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3,5 days of battery instead of 1,5 days because of intelligent network switch

asked 2020-05-25 11:57:41 +0300

tomas3000 gravatar image

updated 2020-06-07 23:54:35 +0300

The phone uses 4G only when necessary and switches back to 2G in all the other situations. A test with situations prooved a much longer battery life than before (3,5 days instead of 1,5 before!). Please jolla add this to the core functionality of Sailfish!

Explanation of the logic:

1.) As far as I know is battery usage in 2G much less than in 3G, 4G or 5G.

2.) As far as I know is call quality, SMS receiving capability and also notification capability on Sailfish in 2G the same as in 3G, 4G and 5G.

So why is there in the network options no possibility for an intelligent network switch?

Like preferring 2G all the time but automatically switching on e. g. 4G when having the internet browser, the e-Mail-programm or an Android App maximised and using?

(As far a I know, VoLTE is not possible on Sailfish)

Update: Unfortunately, "Situation" is not a good replacement of having this funcionality in the Sailfish Core functionality. There are sometimes problems with Wifi Hotspot when the sceen goes off and battery is low.

Update 2: Also it seems, that "Situations" has some bugs when the phone is running for a long time. When battery gets low (<10%), than the phone switches to 2G even when Situations is in "4G mode". When I load the phone, the phone stays in 2G, even after restarting the phone. The only solution is to pause and restart Situations, then the phone switches back to 4G.

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Comments

9

This topic is about huge battery saving because of using the 2G network instead of the 4G network, when the phone is not in use. Is your comment spam?

tomas3000 ( 2020-05-28 12:04:11 +0300 )edit
1

Looks quite spammy to me. Newly registered user account.

luen ( 2020-06-04 17:40:28 +0300 )edit

Already reported as spam because it is spam.

@tomas3000@luen - forum users can utilise the give feedback link at the bottom of the page to report the users profile. Just copy the users profile URL, paste it into the feedback form and send.

Spam Hunter ( 2020-06-04 17:49:32 +0300 )edit

Isn't this question a duplicate of suggestion - 2g in idle for saving battery time?

luen ( 2020-06-04 23:49:19 +0300 )edit

Yes, same aim (but different solution proposal - here it is about an additional option in the preferred network menu).

tomas3000 ( 2020-06-06 12:22:06 +0300 )edit

4 Answers

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17

answered 2020-05-25 12:24:18 +0300

ziellos gravatar image

updated 2020-05-25 12:27:37 +0300

The Situations app is able to control network mode based on screen state, so you may switch to 2G when screen is off, and to 4G when screen is on (when phone actively used). That seems to work so far (just configured my Xperia 10 plus), but I have yet to check if it helps to save battery.

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6

Thank you, I did not know. But Situations is also using energy. Also an "intelligent" network switch should consider leaving 4G on, when the Wifi-Hotspot is on AND the screen off ;-)

tomas3000 ( 2020-05-25 12:34:41 +0300 )edit
7

Just noticed that Situations is also able to check tethering (hotspot) state, so you are free to create whatever configuration you want...

I have Situations running all the time to control some settings based on active ambience, but never noticed increased battery drain.

ziellos ( 2020-05-25 12:43:39 +0300 )edit

I just downloaded siuations but unfortunately I do not find an option to check the screen state. Where should I find it? I clicked on "when" (wann) and there is only time and location, connectivity, device and user interface...

tomas3000 ( 2020-05-25 12:55:04 +0300 )edit
5

It seems you have to download and activate the app extensions ("Funktionen").

ziellos ( 2020-05-25 13:03:55 +0300 )edit
5

It seems to work really good! Instead of 2 days battery I could reach now 3-4. It would be nice if Jolla could integrate this option of an intelligent network switch directly into the system, so more people could use it (and without allowing to install external software...)

tomas3000 ( 2020-05-26 08:18:25 +0300 )edit
2

answered 2020-06-15 00:50:16 +0300

virgi26 gravatar image

AFAIK 2g has a lot of security issues, which is one of the reasons it is being discontinued (operators already closing the towers in many countries). So, i'm not really sure if you win a lot here.

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1

But 2G is important for internet of things and machine to machine communications, so many provider will run 2G (at least in Europe) until 2025, some e. g. SFR in France until 2030...

tomas3000 ( 2020-06-15 13:17:38 +0300 )edit

@tomas3000 yeah, but we are talking about phones here =) iot devices are also full security issues which do not add any reliability to the matter :) so providers may still support 2g for some time, but it is still prone to lot of sniffing and malicious attacks.

virgi26 ( 2020-06-15 21:29:32 +0300 )edit
1

2G is also important for connecting to the network in the mountains, countryside or bad reception conditions, It provides a range of about max. 35 km around the base stations ("towers"), and the robustness of the connection in case of echoes, fading and multipath propagation of the radio signals is the best of all network modes. So I hope that the 2G mode capability will not be removed from the networks by the providers.

Andrea777 ( 2020-06-18 11:48:02 +0300 )edit

THAT is true.
But FM and the analogue -in Germany so called C-Netz- had / has an even wider range ;)
Technology changes, not always to the better.
And with 5G it will even decrease more and we need more towers, right? I cannot imagine that on the top of a mountain or the one single street tree for the next 10 miles ...

peterleinchen ( 2020-06-18 14:46:13 +0300 )edit
1

answered 2020-06-04 13:14:21 +0300

tomas3000 gravatar image

I did only test whatsapp, but I think it is also no problem with signal, threema or telegram as messages contain really little data (which 2G could handle easily)

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When I have poor reception and only have 2G I'm often disconnected from Telegram. So, I assume that this works only in 4G. I also often experience that I get a lot of Telegram messages after a longer call which means that I didn't get it during the call when in 2G. I only get it when the phone switches back to 4G after the call.

SagaciousT ( 2020-06-05 12:04:33 +0300 )edit
2

Nothing to wonder about.
2G is only capable of either telephony OR data at one time.

peterleinchen ( 2020-06-05 22:35:07 +0300 )edit

Data works ib 2.5G and above, which correlates with your experience.

ksandom ( 2020-06-08 02:51:21 +0300 )edit

This Situation solution works almost perfectly. All my messengers, emails, calls, calendars (caldav) and so on have no problems with that. Most calls in 4g mode are made with 3g or 2g anyway. Many providers switch back to 2 or 3g for speech when the 4g signal is low.

So far Jolla can not VoLTE?

4carlos ( 2020-06-14 06:59:00 +0300 )edit
1

answered 2020-06-13 23:26:44 +0300

gabs5807 gravatar image

updated 2020-06-13 23:27:38 +0300

Maybe the simples way to reduce the battery usage is, to switch to G2 when WLan is on and back to autodetect, when WLan is switched off. So data transfer with WLan is battery gentle but when no WLan is reachable you switch to G4 or the best you can get :-). If the modem setting is connected witch WLan settings (on/off), anybody can do it this way.

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Yup. I'm using WLAN at home and in a car, so it will be perfect.

wld ( 2020-06-20 00:05:42 +0300 )edit
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Asked: 2020-05-25 11:57:41 +0300

Seen: 2,308 times

Last updated: Jun 15 '20