Why LTE Kills Batteries

Devices running on Long Term Evolution and other 4G networks consume battery life, most users have discovered. Nokia Siemens Networks did some preliminary studies on LTE phone’s power drain versus their equivalent 3G models and found that LTE devices consume from five percent to 20 percent more than previous-generation phones, depending on the application used.

Some of you will instinctively guess that battery drain is worse than that.

In its review of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Engadget found that the Google Navigation running over the LTE network ate battery power faster than the Nexus’ car charger could restore it, for example. Why LTE drains batteries

Some us have started carrying extra batteries. Recently, some of us have been turning off both the 4G and 3G radios most of the time when out and about, using the devices only for voice and text.

And more of the time, the devices simply get turned off. That originally struck me as a complete waste of device capabilities. But we all learn to make trade offs. Increasingly, the only way to stretch battery life is simply not to use the data network at all, much of the time, so your batteries are available when you really need the power.