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Nisaja

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2016
753
262
Let's myth bust this.

I've heard that the phone uses more power to maintain a wifi signal rather than a 3G signal. That probably explains why sometimes when I pick up the phone after not using it for an hour or two, the status bar reads "3G", and then shows the wifi logo after a second or two. But is it really true?

Some say that when having wifi on, it doesn't use cellular data if wifi assist is off, so turning off cellular data is pointless. However, I've seen my phone use a tiny amount of data even with wifi assist turned off. I've seen it happen on older iPhones that didn't have wifi assist, too. I'm assuming this is for push notifications. I don't mind the data being used, but does it drain more battery than having cellular data turned off and using wifi exclusively?

The way I understand, the cellular data aspect works separately from the cellular signal used to make calls. Correct?

The other question I have is, what uses more battery? 3G or 4G?

Hopefully we can end this debate once and for all! :)
 
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