LTE vs 3G - battery question

[drsyxu]

I understand the benefit of LTE over 3G but I'm wondering if turning off LTE on my iPhone 5S would give me noticeable battery improvements.
3G speeds seem to be adequate for my needs so I'll happily take the extra battery life.

[7789849803]

We don't know. But the point is, it's good to know that LTE doesn't necessarily mean lower battery life in all cases!

[ckl]

Probably not on your Nexus 4 tho...

[7789849803]

Better battery life on LTE than on HSPA+?! Good to know - thanks for letting us know, @ckl!

[ckl]

I'm not sure about the iphone 5, but the newer models of phones have better battery life when on LTE due to the advances in technology (ie. both 3G and LTE radios on the same chip vs. separate, better process technology enabling more transisters on a chip = smaller chip and more power efficient). LTE also has lower latency and higher transfer speeds. Thus, the radio will start and stop faster enabling the phone to go back into a lower power state quicker than 3G.

I did a quick search on the Apple website and found the spec sheet for the 5s. Interestingly, if you scroll down to the battery life section, it says the phone will last 10 hours on LTE vs. 8 on 3G.

http://www.apple.com/lae/iphone-5s/specs/

From my personal experience, I have not noticed much difference in battery life between using LTE on public mobile vs. HSPA 3G on wind mobile on my G3.

[7789849803]

@clogan2 You're right - for various reasons (the MIMO factor being part of one reason), LTE is supposed to consume a lot more energy. However, in my own experience, it doesn't seem to drain the battery on my phone that much faster. Just thought I'd share that.

[clogan2]

Not sure why everyone here is dismissing the advantage of shutting off LTE for extending battery life. LTE is MIMO (multiple in multiple out), it delivers higher speeds by using multiple RF channels, and therefore uses multiple radios.

On my iPhone 5, it would have about 40% more battery at the end of the day when I shut off LTE (I lived in an area with poor coverage). With my iPhone 6S, and now living in the city, it really doesn't make much of a difference. I still keep it off though because the cellular data speeds where I live don't seem to be high enough to saturate 3G speeds.

[Luddite]

@drsyxu I have an iPhone 5 and reduce battery drain by turning wifi, bluetooth, personal hotspot off when out of the house. This prevents the phone from contually searching for a hotspots and other airdrop users. Also, best to set updates to only download when connected to wifi.

You can also turn on "Low Power Mode" in the battery settings; though I do not.

[7789849803]

@drsyxu To answer your question: Yes, it will definitely reduce battery usage if you stick to 3G-only as opposed to 4G. But it will probably only make a slightly bigger difference than doing other things such as reducing screen brightness. As I like to say, YMMV.

[drsyxu]

Cool. Thanks for the tip. I haven't looked at some of those settings in a while so I'll definitely check that out.

[NDesai]

There are many other much better ways you can use to improve battery life. And i think using 3G and not LTE won't make that big difference.

I suggest you to look for other ways like keeping brightness low, stop running apps, etc...