**update**

turns out this wifi fix isnt that much of a fix. i managed to get 2-3 hours more with my standard usage of 3G, widgets and IM accounts without WIFI.

Looks like the real killer is 3G, not WIFI.

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Hi all, i am absolutely in love with the n900, except for the terrible battery life (3.5g, gtalk on, jabber/msn on, facebook widget update, google calender sync, push email sync, RSS feeds) of around 12 hours.

That is, until I was moseying around the threads about poor battery life and realised the reason for the 12 hour battery life. My WIFI connection was always on and searching. At home it would always connect to my home wifi, at my friend's place it would always connect to my friend's wifi. these 2 wifi networks i setup were connected automatically everytime i was within range.

i didn't realise this because my *default* internet connection was set to my 3G data connection with my mobile carrier. So even though I'm connected to 3G, the wifi module on the n900 was always on and scanning for any preconfigured networks to latch on to. in retrospect, 12 hours with wifi scanning seems to be pretty spectacular for a mobile device with a 1320mah battery.

i have since just installed WIFI switched from extras-devel repository, the only time i enabled the repository (since i'm not particularly proficient at coding, linux, nor bravery.) this should improve battery life by permanently disabling the wifi module when i don't need it.

the wifi switcher seems to work. Under 'internet connections' on the status bar, i only see my 3G data connection, no WIFI networks within range.

i know some people require an always on WIFI connection. but for me i have a 12GB monthly 3G data plan bundled in with my $36 monthly voice subscription, so sticking to a 3G connection makes more sense. 12GB a month is approx 400MB daily, i think it should be sufficient for daily web surfing, video/music streaming and data fetching for my widgets.

i'll report back with results, and hopefully see an increase in uptime from the present 12 hours wifi on.

ps : please merge this thread with an appropriate thread if it is too much repetition.

cool good point !!

I think my battery life increased with the Wifi module unloaded but it might be a placebo effect.

You call 12h terrible battery life with that set up? What are you expecting? Search this forum for more feedback on battery life.

.edit
What do you think would be then bad, average,good,awesome?

Wow that's a great deal, what carrier is that through?

slender : i called 12 hr battery life terrible because i *thought* that my WIFI was off, i initially only wanted 3G to be used and not wifi. now that i know wifi was on all the time, that kind of a battery life is phenomenal.

with 3G only, i would expect at least a day or more of use!

I'm located in Singapore, my carrier name is MobileOne (M1) for short. Only 3 main carriers, M1 being the cheapest (marginally). All 3 carriers offer similar price plans, prices differ maybe at most of $5.

$SGD36 (that's about US$26) a month gives you :

100 min free outgoing voice/video calls
500 texts
free unlimited incoming calls
12GB data monthly

additional perks are that if you're a student (until university level) you get free unlimited texts (anywhere within the country) and outgoing voice/video calls (only if you're on campus.)

i'm a student so i get to enjoy the free unlimited texts and outgoing calls.

we're pretty much addicted to mobile devices. Mobile phone penetration rate is 130+% here. for every 1 person in the country, there's 1.3 mobile line subscriptions.

we have more mobile lines than people in the country, i guess that's why google decided to select our country as one of the initial countries to ship the nexus one directly to.

Thanks for the post. I have suspected that this was killing my battery as well, but have not been able to find a way to shut off the wifi. I just downloaded the app, and I will test it as well.

I have been seeing my battery level hold out for a long time, then suddenly plummet--usually at home. I wanted to test the same theory--that wifi searching was draining the battery unnecessarily. I saw that on my previous winmo phone, and keeping wifi off was a big boon to battery life there.

2 hours on, battery bar still full. by this time i would have at least one bar off the battery if wifi was on. looking good so far!

Interesting, as I have read a lot of people saying 3G uses more battery power than WiFi so you could always use WiFi when in range. Obviously leaving it looking for networks when out of range is a waste though, but something I personally leave on as I can't remember to switch it back on when I get home and with only a 2G signal at home, it would leave my N900 unusable for calls.