[Oj467]

You aren't in a 3G coverage area? At my house I have no 3G so I use wifi and I normally only need data at home - so would turning 3G off on my 3gs make any difference in my case as far as battery life goes?

[armedtank]

Yep, turning off 3G will give you a little better battery life. It's hard to quantify how much, but it will be a noticeable improvement. I would turn off location services and push notifications if you aren't using those. It all adds up.

[Duvi]

Definitely... in fact, if you don't have 3G and you have it on, more battery is loss. The device is searching for 3G first, consistently and then goes to EDGE. Same with wifi, it will go in the following order: wifi, 3G, EDGE.

Turn it off and you'll definitely see improvement.

[Oj467]

Thanks guys.

I'm assuming "location based services" are things like Google Maps - or apps that ask to "use your current location" correct?

What about Push Notifications? Is that for it I have my email set up to check every 30 minutes? If I turn that off will I lose that functionality?

I can turn wifi off and on as needed as well I suppose. 3G is really only necessary if I need to surf/download etc and don't have wifi - right? It won't improve call quality or anything right?

[Duvi]

The push is separate from checking every 30 minutes. That is called pull. Push is automatic and sends it to your device when a new email arrives on the server. With pull, it will come when the 30 minute interval hits. This means you can get your email in as little as 10 seconds or up to 30 minutes depending on when you receive the email and when the interval is set to check.

Although someone could possibly make an app to alert you when you receive an gmail for Gmail. Push only exists for Exchange, MobileMe, Yahoo and other 3rd party apps that act like Exchange to push mail.

Push notification will be an option that will show up in your settings after you launch an app that has push. Below is a screenshot of that:



Badges is the number that you may see on your email or sms icon informing you how many messages await. Alerts are like text messages that appear on your screen to inform you that you have been alerted. The following is an example of both:



There can also be sounds, but that is dependent on the application. Some apps may have 1, a combination of 2 or all 3 different types of notifications. At first, prior to the release, SimplyTweet only had Alerts and Sounds, but no Badges. Now they have all 3.

[zhelf]

if you really need more battery

1. turn down brightness to about 1/3 or as low as tolerable
2. dont use vibrate
3. turn off location services
4.turn off push for email or apps and lower email fetching to 30 mins or an hour.
5. turn 3g off if you are not in 3g area.
6. set to autolock at 1 min. but click your sleep button whenever your done using it.
7. be sure not update apps on the phone but do it through your comp first then sync it.
8. to preserve longer life do one full cycle once a month i.e. run the phone dead then fully charge it to 100% without interruption.

just a couple quick battery tips.

[jbdale]

if you really need more battery

1. turn down brightness to about 1/3 or as low as tolerable
2. dont use vibrate
3. turn off location services
4.turn off push for email or apps and lower email fetching to 30 mins or an hour.
5. turn 3g off if you are not in 3g area.
6. set to autolock at 1 min. but click your sleep button whenever your done using it.
7. be sure not update apps on the phone but do it through your comp first then sync it.
8. to preserve longer life do one full cycle once a month i.e. run the phone dead then fully charge it to 100% without interruption.

just a couple quick battery tips.

Agreed. Although I also have noticed that, getting professional help to curb my addicition to some of the games also seems to have improved my battery life dramatically!

[Garz]

As Duvi stated above, turning off wifi will help save as well. According to apple, you can save up to 3 hours of battery life just by turning wifi off. I did and noticed the improvement. I only use wifi if I need to download that app over 10MB's or Im just in a area with weak signal so I can still get data quick.

[zhelf]

As Duvi stated above, turning off wifi will help save as well. According to apple, you can save up to 3 hours of battery life just by turning wifi off. I did and noticed the improvement. I only use wifi if I need to download that app over 10MB's or Im just in a area with weak signal so I can still get data quick.

this is only true if you are not using wifi because apple rates the battery life better when using wifi for data instead of 3g. but when not in wifi area it destroys battery

[Oilbrnr]

Meh, I gave up a long time ago worrying about shutting down services to extend battery life. IMHO 3G on or off would make no difference in an Edge only area. Also, I think 3G voice is clearer than Edge.

If you don't have any BT devices, I would turn that service off however.

Location Services shouldn't keep the GPS module active unless the app that called it is still open.

[baidya]

Turning 3g off definitely makes a difference in battery life..

[Oilbrnr]

Turning 3g off definitely makes a difference in battery life..

If you are in a 3G area yes. If there is no 3G service (ie my home) at all, I've not noticed any perceived difference in life with it on or off.

[zhelf]

Meh, I gave up a long time ago worrying about shutting down services to extend battery life. IMHO 3G on or off would make no difference in an Edge only area. Also, I think 3G voice is clearer than Edge.

If you don't have any BT devices, I would turn that service off however.

Location Services shouldn't keep the GPS module active unless the app that called it is still open.

if you don't have a BT device why would you turn it on? and 3g drains quicker only when not in 3g area because its doing twice the signal sending but its honestly not going to be that noticable even with all of these tweaks oyur not going to get a lot of extra time. thats why i jsut shut off wifi and location when not around them and trun down brightness 3g is always on.

[baidya]

If you are in a 3G area yes. If there is no 3G service (ie my home) at all, I've not noticed any perceived difference in life with it on or off.

Actually its the other way round...If your phone is currently receiving edge signal and if you have 3G turned on, the phone keeps checking for 3G signal and thats a battery drain to my understanding...

[shawnomega]

You are correct. Also if you have wifi and 3g on at the same time battery drains faster.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[baidya]

You are correct. Also if you have wifi and 3g on at the same time battery drains faster.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

That could be my other issue...Once I am home, I start my wifi on and when I get back to office, I always forget to turn it on..so it kind of remains always on...

[j7469]

You are correct. Also if you have wifi and 3g on at the same time battery drains faster.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly, if I'm at my home and using wifi and leave the 3G on it will drain the battery faster?

I would assume that if the phone is using wifi it wouldn't bother looking for a cellular signal.

[Oilbrnr]

if you don't have a BT device why would you turn it on? and 3g drains quicker only when not in 3g area because its doing twice the signal sending but its honestly not going to be that noticable even with all of these tweaks oyur not going to get a lot of extra time. thats why i jsut shut off wifi and location when not around them and trun down brightness 3g is always on.

Did you type this on a Storm?

I don't always carry a BT headset with me, so I will shut that service off. Location services should not be active unless an app that you are currently using has that functionality and you have enabled it.

I used to worry and fiddle around with turning stuff on and off trying to maximize the battery life, and found that at the end of the day, I still had to plug the thing in. So I stopped worrying about it, and just enjoy the device. I know what I can and can't do to get through the day.