Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

I tend to get a lot of push mail and keep my data connection on all the time. With my palm pre, I heard allowing the device to transfer data over wifi rather than over the cellular network used less battery. Anyone know if this is the same with the TP2?

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

Wifi will drain your battery more than the standard data connection will

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

I've always heard its the other way around...

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

So... leaving 2 radios running in your phone will use less power than just running one?

I don't buy it


EDIT: Here. If you want to find out for yourself which is better, install the attached apps to see which method uses more power. Once you see whichever is better for you, roll with it :thumbleft:

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

is this a joke? wifi is a total battery drain as stated above.

push wastes battery also vs checking an IMAP inbox say every 10-15 minutes ;)

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

I think you heard wrong, having wifi on all the time definitely uses more battery then using your standard 3g connection. Test it out for yourself..

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

Edited my original post above with a way to see for yourself which uses more power

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

Okay I'm going to test with those cabs you posted and I'm not trying to doubt you but whenever I use WiFi I turn off all other communications and my phone seemed to have a better battery life by a slight margin. And I remember reading somewhere online that WiFi on an iPhone consumes less power as well rather than 3G (yes I know the TP2 isn't an iPhone, but I figured this could still prove a valid point)

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

Wifi uses about 40-50% less battery than EVDO:

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=611

Apple iPhone 3G Total web browsing time 3G vs Wifi 218 minutes/400 minutes

Palm Pre 219 minutes/351 minutes

I'll still try running those apps and see what it's like on the TP2

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

The iphone and the pre don't have the same hardware we do. You're essentially saying that a toyota prius gets 50 mpg, so, by default, your ford pickup should too

Look, do whatever you want. But you asked our opinion... and you got it :thumbleft:

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

i can't believe there's even a discussion about this. look, i've tried both evdo connection and wifi. and from my experience, my phone's battery drain was faster when i connected to my home's wifi compared to when i was downloading the same files using my phone's regular evdo internet connection.

and eschelon is correct. regarding batter life on the iphone/palm pre using wifi and comparing it to the tp2 that runs on WM. that's like comparing apples to oranges.

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

would signal quality matter at all, ie less 3g signal drains faster than better 3g signal? that might matter as well

Re: Does enabling wifi improve battery life?
 

^+1 on the signal quality. just like your phone just constantly trying to make sure it has signal has an affect on your battery life, im pretty sure the same goes when you're on surfing the net on your phone and it having to find a good 3g signal.

hmmm...im wondering if it's the same when you connect to your wifi at home and the bandwidth is minimal. meaning that if everyone in your house is connected and downloading something, and then you connect your phone, does fighting for more bandwidth also have an effect on batter life?