There are many factors that affect the battery life of smartphones, such as screen brightness, temperature, applications and services running in the background. However, there is another important factor that most smartphone users are unaware of, which is connection quality.
Weak connection signals drain battery
Smartphones consume a certain amount of energy to communicate with base stations. However, if you are close to the base station and the connection signal you receive is of good quality, your phone does not need to consume much energy. However, if your phone is having trouble communicating with the base station and is getting a bad signal, it will consume more energy, which quickly drains your phone’s battery.
We can explain this situation in common terms: The farther your phone is from the base station, the more it has to “yell” to be heard by it. So much so that the base station literally says to your phone “I can’t hear you clearly, shout louder”. As such, system resources are consumed much more. This causes the battery to drain much faster and the device to heat up. This is one of the reasons why phones sometimes get hot.
The fact that the signal bar on the top bar of your phone shows 3 or 4 teeth does not mean that you get a quality signal. Because the important thing here is the dBm value, which expresses the signal strength. Signal qualities according to dBm values and their effects on the battery are as follows:
- 50–70 dbm – Best signal (Minimum battery consumption)
- 70–90 dbm- Medium signal (Moderate battery consumption)
- 90–120- Bad signal (High battery consumption)
So how can you find out the signal quality your phone has received?
How to find out signal quality on Android phones?
You can enter your phone’s settings application and view it from the “About” section, the SIM settings or the SIM information section.
How to find out signal quality on iOS phones?
From the call screen of your phone, dial: 3001#12345# Press the “Service Cell Info” button on the screen that opens. When you scroll down the screen a little, the number in the RSRP part shows you the dBm value.
Travel also affects battery life
Smartphones learn some information about which frequencies are in use during the first connection to the base station. This causes significant power consumption. Therefore, signal quality affects battery life, and communicating with different base stations while traveling puts an extra load on the battery.
Factors affecting link quality
- Proximity to base station
- Technical competence of the base station
- The amount of payload on the base station
- Physical barriers (mountains, buildings, trains, etc.)
- Weather conditions
- Status of your mobile device
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