custom kernels that can undervolt. LTE and ics is a b**ch, it KILLS my battery
just my 2c
portable charger, extra battery...
why buy a super phone, and not use all its premium features??
If There's No LTE Yet..
So in my area of Long Island LTE is not running yet (probably not until late 2012) so will I get extra battery life by switching to using only GSM/HSPA?
That's on GB
Here in Bakersfield CA we are on hspa and i get about 7.5 down no lte though but i get about 15+ hours but i cant really use my ohone at work so thats why i get good battery life lol. I havent gone to L.A. To try out lte but im pretty happy with hspa. (i was a sprint user.... Sad)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717
docfreed said:
So in my area of Long Island LTE is not running yet (probably not until late 2012) so will I get extra battery life by switching to using only GSM/HSPA?
That's on GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely, battery life will greatly increase
wase4711 said:
portable charger, extra battery...
why buy a super phone, and not use all its premium features??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...i agree. Plus, if someone is able to use LTE then that means he or shred is already paying for it. It's kind of stupid to pay for something you dont to use.
I simply wish I could turn off LTE when not needed and just use hspa+. It def drains the battery hardcore. I use wifi when at all possible.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
erick161 said:
I simply wish I could turn off LTE when not needed and just use hspa+. It def drains the battery hardcore. I use wifi when at all possible.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah if only it were possible...
-Once you go NOTE, you'd say 4 inches a Joke
SKyRocKeting727 said:
Yeah if only it were possible...
-Once you go NOTE, you'd say 4 inches a Joke
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well apparently if you flash certain roms they have that capability (the switch). IMO it should be integrated into the stock build
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
I get it at work. After 12 hours my phone is down to 60-70% depending on how much I screw around at lunch. LTE isn't as bad a drain as people would have you believe. The screen will always be the selling point and the battery drain on this thing
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
If you are stock, there isn't an option on whether or not to use LTE if it's available in your area. I live in the Washington, DC suburbs, and we have a very strong LTE network. I don't have the option to not use LTE ... it's in fact my only option. I am not used to this. With Sprint, I was able to turn off my 4G WiMax and use 3G. I wish I could do so with AT&T. It doesn't matter all that much. I don't notice significant battery drain and I use WiFi whenever I'm at home or whenever it's available on the go.
fbauto1 said:
...i agree. Plus, if someone is able to use LTE then that means he or shred is already paying for it. It's kind of stupid to pay for something you dont to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in Houston and have great LTE service, except in my house of course but I use my wifi instead. I never turn off my LTE nor do I want to, I went from an iphone with 3g to this and don't want to go back! When I purchased the phone I bought a spare battery/charger set before I left the store. Just looking at the screen, plus the LTE radio screemed battery eater. I was using Saurom with Juice Defender with a custom setup and set cpu to over/underclock and my battery life greatly increased. Now i'm back on DAGr8's alpha 2 ICS with the tablet mod and have not had enough "regular" use to see how the battery life is.
erick161 said:
Well apparently if you flash certain roms they have that capability (the switch). IMO it should be integrated into the stock build
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed
Send from the Noteorious BIG 5.3" Bell Canada
Two things, LTE isnt a battery drain on AT&T because it isnt the same technology as used on CDMA (Verizon or Sprints' 4g network).
Cellular data however IS a battery drain when you dont have a strong signal.
If your scratching your head, here is the distinction. Lets say you dont have LTE in your area and your 3g signal is weak, THIS will drain the battery. If you DO have LTE but again the signal is weak, this will ALSO hurt your battery life.
The reason is, your phone will push more power to the antenna in order to get you enough signal to get a reasonably decent connection on the best available connection available.
LTE uses the SAME ANTENNA as the 3g antenna on GSM networks that use HSPA, THIS is 'the'e distinction between Sprint & Verizon CDMA networks which use a different antenna for their 3g and another antenna for their '4g', power has to be provided for BOTH antennas whereas GSM networks have ONE antenna.
If you are suspecting LTE is killing the battery, its either going to be a weak signal OR a rogue app (possibly using your cellular data connection). My suggestion is to start with looking at your signal strength, if it is relatively strong, you need to start looking at other potential battery drains. It isnt LTE.
Hope this helps.
Want to know more?
http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/110711-what-is-lte/1
Its a massive 7 page article explaining exactly what LTE is and how it works. If you want to jump ahead to the section dealing specifically with battery life, go to page 5 (change the '1' in the link I provided above to a '5').
littlewierdo said:
Two things, LTE isnt a battery drain on AT&T because it isnt the same technology as used on CDMA (Verizon or Sprints' 4g network).
Cellular data however IS a battery drain when you dont have a strong signal.
If your scratching your head, here is the distinction. Lets say you dont have LTE in your area and your 3g signal is weak, THIS will drain the battery. If you DO have LTE but again the signal is weak, this will ALSO hurt your battery life.
The reason is, your phone will push more power to the antenna in order to get you enough signal to get a reasonably decent connection on the best available connection available.
LTE uses the SAME ANTENNA as the 3g antenna on GSM networks (currently, LTE is only available on GSM), THIS is 'the'e distinction between Sprint & Verizon CDMA networks which use a different antenna for their 3g and another antenna for their '4g', power has to be provided for BOTH antennas whereas GSM networks have ONE antenna.
If you are suspecting LTE is killing the battery, its either going to be a weak signal OR a rogue app (possibly using your cellular data connection). My suggestion is to start with looking at your signal strength, if it is relatively strong, you need to start looking at other potential battery drains. It isnt LTE.
Hope this helps.
Want to know more?
http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/110711-what-is-lte/1
Its a massive 7 page article explaining exactly what LTE is and how it works. If you want to jump ahead to the section dealing specifically with battery life, go to page 5 (change the '1' in the link I provided above to a '5').
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting, I've never read that before. However, if ATT uses the same antenna for 3g/4g/LTE, why does it matter what processor it uses?
ATTs HTC OneXL with the S4 supports LTE because the tegra3 does not, but if the same antenna is being used...why is this the case?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
erick161 said:
That's interesting, I've never read that before. However, if ATT uses the same antenna for 3g/4g/LTE, why does it matter what processor it uses?
ATTs HTC OneXL with the S4 supports LTE because the tegra3 does not, but if the same antenna is being used...why is this the case?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your statement (second paragraph) is not accurate. The S4 AND the Tegra 3 'can' use LTE (if the hardware - ie. antenna, exists). However, the Tegra 3 is not optimized for use with LTE. Right now, you will run into many issues with trying to use the Tegra 3 (primarily battery life issues and slow/sluggish performance over cellular data). It also costs more to build the Tegra 3 with this compatibility. OS updates are also a problem.
This person said it better than I could so I quote Draiko's entire post which answers your exact question (if you look at the very first post in the thread - link at the bottom, the same exact question you asked is there, this is a users response).
"The Tegras are not incompatible with LTE radios. They don't integrate the radios like the S4 does (yet) which makes a device with the Tegra 3 SoC and the separate 2G/3G/4G radios more expensive to build and maintenance (OS updates) trickier. The battery life also suffers a bit compared to an integrated solution and the main board is bigger.
nVidia bought Icera last year and they'll be integrating the Icera softmodem into future Tegras in order to better compete at the phone level (which will actually make the Tegra very versatile). They couldn't get Icera tech integrated fast enough for Tegra 3 (since the Tegra 3 was already sampling before they bought Icera).
The S4 has fewer faster CPU cores and integrated radios but a slower GPU. The Tegra 3 is a better non-phone solution which is more power efficient in a wifi-only loadout. Hardcore mobile gamers aside, most users won't notice a difference.
Bottom line: It's business, not a hardware limitation."
Source: (Post #3)
http://androidforums.com/motorola-photon-4g/531481-food-thought-quad-cores-lte.html
Related
Hi, getting my Note tomorrow if all goes well. Coming from an iPhone 4 so haven't worked with Android or a 4G phone before.
Anyone know if it will be possible to switch between LTE and HSPA manually? Or if there is a way to at least elect to use 3G/EDGE? Very battery conscious, and in some areas 2G seems to have better reliability for voice.
If it's not possible normally, perhaps it is via some of the popular alternative ROMs?
Good question, I would like to know as well. I watched a ton of reviews and the one guy from Phonedog said he used his on 3g for a whole day and and he was only down to 85% battery or something crazy like that so I'm hoping with LTE on it will take us through a whole day on one charge. I also bought extra 2600 capacity batteries with chargers off Amazon to quick swap.
I've read more than once that there is no way to turn LTE off on the AT&T version. The Canadian version, yes, apparently (I think). I'm just hoping the battery is big enough that it won't be a major issue.
For reference, HSPA+ doesn't take any more battery than 3G; they're basically the same thing. Most phones have a GSM-only option under network mode (to force EDGE use on data); hopefully the Note will be the same.
The ATT version does not have this option based on the engadget review in which they tried to do this to check battery life. At least not on this stock firmware.
If you are not in an LTE area, you will get better battery life than if you are in an LTE area.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App
Sigh, so the outlook is not good. Crossing fingers for help with this in an unofficial firmware...
if your devs can set you up like our skyrocket devs have they can pull the necessary files from the Canadian version so that it can be accomplished on att.
As for battery life on lte, i got to play with the att version again today. He was at 58%, been off the charger for 4 hours. Screen on was just over 2 hours.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj-OpHQ0dHo
This guy talks about using the international version on 3G and the AT&T edition on LTE all day as he has LTE in his area. He says the battery does take a hit, but its not that big of a deal and the phone still is the 2nd best android device in terms of battery behind the Razr MAXX and will easily last a full day.
Rogers Note...
I find the battery life acceptable under normal use with a mix of wifi/lte. Last me a full day 8hrs+
Sent from my SGH-I717R using xda premium
JohnCohorn said:
Hi, getting my Note tomorrow if all goes well. Coming from an iPhone 4 so haven't worked with Android or a 4G phone before.
Anyone know if it will be possible to switch between LTE and HSPA manually? Or if there is a way to at least elect to use 3G/EDGE? Very battery conscious, and in some areas 2G seems to have better reliability for voice.
If it's not possible normally, perhaps it is via some of the popular alternative ROMs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
negative ghostrider... i played with the phone for 4 hours in a training today... that option is not there.
From using my rooted SGS2, custom roms offers what is called true connection. The network icon switches from 3g to hspa+ only when using data. Stock Rom display the same H+ at all times. I'm pretty sure it works the same way on the note.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
Anyone who has LTE care to compare?
Some say that the integrated LTE modem means that LTE won't drain your battery any more than 3G will. I highly, highly doubt it (just my guess).
Thanks
im not sure how clearly i can explain this so bare with me here and tell me if you have no idea what im talking about.
the 3g (cdma) and 4g (lte) radios are both built into the processor so right off the bat they use less power than usual but since there is no lte anywhere yet, no one can accurately say just how much it will use but from what i have been reading, people have been ball parking it and saying that it shouldn't use any more battery than the 3g. their reasoning behind this is the fact that the setting for 3g is tied to the lte so if you turn on the 3g radio your essentially turning on both at the same time and lte will connect and take over the 3g and switch to the lte network whenever possible. now you can set it to only use 3g when you turn on the 3g radio but then there is no other way to toggle lte. since i got my phone i have had it so that it turns them both on at the same time and since i have seen no severe drain i would have to say that if it was infact using the lte network that it wouldn't use anymore than the 3g would at any other time (if i had to guess)
to help explain what i am talking about with the settings, here is a few pics that should make it clearer.
https://www.box.com/s/4d3ae71dea2265ce859a
https://www.box.com/s/a2733587f93ceb8958d1
edit: so in short, no, it won't drain any more battery
That would be awesome. My Samsung Epic sucked the battery dry when 4G was turned on, so I never used it.
The goal with Sprint is to REPLACE 3G with 4G, and not just have it as a secondary like Wimax, or Verizon LTE is now. They are tuning is so much in battery efficiency so that it drains no more, if not less than 3G, since LTE can burst a dl quickly then go back into idle mode much more than 3G, when in use it should take less battery in theory.
Afteraffekt said:
The goal with Sprint is to REPLACE 3G with 4G, and not just have it as a secondary like Wimax, or Verizon LTE is now. They are tuning is so much in battery efficiency so that it drains no more, if not less than 3G, since LTE can burst a dl quickly then go back into idle mode much more than 3G, when in use it should take less battery in theory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the theory better now, but in practice, it seems that the AT&T version of the One X does drain more battery? Although you can not turn off LTE so I'm not sure how people are comparing it to HSPA+.
PhxkinMassacre said:
im not sure how clearly i can explain this so bare with me here and tell me if you have no idea what im talking about.
the 3g (cdma) and 4g (lte) radios are both built into the processor so right off the bat they use less power than usual but since there is no lte anywhere yet, no one can accurately say just how much it will use but from what i have been reading, people have been ball parking it and saying that it shouldn't use any more battery than the 3g. their reasoning behind this is the fact that the setting for 3g is tied to the lte so if you turn on the 3g radio your essentially turning on both at the same time and lte will connect and take over the 3g and switch to the lte network whenever possible. now you can set it to only use 3g when you turn on the 3g radio but then there is no other way to toggle lte. since i got my phone i have had it so that it turns them both on at the same time and since i have seen no severe drain i would have to say that if it was infact using the lte network that it wouldn't use anymore than the 3g would at any other time (if i had to guess)
to help explain what i am talking about with the settings, here is a few pics that should make it clearer.
https://www.box.com/s/4d3ae71dea2265ce859a
https://www.box.com/s/a2733587f93ceb8958d1
edit: so in short, no, it won't drain any more battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking the same way you are,no LTE here yet of course,but I do have it set to 3g,LTE mode not 3g only and have been getting excellent battery life.I'm assuming it must at least occasionally check for LTE coverage.
Of course, no actual LTE yet. But I have run full days with LTE on and off and have noticed little or no difference in battery life. Maybe a little better data speed even on 3g, but not enough in my area to prove it with speedtest.
I believe what it is is the Radio no matter what looks for a signal from CDMA or LTE either way BUT I believe the options only opts as to what type of signal is allowed to be USED by the radio as the primary signal technology. So basically either way it searches for both since they are both integrated into one on the processor but accepts the best one available according to the settings in OS(Best As In LTE if available and CDMA if not, not Best as in terms of signal strength).
Brought To You By TapTalk 2 Via LTevo
I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
StarrLimit said:
I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In what? Battery or speed? Good or bad? Numbers to back it up?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
StarrLimit said:
I have my radio set to CDMA only and I defiantly see a difference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your defiance astounds and impresses me.
Believe that both 3G and LTE run on the 1900 radio, where the WIMAX used a 2500 separate radio that killed the WIMAX battery life. Plus the LTE phone battery life with the larger battery and ICS (and less HTC crapware polling the network all the time) has lasted all day with moderate use and power left to spare.
Was disappointed that there wasn't an easy switch to turn off the LTE like in WIMAX phones but then if both 3g and LTE are truly tied together that it would be impossible to turn off.
Although Anandtech has not yet reviewed the LTE EVO, most of the battery and performance benchmark tables in their recent review of the Gallaxy S III have results for the EVO included in the table. See here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6022/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review-att-and-tmobile-usa-variants/3
kronemerk said:
Although Anandtech has not yet reviewed the LTE EVO, most of the battery and performance benchmark tables in their recent review of the Gallaxy S III have results for the EVO included in the table. See here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6022/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review-att-and-tmobile-usa-variants/3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
It looks like the Evo 4g lte isnt much worse or better than the SGS3. Pretty much expected that.
sgt. slaughter said:
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's because they have a updated radio 1.75 to 1.85 while the Elte hasn't had any updates to its radio or any software updates at all yet. Maybe
sgt. slaughter said:
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
supers2k said:
I think it's because they have a updated radio 1.75 to 1.85 while the Elte hasn't had any updates to its radio or any software updates at all yet. Maybe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While the cell radios aren't transmitting data, they're still on, waiting for texts and calls. I think GSM radios are more efficient than CDMA ones, so that could be part of it. Or maybe the Sprint signal just wasn't as good.
A more accurate test would have been to turn on the phones' airplane mode, then enable wifi, but since the test doesn't mention it it's very possible the cell radio was left on while doing the wifi test.
sgt. slaughter said:
What I dont understand is how the ATT OneX varied in the WiFi battery test compared to our ELTE....almost 2hrs better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd guess it's due to they have got updates on their radios and software.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Anandtech, while clearly, CLEARLY, the best review site available on the internet, has always posted battery life claims on their laptops and smartphones that I never get in the real world.
I take them to be relative comparisons under standardized test conditions, but not real world test conditions.
In other words, do I think that I could browse over 3G for 6 hours? Unequivocally not, which is what their test results show. I've got an international HTC One X and under no circumstances can I ever get 7 hours of 3G web surfing as their graphs show.
What I take the results to mean is that the EVO 4G LTE is among the most battery efficient smartphones out there right now. In other words, if anyone has a problem with the battery life (raises hand), they would have a problem with all smartphones' battery life.
Saneless One said:
While the cell radios aren't transmitting data, they're still on, waiting for texts and calls. I think GSM radios are more efficient than CDMA ones, so that could be part of it. Or maybe the Sprint signal just wasn't as good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sprint phones always seem to lag behind their gsm counterparts. I remember that was the case with my Epic 4G.
Saneless One said:
While the cell radios aren't transmitting data, they're still on, waiting for texts and calls. I think GSM radios are more efficient than CDMA ones, so that could be part of it. Or maybe the Sprint signal just wasn't as good.
A more accurate test would have been to turn on the phones' airplane mode, then enable wifi, but since the test doesn't mention it it's very possible the cell radio was left on while doing the wifi test.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
while pulling your main data over the wifi test i have a hard time believing that the gsm radio yields almost 2hr better when its not being used hardly at all....if it was doing the 3G data battery test then maybe, but not during the wifi one...
I live in Houston and have been able to pick up 4G since Friday. Ever since then I have noticed that my battery life has not been as good as it was before 4G went life. I used to be able to make it the full day without recharging but now im only getting a little over half a day.
This used to happen with my OG EVO thats why I always kept 4G off on that phone.
I have full 4G bars at my house but in downtown where I work its very spoty. I am guessing the battery drain is coming from the constant cycling between 3G and 4G.
Has anyone else seen a decrease in battery life after 4G went live?
O.LPZ81 said:
I live in Houston and have been able to pick up 4G since Friday. Ever since then I have noticed that my battery life has not been as good as it was before 4G went life. I used to be able to make it the full day without recharging but now im only getting a little over half a day.
This used to happen with my OG EVO thats why I always kept 4G off on that phone.
I have full 4G bars at my house but in downtown where I work its very spoty. I am guessing the battery drain is coming from the constant cycling between 3G and 4G.
Has anyone else seen a decrease in battery life after 4G went live?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One thing I have noticed about mine (I don't have LTE yet, BTW), is that I don't have a switch like I used to with my EVO 3D. Is there a way to turn it off? I'd assume that if you're running LTE all day long, you're probably going to burn more battery than normal.
eXplicit815 said:
One thing I have noticed about mine (I don't have LTE yet, BTW), is that I don't have a switch like I used to with my EVO 3D. Is there a way to turn it off? I'd assume that if you're running LTE all day long, you're probably going to burn more battery than normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings, mobile network, change from CDMA/LTE to CDMA only
go in to settings, click on mobile network, then select cdma only if you only want 3G... I've found that you have to do that everytime you restart, for some reason it doesnt remember
painkillaz said:
Settings, mobile network, change from CDMA/LTE to CDMA only
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iamkoza said:
go in to settings, click on mobile network, then select cdma only if you only want 3G... I've found that you have to do that everytime you restart, for some reason it doesnt remember
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, it's not just as easy as it used to be. I'm sure they'll run out an update with a switch like they used to have. That'd be ideal. You would think they would've put it in that last update.
eXplicit815 said:
So, it's not just as easy as it used to be. I'm sure they'll run out an update with a switch like they used to have. That'd be ideal. You would think they would've put it in that last update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd imagine they didn't include a toggle widget because they are selling this phone in areas where the 4G LTE rollout isn't even scheduled yet (i.e. beyond 2014).... if you give people a widget for 4G, it will just make them unhappy it doesnt work...
I was able to test out 4G in Kansas City for the first time yesterday for about 45 minutes and I thought it used less battery than 3G does. I was at a restaurant and while I was waiting for my food I ran speed tests (highest was about 10,000 kbps and my dad actually got around 9,000 kbps on wimax on his OG evo) and downloaded two 25MB games. It downloaded faster than my wifi... I left it on while I ate for about 30 min. and it was still at the same battery percentage when I started to use it again. It's probably draining a lot because of the cycling between 3G and 4G.
Sorry about the rambling.
It's definitely draining faster if its cycling between 3G and 4G.
It's been discussed before but the logical reason behind there being no actual toggle widget for LTE is because a. It doesn't drain as much as WiMAX did because the radio is built into the soc and not separate so shutting it off completely isn't so much of an issue to save battery. If you wanna save a little extra juice you can stop the radio from searching for an LTE signal through the settings. The other reason is LTE unlike WiMAX is being built to be your permanent connection unless you have to fallback to 3G. It will have better coverage and penetration. It's not a supplement like WiMAX was. Not saying WiMAX couldn't have been but based on the frequency it is on and the way it rolled out it just never happened that way.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Also keep in mind that not all towers have LTE on them so your phone may have to use more juice to reach the spread out towers. It will get better with time as all the towers are scheduled to get LTE.
Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge
4G is a much larger battery drain than 3G. Ask anyone with a Verizon phone. Using the LTE is obviously going to empty your battery faster.
The S4 SoC contains a programmable world modem and zero radios. That's straight from the Qualcomm literature that anyone can download.
That Qualcomm processors contain radios is an urban myth perpetuated by uninformed blog writers and has been going on for over two years.
The radio transceivers are separate and housed in separate chips (usually more than one transceiver per chip). When properly controlled, radios are basically shut down when not in use.
Because all voice is on CDMA, it's a reasonable expectation to lose a bit more power when talking and downloading via 4G at the same time.
SoraX64 said:
4G is a much larger battery drain than 3G. Ask anyone with a Verizon phone. Using the LTE is obviously going to empty your battery faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4G on this phone will possibly drain your battery a little faster than 3G (i mean a little). The S4 has the LTE radio built in to the chip so it's pretty much powered all the time, but not active. The Thunderbolt(example Verizon phone) contains the S2 which doesn't have it built in so it requires a separate antenna which will require more space and more battery. Only cycling between the technologies will cause the battery to drain the most.
bobarune said:
4G on this phone will possibly drain your battery a little faster than 3G (i mean a little). The S4 has the LTE radio built in to the chip so it's pretty much powered all the time, but not active.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
The S4 chip contains zero radios. Please see my post above yours.
The Thunderbolt(example Verizon phone) contains the S2 which doesn't have it built in so it requires a separate antenna which will require more space and more battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In addition to a separate radio for LTE, the Thunderbolt needed an additional LTE modem, because the S2 in the Thunderbolt had only the CDMA and GSM modems built-in.
Liike all Qualcomm chips, it had ZERO radios built in.
Only cycling between the technologies will cause the battery to drain the most.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep.
View attachment QU_SnapdragonS4_White_Paper_FNL_Rev6.pdf
View attachment snapdragon-s4-product-overview.pdf
View attachment snapdragon-specs.pdf
Modems, yes. ZERO radios. None. Nada. Zip.
The counting of the radios in the S4 shall be zero and zero shall be the counting of the radios in the S4.
EarlyMon said:
No.
The S4 chip contains zero radios. Please see my post above yours.
In addition to a separate radio for LTE, the Thunderbolt needed an additional LTE modem, because the S2 in the Thunderbolt had only the CDMA and GSM modems built-in.
Liike all Qualcomm chips, it had ZERO radios built in.
Yep.
View attachment 1204839
View attachment 1204840
View attachment 1204841
Modems, yes. ZERO radios. None. Nada. Zip.
The counting of the radios in the S4 shall be zero and zero shall be the counting of the radios in the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the links and clarification. However I think the point at hand is the S4 was designed with LTE in mind and helps conserve battery when compared to other SoC's on the market. I believe the Exynos is currently the only other LTE compliant SoC however if I'm not mistaken due to production Samsung only used them for the korean SIII. Regardless using 4G will cause more battery drain but compared to older phones the drain will not be as bad thanks to the S4. And if the phone is constantly switching connections it will drain even faster.
Cordy said:
Thanks for the links and clarification. However I think the point at hand is the S4 was designed with LTE in mind and helps conserve battery when compared to other SoC's on the market. I believe the Exynos is currently the only other LTE compliant SoC however if I'm not mistaken due to production Samsung only used them for the korean SIII. Regardless using 4G will cause more battery drain but compared to older phones the drain will not be as bad thanks to the S4. And if the phone is constantly switching connections it will drain even faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the S4 is more power efficient for LTE because it doesn't require one more modem chip in addition to the radios.
My point in clarifying is that people are over-estimating the power budget by thinking that separate radios are not in play.
If trying to wrap one's arms around performance as a function of tech (something I completely support), it's important to not be misled by the unwashed news bloggers on the tech side.
As for the Korean SGS3 LTE model, it contains a separate LTE modem chip, at higher cost and complexity along with lower reliability and battery efficiency.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/24/3115367/south-korean-galaxy-s-iii-quad-core-lte
Expect to see Samsung processors with embedded LTE modems in the near future.
I don't understand why LTE would be a larger drain. If it is a newer technology, and the phone was built with the prime directive of utilizing a 4g network. Shouldn't it create optimal battery life when locked on "LTE only"?
gdrocks said:
I don't understand why LTE would be a larger drain. If it is a newer technology, and the phone was built with the prime directive of utilizing a 4g network. Shouldn't it create optimal battery life when locked on "LTE only"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LTE only isn't an (easy) option, you still need the CDMA radio active for voice.
Someday, according to a statement by Dan Hesse, we will get SVLTE - simultaneous LTE voice and data. Then we can roll LTE only.
The target is get the LTE system power efficiency as high as possible.
PS -
All of the HTC WiMax phones used the exact same Sequans radio SoC, built on older, power thirsty 65 nm chip technology.
Can't get details without a proper teardown (and I spent the morning this > < close to tearing mine down, but I couldn't get a good macro photography rig set up) we can't know the actual chip tech used for our radios. I suspect it's state of the current art, though.
EarlyMon said:
Yes, the S4 is more power efficient for LTE because it doesn't require one more modem chip in addition to the radios.
My point in clarifying is that people are over-estimating the power budget by thinking that separate radios are not in play.
If trying to wrap one's arms around performance as a function of tech (something I completely support), it's important to not be misled by the unwashed news bloggers on the tech side.
As for the Korean SGS3 LTE model, it contains a separate LTE modem chip, at higher cost and complexity along with lower reliability and battery efficiency.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/24/3115367/south-korean-galaxy-s-iii-quad-core-lte
Expect to see Samsung processors with embedded LTE modems in the near future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, once again thanks for the clarification. It'll be interesting to see Qualcomm's answer to those chips since both Samsung and Nvidia will have quad-core SoC's with LTE modems in the near future.
gdrocks said:
I don't understand why LTE would be a larger drain. If it is a newer technology, and the phone was built with the prime directive of utilizing a 4g network. Shouldn't it create optimal battery life when locked on "LTE only"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To add to EarlyMon's response. Another reason would be 4G requires more power because of the higher bandwidth. Even though the SoC is designed to support it by nature the higher bandwidth going through the phones has a higher power draw. It's just not as bad as it could be because the technology is evolving to accommodate it. Again e.g look at the Thunderbolt and a lot of early Verizon LTE phones. The technology wasn't quite there yet and the phones battery life was abysmal. As the technology evolves the battery life gets better.
Than what do they mean by "integrated" they constantly use it when referring to lte on the chip, also i read in one of those links that there lte chip Supports multiple lte 4g, 3g, & 2g frequencies so does that mean when sprint swiches lte over to the iden network frequency that are phones will be compatible via a software update?
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
noneed2aim said:
Than what do they mean by "integrated" they constantly use it when referring to lte on the chip, also i read in one of those links that there lte chip Supports multiple lte 4g, 3g, & 2g frequencies so does that mean when sprint swiches lte over to the iden network frequency that are phones will be compatible via a software update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out these two diagrams, first is the S4, second is the Tegra 3 -
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
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"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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}
Note that big block, upper left, on the S4 - lots of mobile radio technology _support_ is integrated, that's largely or completely missing on other processors.
The world modem is programmable, so instead of lots of unique separate chips depending on the carrier, they just program that block as needed.
As for whether or not our LTE radios can handle the upcoming 800 MHz operations, I can't say (don't know) but here's what would be required - either a programmable radio, or a radio with the function there but unused, and if either of those are true, then the phone would have to be recertified by the FCC to work at the new frequency. And, it would have to work with the existing complement of antennas.
So, I suppose that a firmware update is possible, but I don't know.
I searched the forums and didn't see a post like this......
So I have talked to a couple representatives from T-Mobile and it has been confirmed that T-Mobile will be acquiring LTE service sometime next year. One rep told me next spring, the other one told me they don't know.
So I'm just going to wait until the day T-Mobile gets LTE then use my upgrade on an LTE phone.
I honestly can't wait!
Have you ever heard of the concept of diminishing returns? At some point increasing the speed of data will give an increase of experience that is so tiny that you won't notice it.. the biggest bottleneck in our data speed is the app that we use to access that data, and the system itself.
With a few build.prop tweaks I consistently get over 18mbs download and 3mbs upload - how much faster can it get? Will a page loading .03 a second faster at higher speeds be worth the battery drain of TRUE lte? Unless the browsing app and the system itself get better, faster data speeds won't do anything you're gonna notice - it is 99.9999999% hype to sell you a new phone or service.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Silentbtdeadly said:
Have you ever heard of the concept of diminishing returns? At some point increasing the speed of data will give an increase of experience that is so tiny that you won't notice it.. the biggest bottleneck in our data speed is the app that we use to access that data, and the system itself.
With a few build.prop tweaks I consistently get over 18mbs download and 3mbs upload - how much faster can it get? Will a page loading .03 a second faster at higher speeds be worth the battery drain of TRUE lte? Unless the browsing app and the system itself get better, faster data speeds won't do anything you're gonna notice - it is 99.9999999% hype to sell you a new phone or service.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand what you mean, but if the speeds are higher, then theoretically, they would be able to support more users.
Look at it this way. You have a water hose that is 1 inch in diameter, and you have a splitter that splits the hose 4 ways. On the 4 ends, the rate of flow would be lower than if it was just 1 end. This is our current 4G service.
And now, the LTE. A hose that is 3 inches in diameter. Now, it can split it 4 ways, and get about 3x more performance in each hose (Which as you mentioned, is probably unnecessary, since we probably wouldn't notice the difference)... OR you could split it 12 ways and you would get the same performance with 1 inch hose that was only split 4 ways. It now can support 3x more hoses, while delivering the same amount of throughput.
It's not always about speed
At this point I really don't care for LTE specially if it drains my battery faster then what my current juice sucking Amaze does. I do think it's all hype at this point. Also I've been wondering weather I really need a juice sucking tripe/quad CPU on my cell.
There is only so much you can do on a cell phone before its over kill. At the moment I have to carefully manage my 4G, Cell phone signal, WIFI, Bluetooth, Air Plane mode, and have a few well placed chargers at home, car and work just to get through the day with my cell.
I'm not sure what I'm going to doing with a Quad Core or Tegra processor cell phone if I got one. Unless I was playing games on my cell phone which is not that great since it doesn't have a physical keyboard a la Xperia play or Droid 2.
I guess that if you watch a lot of videos online the extra speed might be a plus but then again the screen is kind of small and it would kill the battery quick. Right now even a quick game of angry birds or Zombies vs plants zaps the battery life. I guess that if you tether your cell phone and watch videos on a laptop or a tablet then maybe I can see the positive of having LTE.
I wish T-mobile would instead expand their coverage. At my job they have internal antennas throughout the whole campus for Verizon and AT&T, Metro PCS, Sprint. I asked one of the IT project managers if T-mobile would ever get in on the game and add their hardware so that we could have a better T-mobile signal. He laughed at me and said that T-Mobile doesn't play nice and there was no chance. Good thing we have WIFI at work and I use grooveIP and Google voice as my main communication tools.
At this time I'm more then happy with my Amaze 4G speeds. It seems to be about as fast as my home WIFI. It's definitely faster then work WIFI.
I would much rather see improved battery technology and a better screen. I guess I would have to try out LTE just to see if it was worth it but I highly doubt it. Heck right now seeing full bars on my cell is a big plus and cause for celebration.
A note from a AT&T user:
L
T
E
I
S
B
S
Lte reminds me of another acronym: cai which stands for cold air intake.
Yes while lte (and somewhat I have read it's not even true lte???) May be faster on paper, I can tell you its barely noticeable.
Just like a cai, you may be technically gaining a few horses but you won't notice it. I honestly see very little difference between lte and hspa . If any thing else the speed is very inconsistent which attributes to minimal notability in speed.
And after reading how it's not even true lte I am convinced it's just b.s.
Has anyone noticed how call quality has stayed the same for the past 5 years or so?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
rustyxj6 said:
At this point I really don't care for LTE specially if it drains my battery faster then what my current juice sucking Amaze does. I do think it's all hype at this point. Also I've been wondering weather I really need a juice sucking tripe/quad CPU on my cell.
There is only so much you can do on a cell phone before its over kill. At the moment I have to carefully manage my 4G, Cell phone signal, WIFI, Bluetooth, Air Plane mode, and have a few well placed chargers at home, car and work just to get through the day with my cell.
I'm not sure what I'm going to doing with a Quad Core or Tegra processor cell phone if I got one. Unless I was playing games on my cell phone which is not that great since it doesn't have a physical keyboard a la Xperia play or Droid 2.
I guess that if you watch a lot of videos online the extra speed might be a plus but then again the screen is kind of small and it would kill the battery quick. Right now even a quick game of angry birds or Zombies vs plants zaps the battery life. I guess that if you tether your cell phone and watch videos on a laptop or a tablet then maybe I can see the positive of having LTE.
I wish T-mobile would instead expand their coverage. At my job they have internal antennas throughout the whole campus for Verizon and AT&T, Metro PCS, Sprint. I asked one of the IT project managers if T-mobile would ever get in on the game and add their hardware so that we could have a better T-mobile signal. He laughed at me and said that T-Mobile doesn't play nice and there was no chance. Good thing we have WIFI at work and I use grooveIP and Google voice as my main communication tools.
At this time I'm more then happy with my Amaze 4G speeds. It seems to be about as fast as my home WIFI. It's definitely faster then work WIFI.
I would much rather see improved battery technology and a better screen. I guess I would have to try out LTE just to see if it was worth it but I highly doubt it. Heck right now seeing full bars on my cell is a big plus and cause for celebration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, but with quad core, you can be in control, and the way it handles processes is more efficient anyways.. and technically there are five cores, and that fifth smaller core can really help make things more efficient.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
LTE sounds nice and I thought the same about 4G neither which are running where I live. I still have to rely on Edge(2G) for my data. AT&T, Sprint, nor Verizon have their LTE/4G services where I live. So T-mobile can say all they want about their network but that won't be selling me any phones anytime soon.
I think T-mobile should focus on strengthening their signal and offering better speeds in all areas before going LTE. In my recent trip to Florida I basically had to stand in one corner of one room of the house I was staying at to get one bar. I ended up just using my BIL's WIFI the entire time. My MIL has an AT&T old school phone and had fine signal everywhere in the house. It was the same way in the parks.... service going in and out constantly while I saw other ppl on their phones just fine. Not to mention that while I am at work I get 2G at best whilst my AT&T coworkers get 4G. One co-worker just switched from T-mobile to AT&T and said he cannot believe the speed difference. I love T-mobile's customer care, and I have had a great experience with them so I hate to leave but if the signal doesn't improve soon I'm going to be forced to make the switch.
rachelm920 said:
I think T-mobile should focus on strengthening their signal and offering better speeds in all areas before going LTE. In my recent trip to Florida I basically had to stand in one corner of one room of the house I was staying at to get one bar. I ended up just using my BIL's WIFI the entire time. My MIL has an AT&T old school phone and had fine signal everywhere in the house. It was the same way in the parks.... service going in and out constantly while I saw other ppl on their phones just fine. Not to mention that while I am at work I get 2G at best whilst my AT&T coworkers get 4G. One co-worker just switched from T-mobile to AT&T and said he cannot believe the speed difference. I love T-mobile's customer care, and I have had a great experience with them so I hate to leave but if the signal doesn't improve soon I'm going to be forced to make the switch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Yeah I also am more concerned with consistent service. Where I live I can get anywhere from 10kbs, yes kbs down, and pretty much nothing up. To about 5mbs down. But about 7 miles from here I get consistent speeds of 28mbs down I'd much prefer that being the norm since that's plenty fast. I'm told the technology that everyone is hoping to move to is more economically sound and should save the user money theoretically. Now whether the companies will pass that savings to us... Who knows. But I'd much rather get service where I currently don't. And data where I only have service like when I camp certain areas
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Also rather see them increase signal with Hspa+ rather than make the LTE switch. I am already getting craptastic battery life and my service is so spotty! I currently have 4G where I work at outside, but I walk 50 yards rather outside or inside the building I get full bars of EDGE. Always a good signal, just completely different speeds.
Have a friend on Verizon and he has an LTE phone and his speeds off the network are crazy fast, but it isn't like off the wall crazy different when I am in a strong 4G area. I have hit mid 20's download and almost 4 upload.
Marketing at its finest IMO.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using Tapatalk 2
mznatnat said:
I searched the forums and didn't see a post like this......
So I have talked to a couple representatives from T-Mobile and it has been confirmed that T-Mobile will be acquiring LTE service sometime next year. One rep told me next spring, the other one told me they don't know.
So I'm just going to wait until the day T-Mobile gets LTE then use my upgrade on an LTE phone.
I honestly can't wait!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While lte will eventually take over hspa+ is more than sufficient and in my case here in San Diego it's faster.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda premium
Keylogger_0 said:
I understand what you mean, but if the speeds are higher, then theoretically, they would be able to support more users.
Look at it this way. You have a water hose that is 1 inch in diameter, and you have a splitter that splits the hose 4 ways. On the 4 ends, the rate of flow would be lower than if it was just 1 end. This is our current 4G service.
And now, the LTE. A hose that is 3 inches in diameter. Now, it can split it 4 ways, and get about 3x more performance in each hose (Which as you mentioned, is probably unnecessary, since we probably wouldn't notice the difference)... OR you could split it 12 ways and you would get the same performance with 1 inch hose that was only split 4 ways. It now can support 3x more hoses, while delivering the same amount of throughput.
It's not always about speed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That analogy is actually kind of weak. Firstly, not all phones will be LTE. Second, just like other spectrums, the more people use it, the slower it will be. I'm all for LTE however, as more use it, the faster 4g signal will be. But if you do aa cost benefit analysis(yes, a science-y term), the amount of extra battery consumption for the negligable amount of increased performance would be bad. Until we have things that require those speeds(maybe torrents), you simply wont notice gains worth the extra consumption.
rachelm920 said:
I think T-mobile should focus on strengthening their signal and offering better speeds in all areas before going LTE. In my recent trip to Florida I basically had to stand in one corner of one room of the house I was staying at to get one bar. I ended up just using my BIL's WIFI the entire time. My MIL has an AT&T old school phone and had fine signal everywhere in the house. It was the same way in the parks.... service going in and out constantly while I saw other ppl on their phones just fine. Not to mention that while I am at work I get 2G at best whilst my AT&T coworkers get 4G. One co-worker just switched from T-mobile to AT&T and said he cannot believe the speed difference. I love T-mobile's customer care, and I have had a great experience with them so I hate to leave but if the signal doesn't improve soon I'm going to be forced to make the switch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in Florida, used to be Daytona(central florida area), and now jacksonville.. there are a few miles in between that I lose 4g, but I can testify that the east coast down to Miami actually has pretty great coverage. Jacksonvilles signal strength has been amazing everywhere(biggest city in the u.s. by square miles) except for where I just moved, which is the ffirst time I've Ever experienced drops in signal from 4g to 2g to no signal in a few feet.. but that likely has to do witg the interferance from the very close power grid.
While LTE is a great technology with a lot of potential, and it will lessen the burden on other bandwidth spectrums.. the usefulness at the moment is comparable tto the concept of anything more than a quad core(which isn't fully realized) or more than a gig of ram.. diminishing returns. At this point they need new, bigger, and faster features to sell us new phones, just like rom develpers need new features to make new roms worth downloading. I say if it isn't broke, don't fix it. If you like hype.. buy buy buy. At some point it is like buying a new phone that the only difference is that it has siri(I had to throw that in, lol. All hype )
Edit: software is one of the biggest upgrades at the moment. Upgrading from gingerbread to ics will give a bigger performance boost that a faster processor, more cores, or more ram. Everything from the browser on up will be faster than an upgrade to data speed. Or the hardware specs that are neglected on mobile phones that matter just like a computer. How many threads can the processor handle? What's the NM rate of the processor? What is the sspeed of the ram rather than the total? Or how about upgrades to the gpu rather than Number of cores or the amount of ram?
Specs we see are expressed so simple for the consumer to think it matters. Oh, this phone has a 1.7ghz quad core, it must be better than the 1.5ghz. Oh, two gigs of ram, twice as much as the last one! While the smaller harder to understand specs are completely forgotten.
LTE! Bah!
Sent from my NookColor using XDA
Silentbtdeadly said:
Have you ever heard of the concept of diminishing returns? At some point increasing the speed of data will give an increase of experience that is so tiny that you won't notice it.. the biggest bottleneck in our data speed is the app that we use to access that data, and the system itself.
With a few build.prop tweaks I consistently get over 18mbs download and 3mbs upload - how much faster can it get? Will a page loading .03 a second faster at higher speeds be worth the battery drain of TRUE lte? Unless the browsing app and the system itself get better, faster data speeds won't do anything you're gonna notice - it is 99.9999999% hype to sell you a new phone or service.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am admittedly a bit of a noob. But I would be interested in learning some about build.prop and what lines can be edited. I guess there is always trial and error, but if someone could point me on the right direction that would be cool.
Edit: nm had time to do a bit of searching
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
jaytee20 said:
I am admittedly a bit of a noob. But I would be interested in learning some about build.prop and what lines can be edited. I guess there is always trial and error, but if someone could point me on the right direction that would be cool.
Edit: nm had time to do a bit of searching
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I can save you a bit of searching.. no rom in our development section uses the max speeds(except maybe speedrom), but all of these lines exist in any rom and the stock rom's build.prop - if you have different settings, you are getting lower speeds(higher speeds may be possible, these are just the highest I've tested without reducing battery life that I know work):
ro.ril.hsxpa=5
ro.ril.gprsclass=14
ro.ril.enable.dtm=1
ro.ril.hsdpa.category=32
ro.ril.hsupa.category=7
There are tons and tons of lines you can edit or add to the build.prop.. here are some recent ones from the s3 forums that explain what they actually do http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1769458
There are also some lines in most of our roms that have #comments before them explaining what they do, like disabling checkin services to htc and google, etc.. definitely worth learning tho
The day that data speeds over 5 mbs is "that" important to me is the day i beat myself to death with my own phone
No tweaks and I get average 28 megabits in Austin Texas
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
I'm confused about our phone a bit. I thought I had seen that our phone says something about lte in the kernel or somewhere. Why? And I remember faux saying he had disabled it I think
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fcpelayo said:
I'm confused about our phone a bit. I thought I had seen that our phone says something about lte in the kernel or somewhere. Why? And I remember faux saying he had disabled it I think
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does have LTE listed, you can even find it in the APN settings, but it's completely pointless without the hardware, which our device doesn't have, reason being why faux disabled it.
Dark Nightmare said:
It does have LTE listed, you can even find it in the APN settings, but it's completely pointless without the hardware, which our device doesn't have, reason being why faux disabled it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So why would we even have it on the software level?
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