[Skormm]

So I've been reading about how if you have a weak signal it can drain the battery pretty bad. Well I have T-Mo and the signal isn't too great in my bedroom, typically bouncing between 1-3 bars. Here's my question.

Since T-Mo has WiFi (planning on getting the 8320) when I have a week signal in my room, if I hook up a wireless router and get Hospots@Home, will it still drain the battery? Or will my phone just automatically switch to WiFi/UMA whenever it is available?

If it does switch whenever WiFi is available, will it still drain your battery if you are in an area that would otherwise have a weak signal?



If this question has been posted somewhere else, I'm sorry. I haven't seen anything that would be a good answer to this question, just mentions that having a weak signal drains battery power quicker than normal.

[Reed McLay]

If your signal is weak, that also means your device has to increase it power output to be heard. That doubling of power will drain a battery quickly.

If you go with Hotspot, your signal strength will depend on several factors like distance and obstructions. As long as you have a usable signal, -80 dBm or so, you are good to go.

Wifi battery life is a couple days with the network connection set to off.

[shorynot]

Exactly, i dont even have the hotspot plan. But when im at home i turn off my cell service and connect to my wireless router. Browsing is faster and txts go through much faster also. I love my WIFI!!

[Gretsky99]

I don't think you need the @Tmobile home plan. I'm a outbound network engineer and constantly go to clients all the time. having the wifi is great, because now instead of using my minutes, i'm now at clients using the wifi. My minutes dropped by over 400 min. And this is without any plan. I do have a family plan with no data. Only thing i can't figure out is how to send pictures through wifi.

The only thing i did notice is once i started using wifi, the Battery life is being drained 50% more. So instead of having my battery life last 3 days, its only lasting 1.5 days, which means i'll prob end up having to make sure i charge it daily. But thats not so bad.

[SandAngel]

I have the curve with Tmobile and the HOTSPOT service using Tmobiles router. I usually have one bar strength and 2 if i'm reall lucky .On a good day.


My battery lasts 2-3 days depending how much I'm using it. My setting is WIFI preferred so it is pretty much alays hooked up to WIFI when I'm home.

[supertireguy]

Heavy WiFi use is one possibility for accelerated battery decrepitude.

Other possibilities include...

Weak GSM radio signal will sometimes cause the BB to pump up RF output to maintain a connection.

Instant Messenger apps. I've found that my Iskoot (Skype clone) app will sometimes go bananas trying to connect and use a lot of radio time trying to establish or maintain a connection.

Review your other apps that might use a lot of radio time. Experiment with turning off one app at a time and see if battery life improves.