Which drains more when steaming media, 3G or WiFi?

[bast525]

say I am streaming music or video.... is there any advantage, from a battery life standpoint, to using 3g vs. wifi or the other way around? It seems like wifi doesnt kill the battery as fast, but has anyone tested?

[miketab]

all drain the battery but streaming media will take the most juice

[Wingzfan]

I would have to think its based on your 3g signal. I would think a low signal would cause 3g to take more juice.

[miketab]

sorry I miss read the question, I take back my answer. yes the amount of coverage will affect your battery drain.

[bast525]

lets say I have good signal, 3 or 4 bars. would it use less battery than using wifi?

[Kolano]

Short and sweet answer is, wi-fi uses more power.

[subhumanderelict]

I used NuePower to confirm it, Wi-Fi uses more power from the battery. When I had the cellular radio on, data connection on (with 5-6 bars on EVDO), and Wi-Fi off, I was drawing between 150-200mA. With Wi-Fi on and cellular radio off, the number jumps to 350-400mA. I didn't bother trying to stream anything as it's just the same data coming through a higher-power tranciever.

[Anonymatt]

Originally Posted by subhumanderelict

I used NuePower to confirm it, Wi-Fi uses more power from the battery. When I had the cellular radio on, data connection on (with 5-6 bars on EVDO), and Wi-Fi off, I was drawing between 150-200mA. With Wi-Fi on and cellular radio off, the number jumps to 350-400mA. I didn't bother trying to stream anything as it's just the same data coming through a higher-power tranciever.

Um, quick question, when you were checking the power draw, were you actively using the EVDO connection? Because when I'm surfing the web, any time I load a page, or download anything I draw about 350-400 mA, but while it is idle (grey arrows) my power consumption will drop down to 57 mA (same as when I don't have any connection established). Perhaps if I only had 150-200 mA draw then my battery would last longer when I use the internet.

Under the same conditions, using Wi-fi instead of EVDO, Wi-Fi for me draws about 250-300 mA when actively working, and 185 mA when "idle" (though the arrows never grey out). Because of this, I could see for something like web-surfing, where the connection will constantly be going between idle and active, that EVDO would be better, but for streaming they appear to be pretty similar (and at least for my phone, EVDO draws more power when active).

[subhumanderelict]

Originally Posted by Anonymatt

Um, quick question, when you were checking the power draw, were you actively using the EVDO connection? Because when I'm surfing the web, any time I load a page, or download anything I draw about 350-400 mA, but while it is idle my power consumption will drop down to 57 mA (same as when I don't have any connection established). Perhaps if I only had 150-200 mA draw then my battery would last longer when I use the internet.

No, no connections were in-use in the sense that they were pulling data from the web. I figured a more fair test would be just to see how much each radio draws from the battery just as they were. Leaving the Wi-Fi enabled and not accessing data would, from your tests, seem to draw as much power as using an EV-DO connection that is in the process of accessing data. Logically, running an application such as a browser to pull data through a Wi-Fi connection would just increase the power draw.

[schettj]

the wifi radio is more expensive power-wise then 3g. By about 30-40%.

Edit - too slow see above.