Question about data connection.
 

This may have been answered already but couldnt find it in a search. I run off the alltel network and was wondering if I left my data connection active will it drain battery life substantially even if I dont use any programs that use a data connection (arrows are grey most of the time.) Just wondering cuz I have a program that has scheduled updates and wanted to just leave it running. But if its a big drain on my battery I will just shut it off everytime.

Thanks for the help and what a great site this is!

Nope...
 

Your phone battery should never drain while connected (unless you are connected VIA Bluetooth). While you phone is plugged in with the USB cable it is also charging from the computer it is attached to.

Now if that computer is a laptop and its battery dies, that is a different story...

wow, that was not the op's question at all...

I believe that the consensus is that it is a small drain on the battery to keep your evdo connection open and inactive.

Excellent. So its not a drain like bluetooth would be. Thats good to hear. Thanks so much for the 411

I dont think its a small drain. I was using a few programs that manage to keep my EVDO connted almost constantly (a stock program and Weather Panel) and my battery life was terrible compared to when I scaled back the updates on those programs to every few hours even though they would just connect update and then were done. I may be wrong but the radio seems to be a major drain on the battery, maybe not as bad as WiFi or bluetooth but still bad.

sure if you are activating the radio connectione every 15 mins or so...

What he's asking about is when you connect - say a weather update, then don't close the connection (the arrows are still there, but go grey, signaling a dormant connection) leaving it that way for say two hours until the next weather update or email or wireless sync or whatever. Then letting that connection go dormant for say 2 hours till the next update and so on. He's asking to compare the battery usage between that and closing the actual connection each time.

My belief from reading here is that there is some difference, but not much.

From experience, I have to say that keeping your connection on is less drain than ending it and reconnecting every 30 minutes or so. I have my phone check for emails and update weather every 30 minutes

Ok, if you check your email every 30 mins or so, does the connection stay connected? I have the problem that when I set my gmail account to automatically check my email every so often, I look down a couple hours later and still see my connection "on" of that the "data connection" is still live. Does that drain the battery in the long run or do you just leave it on and it happens? I usually turn it off when I see it active and have now changed my gmail accounts not to check every 1hr but back to "manual" due to the active connection last long periods of time.

well I notice that mine doesn't always wake to check, so when I wake the thing it opens the connection right away, it then a few minutes later will go dormant (see above) are you telling me your connection arrows stay white (not grey) all the time? if so I think you have something else needing data more often...

My data connection is always on. It's also always dormant (gray arrows) - except for imap email check every hour on 2 accounts, and weather updates every 2 hours, and whatever else I do on the network. Unless something specific happens (like I go into the black hole of coverage @ work) to kill my EVDO and voice link, the connection is always on but dormant.

A connected, dormant EVDO session DOES NOT cost you anything in power. Not a single milliamp. In fact, it costs more power to re-connect to EVDO then to start up a dormant connection.