Hacker News Reader

I'd like to know how the average battery life and power requirements are of the different standards. For example, I've got a 5G phone but to spare power I sometimes switch to 3G or 4G even though I don't really know if it's really more power efficient. I suppose 5G has a lot of power efficiency techniques built in as well which are not in 3G or 4G.

View on HN

I'd like to know this too. I can tell you anecdotally that 4G (LTE at least) is a major battery drain if you have very weak 1-bar signal. I work in a basement and my phone is dead by 5pm unless I remember to turn on airplane mode.

You would do well to enable Wi-Fi calling in that circumstance if your provider offers the service. I had a misconception that that service was somehow inferior to getting a “real” connection to the cell network—not so. The cell network does not care how you access it, and more-or-less treats RATs (Radio Access Technolgies) as interchangeable.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com