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.
Related
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
Phone looks great no doubt. But as a gnex user.. same Android OS, don't see the need to change for the most part. The one thing that could sway me is the 4g radio which my nexus sucks with. 4g radios eat battery and Samsung 4g radios can barely hold 4g
Surprised we went from single to dual to quad cores before the next lte radio. Hope the 4g radio in this phone is better than the gnex
shawnn218 said:
Phone looks great no doubt. But as a gnex user.. same Android OS, don't see the need to change for the most part. The one thing that could sway me is the 4g radio which my nexus sucks with. 4g radios eat battery and Samsung 4g radios can barely hold 4g
Surprised we went from single to dual to quad cores before the next lte radio. Hope the 4g radio in this phone is better than the gnex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's mainly a Verizon problem because of its CDMA network. All LTE phones on Verizon has to maintain two radio interfaces open all the time: one for CDMA for voice and one for LTE for data. Until Verizon switches over to VoLTE (not anytime soon), you will have to suffer with that for all future LTE phones.
If you want to see how 2nd gen LTE phone works, look no further than all current AT&T LTE phones where phones only need to maintain one radio interface on. When voice call is activated, the phone automatically falls back to HSPA mode.
foxbat121 said:
That's mainly a Verizon problem because of its CDMA network. All LTE phones on Verizon has to maintain two radio interfaces open all the time: one for CDMA for voice and one for LTE for data. Until Verizon switches over to VoLTE (not anytime soon), you will have to suffer with that for all future LTE phones.
If you want to see how 2nd gen LTE phone works, look no further than all current AT&T LTE phones where phones only need to maintain one radio interface on. When voice call is activated, the phone automatically falls back to HSPA mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. I had a thunderbolt. Held. 4g everywhere like glue. My gnex can't even hold 4g in my room where the TB pulled 20+ on speed tests
shawnn218 said:
Nope. I had a thunderbolt. Held. 4g everywhere like glue. My gnex can't even hold 4g in my room where the TB pulled 20+ on speed tests
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I see where you are going. What I'm talking about is battery life on LTE phones which is the biggest problem on all LTE phones, not the speed. TB is notorous for poor battery life. As for signal strength, from what I heard, it is actually a discrepency between GB (what your TB is on) and ICS (what your GN is on). Basically, GB reports CDMA signal strength while ICS reports LTE signal strength.I have couple friends with TBs and their phone don't exactly holding on to LTE signals like you said. They lost LTE signal when office door closes
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...
So I might possibly have a fix for the continual dropping of the LTE connection, this is what I did
Enter the menu through the dialer via ##3282#
Select Edit Menu, enter your MSL number (You can get it from MSL Reader in the play store - requires root)
Select LTE Record
Change LTE scan Timer from 30 to 5
Select Menu and select commit changes, reboot and check LTE connection
I don't know if this is actually a good fix or just a coincidence that mine started working right after I made the change, I did this in an attempt to make my phone scan for LTE more frequently in hopes that it would stay connected, right after I made the change i have had absolutely no problem staying connected to the LTE network.
I would appreciate it if other people can change this and reply with their results so we can see if it actually makes a difference or not
Keep in mind that this will impact your battery life. You are forcing your phone to constantly search for a signal when you are in an area where there is none. Prl updates are now being used to update LTE info on the phone so try updating your prl
om4 said:
Keep in mind that this will impact your battery life. You are forcing your phone to constantly search for a signal when you are in an area where there is none. Prl updates are now being used to update LTE info on the phone so try updating your prl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updated prl many times only to be connected to LTE for a very short time and then kicked back to 3G, and i have not had any noticeable impact on battery life. As of right now I am at 4 hours on battery, 95% remaining, and 57% of that battery usage is from the screen
When you get to an area without LTE, the phone will constantly search for signal, that's when battery life will be impacted. This radio design is pretty low power though.
I might have to try this but I definitely do not want my battery life to go down.
Thanks
well in my case and I imagine with most other people who are having LTE connection issues, I live and travel within the coverage area and when I do travel outside the area I have a car charger with me or something of that nature, and on the other hand my battery life with the EVO LTE is so excellent with MeanROM I never have really had to worry about it
om4 said:
When you get to an area without LTE, the phone will constantly search for signal, that's when battery life will be impacted. This radio design is pretty low power though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't this a case with all LTE phones?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
No, LTE does drain power but its set to only scan after a set time, this workaround lowers the time between scans significantly and will use more power. Some LTE phones have a separate chipset solely for LTE. They waste much more power then the integrated setup our phones use. Thunderbolt is a good example of that. Separate radios and terrible battery life
om4 said:
No, LTE does drain power but its set to only scan after a set time, this workaround lowers the time between scans significantly and will use more power. Some LTE phones have a separate chipset solely for LTE. They waste much more power then the integrated setup our phones use. Thunderbolt is a good example of that. Separate radios and terrible battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ur also talking about chipsets that are 45nm process ones in regards to the phones with separate LTE modem chip like the thunderbolt... We are at 28nm process now with the current Qualcomm SoC....
Sent from my Wolfpack EVO
True, our phones are very efficient in comparison
om4 said:
Keep in mind that this will impact your battery life. You are forcing your phone to constantly search for a signal when you are in an area where there is none. Prl updates are now being used to update LTE info on the phone so try updating your prl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really. Although the correct records have to be in the Prl for LTE to work they are not pushing updates to make lte work in new markets. Also the prl is not going to fix this connection issue.
Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge
Will changing the LTE scan timer actually fix the threshold issue though?
I've found by doing *#*#4636#*#* and change the setting from CDMA +LTE/EVDO Auto to LTE,CDMA you can hold the LTE connection much longer. All the way up to -130 dBm RSRP. Even an LTE connection at -120 dBm should yield better results than 3G.
You'll still need to change it back once you are out of LTE though as you'll be left on 1X.
leerage said:
Will changing the LTE scan timer actually fix the threshold issue though?
I've found by doing *#*#4636#*#* and change the setting from CDMA +LTE/EVDO Auto to LTE,CDMA you can hold the LTE connection much longer. All the way up to -130 dBm RSRP. Even an LTE connection at -120 dBm should yield better results than 3G.
You'll still need to change it back once you are out of LTE though as you'll be left on 1X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does not, it just allows for the phone to reconnect faster.
digiblur said:
Not really. Although the correct records have to be in the Prl for LTE to work they are not pushing updates to make lte work in new markets. Also the prl is not going to fix this connection issue.
Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some people have not updated prl at all, they could benefit from an update.
I wonder if this is related to the wifi disconnecting in order to save battery life. Does it only drop LTE when the screen is off or does it also disconnect when it's being used?
If it's disconnecting on purpose shortening the reconnect time shouldn't harm battery life too much as long as you're in an area with LTE.
It won't if you are in a reliable area, in a fringe area you may connect. When the connection weakens, it will default to 3g and the phone will search again. If you make this change and live in an area without, it will continue to scan until signal is found
Ok, so I was skeptical about the LTE issues of this phone. Because of this I grabbed my wife's LG Viper to see if she had 4G. She didn't, then I remembered I switched her phone to 3G only when she first got it to save battery life since her battery life sucks. When I switched back on get 4G, her viper connected to 4G right away. After playing around with her viper for a while and pulling in some good speed tests, I went back to my Evo, which was still sporting only 3G.
After cycling to airplane mode and back, my Evo showed 4G just long enough for me to get a signal reading of -113db. After playing around with my Evo for a while, I was able to hold a signal long enough to get a couple of speed tests in before it would switch back to 3G.
After playing with both phones for a while, I was able to observe that even though we are on the edge of a 4G tower, the viper did not switch over to 3G. It stayed on 4G even though the signals for 4G were pretty equal for the two phones. One thing I did find in the viper's ##data# menu is an option of "LTE, EVDO, 1X". Basically it looks like an order option for which the phone to look for service. I did not see this option on my Evo.
From what I've experienced, it seems that the Evo switches back to 3G a little too soon. Is there a way for us to make it hold on to the signal a little longer or with less db?
I will be playing around some more with the two phones. Right now, I switched my scan timer to 5. The only way my Evo is holding onto 4G right now is because I switched the data option to LTE only. The funny thing is that its been working great and holding onto 4G perfectly. I've seen it dip down to -118db and still function fine.
Sorry for the long post. I will have to agree that the Evo seeks to have a software issue.
Sent from my EVO LTE using xda app
xHausx said:
I wonder if this is related to the wifi disconnecting in order to save battery life. Does it only drop LTE when the screen is off or does it also disconnect when it's being used?
If it's disconnecting on purpose shortening the reconnect time shouldn't harm battery life too much as long as you're in an area with LTE.
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Na this issue is more of a threshold issue I believe they are talking about. Ie seeing an EVO and an sgs3 side by side with only the sgs3 connecting to LTE... I can understand on weak signal areas as the sgs3 is supposed to have a tad better antennae and other things related to that area and such given the FCC docs results discussed at s4gru by AJ...
But in a fairly good area signal wise on both phones they both should get LTE which isn't the case at times it seems.... Hence the thought HTC needs to tweak the threshold here for us...I remember on WiMAX it was an easy edit, but haven't even looked once on our phone since I don't get lte here anyway. Lol
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
It is most likely a threshold issue. Too bad I can't seem to find anything either to fix it either, not in a reliable area to really justify mucking about with my phone. WiMAX was so much easier, then again just as easy to screw up. Could be one of the reasons this phone is locked down so tight
hey, im hoping to get some help.
I type in ##3282# and nothing happens on my dialer, am i suppose to hit something?
I am on aokp build 3, does that even matter?
I have had 4g in allston for a few weeks now, and for some reason i can not get a hold on that signal anymore. My phone says i have lte 13 connection, but i can not get a 4g internet signal.
Hoping getting into the phone debug menu or lte menu i can manual lock in on the tower better, but i can not get to the menu to edit those settings.
Ive updated to the 2.13.651.1 ota and PRI 2.45_003.
om4 said:
It does not, it just allows for the phone to reconnect faster.
Some people have not updated prl at all, they could benefit from an update.
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Nothing has really changed and the phone updates itself.
Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge
Would you use a 3G only option if it was available on the G3?
I spoke to a Verizon Regional Exec today about the G3 and other Verizon phones that no longer have the option to run on CDMA only. The rep has an iPhone and regularly sets it to 3G only, especially when he let's his kids use the phone. He could not give me a reason why the G3 and other phones no longer has the ability to go to 3G only. He said he would look into this and see if it could be delivered in a future update.
Honestly I rather not have data at all then be stuck on 3G, just my opinion
I would like that option. There are areas where I play Ingress, for example, where the 3g Verizon signal is strong and uncluttered so its a much better option than LTE, which is either weak and eats battery trying over and over to reconnect, or is good but WAY oversold so there is no way to get good speeds on my unlimited data plan, much of the time.
One of the tricks we used to use on the VGNexus phones was select 3g only and save much battery life. 3g can sometimes be faster than 4g and it saves power by not running the rg radio.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
I can do this using com.lge.hiddenmenu. it has an intent that if launched will allow you to pick your desired frequency/bandmode. it includes lte only, cdma only, evdo only, cdma/evdo, and lte/cdmA/evdo as well as global.
i often have poor band 13 lte coverage and so it saves a lot of battery. sometimes it is nice to block 1x to improve speeds and force 3g if the signal is producing more speed then 1x. just my 2 cents,,,and if you get creative you can create a shell script to "su" then run the intent and then exit. place a shortcut on the homescreen and profit.
im reflashing my softbrick now or i would put the exact intent needed, maybe tomorrow if i remember but its network selection, network mode, something like that and way towards the bottom (last third) of the intents i viewed within hiddenmenu,apk
Please conform that the coma,option is available on works on the vs985
I've never seen 3g perform faster then 4g in my area
trent999 said:
I would like that option. There are areas where I play Ingress, for example, where the 3g Verizon signal is strong and uncluttered so its a much better option than LTE, which is either weak and eats battery trying over and over to reconnect, or is good but WAY oversold so there is no way to get good speeds on my unlimited data plan, much of the time.
One of the tricks we used to use on the VGNexus phones was select 3g only and save much battery life. 3g can sometimes be faster than 4g and it saves power by not running the rg radio.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
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The GNex was one of the last phones to be affected by that. Since Qualcomm took over Android, their integrated LTE radios use no more power than 3G radios.
timjp692 said:
I've never seen 3g perform faster then 4g in my area
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Completely agree, even a very weak LTE always works better for me, even over a full 3G signal at times.
geoff5093 said:
Completely agree, even a very weak LTE always works better for me, even over a full 3G signal at times.
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Basically. I think a full 3G signal is a little faster a very weak LTE signal, but at this point anywhere there's full 3G there's LTE.
Just download a massive amount of data and the carriers will throttle you down to 3G or lower, with occasional 4G use. As for some people saying that 3G is never faster, it depends on the carrier. Verizon throttles all 3G usage in an effort to convince 3G users to upgrade to 4G.