3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I finally found a single setting in the n900 that seriously increased my battery life.

Since i got my n900, i had to live with the phone being completly drained after a maximum of 12 hours. 2 days a go i went on a road trip for a couple of hours.. and surprisingly my phone only lasted 6hours that day, even though i limited my self from using it to much!
That made me think, why would traveling drain my battery faster, and then it hit me... it had something to do with my phone switching between 2.5 and 3G/3.5.
My cell provider dosen't have full 3G coverage in my country, so even when i'm not travelling, my phone jumps between 2.5 and 3G all the time.

So after thinking about it, i went into phone settings and set it to gsm only... 12 hours of unlimited usage (fm transmitter playing music and surfing the web) and beeing on the road again couple of hours... i still had half battery according to the notification battery indicator. I can even be online in skype now all the time.

The questions is... why does it drain th battery having double network activated? Is it because when i'm on 2.5 my n900 goes crazy trying to find a 3G connection somewhere? or is it the switching between gsm and 3G it self that does it? Or does 3G just use alot of power compared to EDGE?

Hope this helps someone out there. Most of all, hope they find a bug with network switching, would love to use 3G again. but its just not worth it, when i can use my phone constently when i'm only on EDGE.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

You changed Settings / Phone / Network mode to GSM right?

I noticed too that where I am the network is switching so I hope this is going to help my battery life a bit. :)

EDIT: I re-read your post and I got it. sorry :o

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

This helped me alot, so i'm sure its gonna have an impact on your n900 aswell.

I just hope someone can tell us if its the switching of networks that drains it and not the 3G it self. I'm concidering to switch cell provider over to 3. They only have 3G network in denmark, no gsm... so no network switching. But that wouldn't help much if 3G sucks battery like crazy.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Well, it's a (more or less) known fact that 3G sucks battery like crazy, even more so in areas with poor network coverage...
In fact, probably all phones which support 3G will have battery issues solved when switching back to EDGE...

So I'm not too surprised of your observation...but I agree that it may defeat the whole idea of always on-line (with a good network bandwidth).

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Me too. fully charged 8am - dead by 3pm with very little use. Disconnected 3G and now baterry lasts X3/X4 more.

So glad not to be hampered by this affliction anymore. My mobile was almost not mobile at all having to take a charger everywhere.

merry xmas btw for all that celebrate it.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

OTOH, why would you need to be always online "with a good bandwidth"? tasks that benefit from being always online (updating RSS, instant messaging, ...) don't require much bandwith in the first place... and if they run while the device is in your pocket, you wouldn't notice that they're slower than usual.

then when you plan to surf around or download something, you can switch back to 3G for a while (or maybe have wifi anyway).

so... yes, it could be a reasonable strategy to use 2G as default.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

If this is so I think it would be a great idea to have a desktop widget/button to allow you to easily turn 3g on and off.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I second this.

I bought N900 without a data plan and if I understand correctly 3G helps you only if you connect to i'net through cell provider. 2.5G should be default. It would be great if Nokia solves this problem as I was planning to get a data plan.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Using GSM (Settings-Phone-GSM) increases battery life a lot and GSM connection is enough for email and IM. I use it now as much as possible and change to 3G only for internet browsing.

A quick desktop widget to change the network type would be most wellcome.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Defintely need a desktop widget to switch, but to be honest, why shouldn't these phones be optimised for 3G? My N97 was pretty good. I think its worse when you're in a weak 3G signal area like mine. The phone will boost its power to search for a 3G signal and then revert to 2G. It will constantly be checking for a 3G signal even when on 2G unless the GSM only is selected from options.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

3G can propably be better after firmware updates. I have also an iPhone3G. There have been several software versions and the battery life on 3G is now, maybe not optimized, but much better compared to the original software. I hope Nokia is putting some resources to this.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Well, I hesitate to mention this (so why do I?), but the Kindle accesses 3g in my neighborhood, and I never thought its battery life was very good either, not as good as Amazon hyped it to be. But they changed something lately with a firmware update and now the battery life when you're connected to the Internet and the battery life when you aren't connected seem about the same!

So, the folks at Nokia should just call Amazon and ask them what they did... (my impression is that they are just turning off Internet access manually and reconnecting very quickly, so the drain when you aren't specifically using the internet is less, even when your Kindle says you are connected.)

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

But the problem with 3G on the n900 isen't about when your connected to the internet. It drains just as fast if your just idle on 3G network without any data connection open on the phone.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

just tried this, ill let you know how it works. im using wifi almost constantly tho!

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Did this setting to my gf's phone aswell (LG) and this also increased battery life, however.. it didn't increase battery life as much as on my n900. We have same cell provider, so our phones switched just as much between GSM and 3G.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

wow, i'm going to try this as well, my cell also keeps switching between 2.5g n 3g. Thanks for posting.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

trying it... good tip mate.
i usually have wifi available everywhere i go, work, home, gym, and places i dont is net much of a loss, certain restaurants, car, church.

allso, does it help with when i am roaming?

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Hi,

I think I can answer your question, it's really a two fold problem (or battery drain rather).

Simply put searching for 3G signal consumes alot of power, and with a strong 3G signal it still uses more power than 2G.

Searching for a 3G signal is plainly obvious, the receiver is constantly on so it drains huge amounts of power.

Once it has a 3G signal though it has a mamoth task of keeping it, the essential difference between 2g and 3G is that with 2G you are given a time slot and on every time slot you send something to the tower simple. However with 3G you can send whenever you want - BUT the signal that you send must NOT be too strong so that it interferes with everyone else who is also sending it (the signal is encrypted - DSSS for those that understand), in fact it must be almost exact same strength as everybody elses at the tower! So the phone has to constantly adjust the signal strength to make it the same strength as everyone else who is sending data which consumes alot of power.

It also means 3G is faster ofcourse.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

with that explanation, it makes sence that 3g is a battery drainer.

it would be cool if someone could create a widget/app that automaticly switches between gsm and 3g. F.ex. if you activate data roaming, to surf with microB, it quickly activates 3g before starting the connection, and when you close data roaming connection, it automaticly turns off 3g again, wich saves you the time of going in and turning it off your self.

With this feature, the n900 could be a pioneer in battery savings :D

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Disabling 3G is not really an option for me. However, I found that not being signed into IM nearly doubled my battery life. I am quite used to being online 24/7 but maybe I will have to revise that habit.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

That idea has already been proposed, but it's going to take some time for someone to implement it, the reason that there are quite a few very useful apps already for the N900 is because they've been carried over from the N810.

Untouchab1e, if you only use IM why don't you just switch the phone into GSM mode from the settings? GSM has more than enough speed for you to be able to IM and for it to update widgets in the background.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

While 3G does consume more battery life than 2.5G it might be the constant switching that's doing the killin noticed on my Metro rides that if I leave my N900 on searching for a connection it'll thrash the battery life as it connects to a tower only to disconnect within minutes as the subway goes back under a tunnel. So now I just put it in offline mode when in the underground sections of the subway.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I have switched from butterfly to Pdigin/haze for my MSN connection. It seems to help alot with battery atm. I just now changed to GSM and will see if that will make it even better.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

My battery life is the worse in areas where the n900 has to keep searching for a signal. Add that to the fact my n900 doesnt pick up as well as my previous phone, and it can make for a bad experience. I dont know if the firmware update can help with this, but I hope so.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Well maybe something can be changed in the frequency of 3g network searching, in the firmware. But i dont think much can be done about it.

I just need some kind of app that turns on 3g when i open a dataroaming connection, and turns it off again when i close the connection.

That way the phone won't consume so much battery when its not being used.
But this won't be a fix for all the ppl out there who dreams of being online on IM services all the time.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Didn't help with me. Online but idle all day and It didn't last any longer than with 3G.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

When 3g is activated, does your phone jump between 2.5 and 3g/3.5 alot? Cause the jumping is what seems to be draining my battery.

Maybe getting a cell provider like 3 so my phone never jumps off 3g network could be a good thing after all...

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I've had been using only gsm for about two days now, and i think i get at least 3+ hours more battery life a day.

What I was wonder is if 3g improve voice quality from phone calls. If so, i don't think I'll be willing to turn off the 3g, cause Either way it wouldn't last two days, and you mind as well leave it on, cause you'd have to charge it every night any ways.

Are any of you familiar to whether it improves voice reception quality or is 3g only for the speed of transferred data?

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Turning off 3G totally won't work for me. I signed up for a data-plan only so I could use the N900 exclusively as a Skype phone. I don't have voice or texting service on my T-mobile plan. So I need 3G enabled all the time, or the phone needs to recognize that there'a wifi available and then turn 3G off when wifi connection to Internet is available.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Hi,

Not that tech savvy so gonna ask instead of doing it,

Can we make a brainstorm about this?

currently I don't use 3G 'cause provider doesn't have a descent plan for it ATM.
But I heard it's gonna change so probably will be using it in the near future.

It would be cool to have
A) a widget to switch GSM/dual/3G

B) better would be to have a proggie that, with the right settings, knows when to switch; ie.

-Start with GSM only;
-switch to dual IF bigher bandwith is demanded; (can it be deteted when it's just ie. IM that want's a status update or when a full flash site needs to be loaded?)
-switch to GSM when on wifi
or when no longer demanded (after x min of low demand?).

That way, with maybe a small initial delay between switches, you always use the best connection.

some other maybe usefull settings: Delay the search for 3G (switch to GSM if 3G is not found try again in x min.) That way you will be on 3G when there is 3G but wont drain battery when not in reach.

have a always on, always off setting.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

one thing to keep in mind about 2g/gsm is that it may or may not be able to handle a incoming call while the data connection is in use, depending on the way the operator have their network configured...

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I'm one of those with great battery life, and my SIM doesn't allow 3G - so I'm on 2.5G all the time. You could be on to something here. Unfortunately (due to the SIM) I can't switch to 3G to verify that not using 3G is what gives me the good battery time.

EDIT: Typo: on -> on to

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I have had mine on GSM (its says 2G on display) now for a few days.. its a big difference for me. But Im also in a place where it switched alot before. Ususally for me 2G is fine as Im online on IM and I get email, rss updates.. and thats most often what I need. I think I can get 12 hours with no problem now.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I have 3g activated (though it uses wifi in the house)...and I get a full days' (read: about 24 hours) worth of battery life in moderate use with weather, news, and email apps going. The biggest change I made that seemed to have a dramatic impact on battery life was logging off of skype (and I never set up any other IM accounts). The constant traffic needed for the keepalives in IM protocols really sucks the juice.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

One question, Can I use the N900 always in 3G ? (only 3G) ?

Personaly, and in my company, all employees use xmpp in n85 / n95 / n86 througt nimbuzz client. I offen drain my battery in 12hs with 1200mah working only in 3G. (dual mode or 2.5g is painfull=cant talk)

Remaind that we always call over VoIP xmpp (across many domains)

For us, for my friends and for me, XMPP is crucial, specially jingle-xmpp support.

Best regards,

PS: by the way, Who want a full featured phone in gsm to use with MSN propietary protocol=closed network without calling over IP capabilities ?

Hope N900 have a MUCH bigger battery to last at least a day in 3G.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

Common opinion is that 3G has worse sound quality than GSM. Don't have the technical reasoning behind this, sry.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

GSM is TDMA based...so each "circuit" is assigned a time slice on the tower and a guaranteed swathe of bandwidth to use. The upside is that the bitrate is constant for constant quality (assuming you aren't losing packets). The downside is that there is a very definite "falling off the cliff" effect on the number of clients a tower can service since each one needs a dedicated time slice.

3G is CDMA based...so as more clients connect to the tower, the tower can assign a dynamically shrinking bitrate to all in order to share the available bandwidth and "fail gracefully" as the tower gets more and more clients which leads to more efficient use of bandwidth overall and can handle more clients in general. So, on busy towers, 3G clients will have a downgraded bitrate which will affect the perceived voice quality, but are less likely to get a "service busy" error.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

I tend to think the issue is not so much 2g vs 3g, but the drain in switching/looking for 3g.

At my home in San Diego, my 2g signal is weak, but I have a pretty strong 3g signal (tmobile).

I get better battery life on 3g only than dual mode. Can't say if I'd get better battery life on 2g only though.

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

No networks use a single frequency for both. In AT&T's case, both frequency's happen to be in same *band* but are different frequencies. However, point taken that the different bands could use more physical resources (ie multiple radios) whereas a single band send/receive could get away with one..thus there is a power difference. That said, it's the transmitting that kills it more than anything (and it's transmitting while searching for a 3G signal as it has to register with a prospective tower). That's why turning off 3G is a battery saver in areas that cause it to constantly hunt for a new lock...and why turning off applications that transmit a lot is also a battery saver (eg Skype)..and why doing both is a really really big battery saver ;)

Re: 3G off fixed my battery life!
 

That's exactly what I have: a T-mobile data only plan, $39.95 a month (actually a little less due to a corporate discount). I have disabled 3G for better battery life.

Have you tested Skype on 2.5G? I have not tested it yet, but EDGE speeds should be enough for at least some forms of VoIP.