Earlier this week, Verizon’s tech support Twitter account sent a (now-deleted) tweet that urged users to turn on LTE in an effort to help conserve battery life on their devices.
While the tweet did not mention 5G directly, keen observers in the replies of the tweet noted that the ultimate effect of these LTE instructions is to shut 5G off on a user’s given device. With 5G components taking up additional space and limiting the size of batteries, this issue is now commonplace. Companies like Samsung and Huawei have warned users in the past of 5G battery drain and Apple has attempted to combat the issue by introducing “Smart Data” mode.
Cellular 5G is obviously a great thing and a major key to the future of connectivity. While consumers wait for the battery drain issue to be taken care of, however, there is another way to gain super-fast connectivity without sacrificing the life of your phone: Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 6 is the next generation of Wi-Fi and will soon be available in homes, workplaces and baseball stadiums across the country. The most obvious benefit of the technology will be the lightning-fast speeds that are afforded by operating in the 6 GHz.
Beyond that, however, Wi-Fi 6 offers great benefits when it comes to preserving the battery life of devices. Per a report from The Verge, Wi-Fi 6 “allows devices to plan out communications with a router, reducing the amount of time they need to keep their antennas powered on to transmit and search for signals.” This means less drain on the batteries of devices using Wi-Fi 6 technology and improved battery life as a result.
In the wake of this week’s tweet by Verizon and warnings from device-makers about the battery-draining tendencies of 5G, we have more reason to be excited about how Wi-Fi 6 will create a better-connected future.