Will force turning off 5G improve battery life?

[BaidDSB]

I dont have a 5G sim card. My first one is 4G while the second is 3G.

 

On my new Android 13 phone from Motorola, i see a large mobile network usage. Is it from the 5G modem checking?

 

Will it help if i force 4G LTE on both sims?

[Jurrunio]

More likely some software or bloatware drawing excess data. You could choose to block data from apps when they are not actively in use

[BaidDSB]

6 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

More likely some software or bloatware drawing excess data. You could choose to block data from apps when they are not actively in use

the reddit app is like the biggest battery eater on both the new and the old phone..

[Jurrunio]

5 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

the reddit app is like the biggest battery eater on both the new and the old phone..

Stop using it then

At least stop it from using background data would reduce it to some degree

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

I dont have a 5G sim card. My first one is 4G while the second is 3G.

 

On my new Android 13 phone from Motorola, i see a large mobile network usage. Is it from the 5G modem checking?

 

Will it help if i force 4G LTE on both sims?

In general, turning off 5G, 4G, 3G, WiFi will only extend the battery life if the signal is LOW.

 

This is because the device uses more power to try and maintain a connection to a radio end point. WiFi can use like 250mw of power to try and hold a connection to a weak WiFi point if the device is allowed to. The same applies to radio modes. It's less important which mode and more important the signal strength.

 

If you're in an area that has weak 5G (eg indoors) but reasonable 4G, turning off 5G may extend the battery life if you primarily are inside buildings. On the other hand, the same can be said about 4G when 3G was out.

 

My recommendation is to turn 5G off if your phone is rarely, or never connecting to 5G services. Regardless if your SIM is provisioned for it.

 

Turning off 5G to dial back data usage is not going to help. Figure out what app on the phone is doing it, and either remove it, or disable it's ability to use the 4G/5G radio and only work on WiFi.

 

[Lurking]

10 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

the reddit app is like the biggest battery eater on both the new and the old phone..

I'd try to get rid of all apps that you could use a browser instead. I once used the Facebook app.. but discovered it hogged 5GB of storage. Probably naughty about data as well. Unlike an app, the browser access of reddit will stop transmitting once you close the browser page.

 

Fewer apps = fewer problems

[LTTMobileJake]

It depends what 5G frequency band your carrier is using - if they're using a higher band, it will draw more power when connected (mmWave can draw 1.2A of power on an S21 Ultra)

As @Kisai mentioned, if the signal is weak it'll impact battery as well, however the actual connection itself isn't going to show high data usage, so it looks like you've got an (or multiple) apps doing background downloads over cellular which will cause battery life issues

[DoctorNick]

15 hours ago, BaidDSB said:

I dont have a 5G sim card. My first one is 4G while the second is 3G.

 

On my new Android 13 phone from Motorola, i see a large mobile network usage. Is it from the 5G modem checking?

 

Will it help if i force 4G LTE on both sims?

If you go to settings. And search for refresh - choose Display refresh rate. Check if the setting is on always high refresh rate. If on auto. try putting it in the lowest setting. Also go to System -> Adaptive performance and check if it's enabled.

[E-waste]

On 9/14/2023 at 11:42 AM, BaidDSB said:

i see a large mobile network usage. Is it from the 5G modem checking?

You have no idea the junk connecting in the background.  NO IDEA!  If you have wifi turned off, and you leave cellular connected, all possible apps are ALL trying to upload data about your device, from Google, google play, android system, any apps (basically) with zero notification to you, ever.

 

Because that is what makes money now.

 

Data.

 

To see this in real-time, there are two great tools to use:

 

NextDNS.io to block all this

 

RethinkDNS (open-source dns+firewall program).

 

You can also use F-droid to keep rethinkDNS updated, and find other open-source software that doesn't make a profit from hidden data collection.

 

NextDNS can be set as your devices dns provider, both on wifi and cellular.  New versions of android support changing the cellular dns-over-https setting, but, not for wifi--which is another reason RethinkDNS app is so useful.

 

That program will show you both firewall (apps, and IP addresses) and dns logs, so you can see all the junk connection from your device.  I recommend keeping cellular off unless needed, and the same goes for wifi.  I even block apps like spotify to listen to a downloaded podcast, and do other internet searches, without re-connecting online to spotify for no good reason.