There are many perennial questions in the world and one of them is which drains the battery faster, Wi-Fi or 3G/4G. There is still no definite answer to this question, so people keep arguing about it.
Some people prefer to turn off 3G/4G when they have access to Wi-Fi to conserve battery power, while others say it’s better to use cellular data transfer because it saves battery power.
The truth is that Wi-Fi consumes much less battery power than 3G and especially much less than LTE. So if you have a choice, it is better to use Wi-Fi.
However, let’s look at why 3G and 4G consume so much battery power.
Why 3G and 4G consume more power than Wi-Fi
First of all, 3G and 4G consume more power because they are designed to operate in different weather conditions, which can create a lot of interference, as well as their signal works in a way that overcomes obstacles and longer distances.
Because of this, your device must consume more power to receive such a signal.
Second, many devices do not only pick up a 3G or 4G signal but both at once. Because of this, your device has to use more energy to receive both signals.
Third, your device is constantly searching for cell towers with a better signal, so if you move, even over short distances, your device may switch between multiple towers.
All of these factors add up to 3G/4G/LTE consuming more power than Wi-Fi. Of course, there may be special conditions where this is not the case. For example, if the cell tower is closer than the Wi-Fi router, but that’s too specific a case to discuss.
So on average, if you turn off 3G/4G data transfer and only use Wi-Fi, the device will last 40-50% longer, I think that’s a good figure to turn off 3G/4G/LTE data transfer if you have the ability to use Wi-Fi.
How to save battery charge of your device
Actually, there are few tips that can help your device to last longer. Here they are:
First, if you don’t plan to use Wi-Fi, you can disable it so that the device is not constantly looking for a network it can connect to.
Second, if you are using mobile data, you might want to turn it off so that the device doesn’t have to switch between the two data transfer methods.
Third, always choose the Wi-Fi network with the best signal quality. This will also help conserve battery power.
