Does 5G use more battery than 4G? What else is worth?

This year, 5G began to be activated in several Brazilian capitals. In short, this is the 5th generation mobile network, which promises significant improvements over 4G. In addition to transfer speeds up to 100 times faster, the connection supports a greater number of connected devices at the same time.

However, during the installation period, and even in very remote areas, compatible smartphones may have difficulties getting the new network signal. And that generates greater battery consumption by the constant search for a more stable connection.

Given this, many users wonder if it is really worth leaving the 5G cell phone on this network, or on 4G to save energy. So, check out the answer to this question below.

Does 5G use more battery?

In short, 5G connections are known to consume less power than 4G mobile networks. That is, in some cases, the fifth generation of mobile internet can help the user to save the battery of smartphones.

This is thanks to the “rest time” that technology offers for mobile devices. Engineers use this term to refer to the efficiency of smartphone components. Such as processors, graphics cards and internet modems.

To be seen as an efficient component, it needs to perform a task quickly, and return to a low-power sleep state. However, if the part remains for a long time performing an activity at maximum capacity, this will require greater energy consumption.

By employing this concept in mobile networks, modems for 5G connections download much faster than models that only support 4G. Then the component can draw on a high amount of momentary energy, and return to the resting state only by acting on weaker background connections.

Despite this, prolonged usage with large consumption of gigabytes of data requires a higher power consumption of the smartphone. Therefore, this will drain the cell phone battery faster.

In any case, 5G is still considered more economical to run activities up to 10 times faster than 4G, and use “small fractions” of energy. At the end of the day, this can help increase your device’s battery life.

After all, what makes 5G consume a lot of battery?

At this time, the 5G signal began to be activated in Brazil. Therefore, low coverage can influence cell phone battery consumption. This is said as there is still a very limited amount of antennas operating at a frequency of 3.5 GHz compared to the vast 4G network which operates at a frequency of 2.3 GHz.

Regardless of whether smartphones are 4G or 5G, they are always looking for the best connection signal. That way, when cell phones are in a low coverage area or completely outside of it, they tend to spend more energy when searching for a network.

So, in these situations, the use of 5G can even result in a higher power consumption of the device. Likewise, something similar will happen if the user is using a 4G connection in an area with no coverage.

Another reason is that with a faster internet, and a possible unlimited data plan, people are exploring the use of smartphones even more. Like, for example, watching more videos, movies, series, or listening to music.

As stated above, high data consumption will still make the modem work more for a long time and consume more energy. However, if the person goes back to using the network “consciously”, as he used to use 4G, there will be little difference in energy consumption.

Because of this, some users consider the 5G connection to be a “villain” of the high energy consumption of the smartphone. However, the truth is that the big problem is everything that the fifth generation of mobile internet makes it possible to do with the highest speed.

Conclusion: Is it worth switching to 4G?

Before getting desperate to change the 5G phone to 4G, it is important to take into account what are the likely causes for high battery consumption: After all, the problem is being in a region with limited 5G, or excessive consumption of the internet ?

If your problem is the first case (limited 5G), using 4G can be a more economical solution to save your smartphone battery. On the other hand, if the problem lies in the excessive use of the internet and mobile data, it may be interesting to rethink the way the person uses the device and applications.

An important tip is to observe how many applications are running, especially those that work in the background. Also, it is important to see how much power each session connected to a mobile network consumes.

Therefore, it is worth mentioning that 5G will not always be the main reason to drain your battery quickly. In short, users also need to pay attention to several elements that can influence energy consumption. Only then will you be able to find out what is really best for you and your smartphone battery.

All about 5G in Brazil