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Battery life improved in airplane mode

E

EBreakingWave

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
84
0
uk
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)


I switched my phone into airplane mode over the weekend and just left wifi on.

My phone wasn't plugged in overnight and I've used it to browse and watch YouTube since I woke up about 4hrs ago.
Right now the battery is at 97%.
When I use the phone at work to browse emails on my 15min break, it goes from 100% to below 90% during that time and that's when it's not in airplane mode.

It looks like the battery drains fast, atleast for me, when it's connected to my cell network or when I have it all switched on to use as a phone.

Has anyone else noticed this?
 
jmjoh122

jmjoh122

macrumors member
Oct 8, 2011
61
0
VA
EBreakingWave said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)


I switched my phone into airplane mode over the weekend and just left wifi on.

My phone wasn't plugged in overnight and I've used it to browse and watch YouTube since I woke up about 4hrs ago.
Right now the battery is at 97%.
When I use the phone at work to browse emails on my 15min break, it goes from 100% to below 90% during that time and that's when it's not in airplane mode.

It looks like the battery drains fast, atleast for me, when it's connected to my cell network or when I have it all switched on to use as a phone.

Has anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...

yeah i think that it is pretty much fact that since your phone is not constantly connecting to the cellular network. You'll gain a ton more battery juice by keeping it in airplane mode. Just a heads up a lot of people turn airplane mode on at night and your alarm will still go off.
 
T

TjeuV

macrumors 6502
Dec 14, 2011
306
4
Belgium
I aswell can confirm this. I've been in some occasions that I switched to airplane mode and indeed, connecting to the cellular network has a great effect on your battery charge.
 
R

rwwest7

macrumors regular
Sep 24, 2011
134
0
If you're in an area with almost no cell signal your phone will die super fast searching for one, in such a case it's best to tell it not to.
 
S

srowndedbyh2o

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2009
145
1
Hawaii
My iPhone 4s was going from 100% charge to dead battery in less than 8hrs in standby mode. I too have little to no cell service at home, so I usually can't use the phone as a phone at home. When at home I connect to wi-fi and use apps, etc. It lasts fine throughout the day like this, however if I leave it in standby at night, without putting it in airplane mode, the battery will go dead overnight. If I charge it to 100%, then put it in airplane mode, the battery will still be at 100% when I get up in the morning. Never had this issue with my 3G, but that could be because of the different processor and the difference in apps I used with the 3G compared to the 4s. I don't leave the 4s plugged in at night because when left plugged in and in sleep mode, it sometimes would heat up to almost "hot". When it did get "hot", I'd just turn it on, start using it and it would cool right down.
 
S

sectime

macrumors 6502a
Jul 29, 2007
530
0
Lukeyy19 said:
this is a breakthrough! did you know that not driving your car uses a lot less fuel too...
Click to expand...
I turned my iPhone off last weekend, Turned it back on today... NO battery usage I think I'm on to something, will test and report back:cool:
 
A

AtomicGrog

macrumors regular
Jul 25, 2011
189
56
srowndedbyh2o said:
My iPhone 4s was going from 100% charge to dead battery in less than 8hrs in standby mode. I too have little to no cell service at home.
Click to expand...

Really not hard to imagine the phone more frequently trying to communicate when signal levels are low as it tries to talk to the various servers/devices. Net result... more battery usage.
 
B

bp1000

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2011
1,489
231
This is a crazy observation

Of course it will use less power when the cell chip is disabled. it takes a lot more power to keep a cell signal active and working compared to wifi just a few meters away.
 
S

srowndedbyh2o

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2009
145
1
Hawaii
Quote:
Originally Posted by macingman
Of course a cellular connection uses battery.....
Click to expand...
Captain Obvios, News Flash: cutting off lights saves electricity too.
Click to expand...

Putting the phone in airplane mode decreases battery use. Yes, of course it’s obvious.
The point is: you shouldn’t have to put the phone in airplane mode when in standby to prevent the battery from going dead.
 
C

chiefpavvy

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2008
707
0
Personally I've always found Wi-Fi only to suck battery much faster than cellular (either EDGE or 3G). That's been my experience consistently, something to do with power consumption of the radios.
 
PNutts

PNutts

macrumors 601
Jul 24, 2008
4,874
357
Pacific Northwest, US
EBreakingWave said:
It looks like the battery drains fast, atleast for me, when it's connected to my cell network or when I have it all switched on to use as a phone.

Has anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...

What does your cellular data usage look like? With that much of a drain I expect there also to be data being sent/received. I don't have a link handy but even with wifi on the phone sends data across the cellular connection. Disabling the sending of diagnostic data saved a ton of cellular data usage on the wife's iPad (obviously when she wasn't on wifi). Or maybe an app?
 
A N G E L

A N G E L

macrumors member
Sep 20, 2008
52
0
San Francisco, CA
PNutts said:
What does your cellular data usage look like? With that much of a drain I expect there also to be data being sent/received. I don't have a link handy but even with wifi on the phone sends data across the cellular connection. Disabling the sending of diagnostic data saved a ton of cellular data usage on the wife's iPad (obviously when she wasn't on wifi). Or maybe an app?
Click to expand...

Definite this.

Also, turn off any notifications that you don't need from certain apps. It's the less that your iPhone has to 'request'/(consistently hold a connection to Apple servers) for new 'push' notifications that will help.

Path & foursquare would send me notifications all the time from friends, but since I've turned those notifications off, my battery life is noticeably better. Not by a whole lot, but it helps :)
 
N

Netherscourge

macrumors 6502
Oct 11, 2011
329
0
Of course it saves battery life - your WIFI chip and 3G chip uses more battery power than anything else on your phone.

Every single app you have that uses Notifications or Location services will tap the 3G/WIFI every couple seconds and suck down your battery.


In Airplane Mode, 3G and WIFI are disabled, and as such, none of your apps can kill your battery by constantly pinging the internet for updates.


HOWEVER, in Airplane mode, you can't use your phone or surf the internet either, so you're pretty much making your Phone useless.

I thought this was common knowledge...?
 
S

srowndedbyh2o

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2009
145
1
Hawaii
In Airplane Mode, 3G and WIFI are disabled, and as such, none of your apps can kill your battery by constantly pinging the internet for updates.


HOWEVER, in Airplane mode, you can't use your phone or surf the internet either, so you're pretty much making your Phone useless.

I thought this was common knowledge...?
Click to expand...

Wi-Fi works just fine when the phone is in airplane mode.

i dont even use airplane mode, why would anyone? except for during overnight
Click to expand...


When I travel outside the USA I put my iPhone in airplane mode to avoid any roaming charges. I can’t use the phone as a “phone”, but with Wi-Fi I still have access to the internet, search maps, check current exchange rates, check reviews on hotels, have access to contact data, carry encrypted images of my passport, insurance documents, take photos/video, play music, listen to audio books, etc., etc.
 
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