How does "push" affect battery life?

[justanothernerd]

Hey,

I'm curious about how "Push" email/contacts/calendars through MobileMe affects battery life. On the email front, I figure it would save battery because you're not checking email at unnecessary times; the only time the iPhone downloads something from the server is when the server tells the phone I have an email to download.

I keep reading on the forum that push negatively effects battery life...what gives?

 

[0098386]

It's that very moment of the iPhone checking the server. It has to open a connection, check the data, close connection every X amount of minutes you have it set to.

If it's set to manual then it will perform the same check but only as frequently as you tell it to.

 

[justanothernerd]

It's that very moment of the iPhone checking the server. It has to open a connection, check the data, close connection every X amount of minutes you have it set to.

That's fetch, though, isn't it? Isn't the whole point of "push" email that I don't have to check the server all the time for updates?

 

[Warbrain]

Push works by the server opening up a connection when needed. It should save battery life.

As already evidenced, you'll get a number of people who have no idea what push is and how it works.

 

[svenito]

I manually fetch data and for a day turned on push to have my calendars pushed to the phone. Battery drains much more - but then again I would probably only fetch calendar and email data about 3-6 times a day each in comparison

Edit follows:
I should perhaps add that push will be less of a drain on the battery than doing regular fetches, as push is initiated by the server as needed. However if you were to received an email every 10minutes the effect would be roughly the same as doing a fetch every 10minutes. If you regularily need pushes then you're probably better off doing fetches at bigger intervals.

 

[haddman]

I manually fetch data and for a day turned on push to have my calendars pushed to the phone. Battery drains much more - but then again I would probably only fetch calendar and email data about 3-6 times a day each in comparison

Edit follows:
I should perhaps add that push will be less of a drain on the battery than doing regular fetches, as push is initiated by the server as needed. However if you were to received an email every 10minutes the effect would be roughly the same as doing a fetch every 10minutes. If you regularily need pushes then you're probably better off doing fetches at bigger intervals.

I have no battery issues using push 24/7 for MS Exchange. Was also using push for mobile me with gmail forwarded, have since gone back to just fetching my Gmail every hour. My 3g iPhone easily last for more than a day.

 

[hookem12387]

Honestly, with push and pull on (I have exchange, mobile me and gmail) I still get a full days battery. Though, there may come a time when work gets busier that I have to bring a charger up here

 

[bluenoise]

I thought Push used more battery as the connection to the server needs to stay live the whole time. I don't think a remote server can initiate contact with the iPhone, but I could be wrong. Nonetheless, I use Push with Yahoo and MobileMe and it doesn't seem to affect my battery life enough to avoid using it.

I wonder if Push will get even more efficient once Apple rolls out the notification features.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Push works by the server opening up a connection when needed. It should save battery life.

As already evidenced, you'll get a number of people who have no idea what push is and how it works.

"Turn off push mail: If you have a push mail account such as Yahoo!, MobileMe or Microsoft Exchange, turn off push mail when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off. Messages sent to your push email accounts will now be received on your phone based on the global Fetch setting rather than as they arrive." - Apple Inc.

As already evidenced, you post false information about Push in multiple threads. Normally, we would see a bold word here or there to signify that you know what you're talking about, when you don't.