Does WiFi being on affect battery life?

[ns3425]

if u keep WI Fi on does it use up your battery? or should u turn it off after using it?

[ssnake937]

if u keep WI Fi on does it use up your battery? or should u turn it off after using it?

It is best to turn it off after use because it will constantly search for a wifi in range and definitely drain your battery.

[gcvt]

Yes, it is a drain on the battery. Whenever I'm going anywhere where I know there's no wi-fi, I turn it off.

[ns3425]

i have WiFi in my house and if it stays connected does it kill your battery?

[iGal]

i have WiFi in my house and if it stays connected does it kill your battery?
Yes, it's like any other function that you have running. Just like your battery lasts longer in airplane mode, when it's not connected (or trying to connect to) the at&t network. It doesn't "kill" your battery--but yeah, it will drain it more than if it were off.

[kdarling]

Yes, it uses up your battery.

Therefore many other phones with WiFi, have either a dedicated outside switch to turn it on/off, or a dedicated button to call up a comms manager where you can click once to do so.

Apple's still new at the phone game. Plus they're trying hard to avoid dedicated buttons, which IMO is crazy in a phone :frown:

[xSoNiCcRaCkErSx]

its no 3g but it will drain ur battery.

[JnC]

If the iPhone is set up to fetch email at regular intervals, and If there is a WiFi network around that you're not using, EDGE will deplete the battery faster than WiFi.

If you use a WiFi network instead of EDGE, you can extend your battery life by about 25%. But it depends on how much email you have. EDGE is so much slower than WiFi, that it takes more power over a given time to perform the same job.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3036&p=4