Bluetooth vs WIFI power consumption on Android - a practical test using Youtube

Have you ever tried Bluetooth Internet (instead of WIFI) on your android phone/tablet? Here we show the battery-saving effects of using Bluetooth Internet compared to the contemporary WIFI Internet.

The Bluetooth Internet’s source is an ADSL Router/Modem via LAN to Android via Bluetooth (also know as “reverse tethering via Bluetooth”) using our EcoDroidLink Bluetooth Access Point.

Please note that WIFI’s maximum speed/throughput is much faster than Bluetooth (about 1.7 Mbps on Speedtest.net), but normally Bluetooth is fast-enough - we open Youtube HQ with no lag - instant messaging and web-browsing is fast and responsive via Bluetooth. For most daily use, we’d prefer an eco-friendly less-fuel-consuming car (which has lower top-speed) over a big-engined car with great top-speed but consumes like 26% more fuel to do the same job!

We used a Sony Xperia V, fully charged and opened a 9-hour youtube video until battery finishes and phone powers off.

Both the WIFI Access Point and the EcoDroidLink Bluetooth Access Point were placed next to each other, in our guest room which has a small walk way, passing a small bathroom in the middle, to our computer room where we place the Android phone to test. We reduced the screen brighness to the minimum to reduce the effects of hours of screen-power-consumtion. We also put the phone in airplane mode to remove the factor/effects of mobile-network power consumption. Youtube HQ was enabled. The Youtube video used is a 9 hour ocean video linked here.

WIFI on Android battery consumption results

Start - fully charged, opened the long Youtube video at 5:09 AM as per screenshot below:

Nearing the end - battery reduces to about 4% at 10:04 AM:

The phone powered off at somewhere before 10:15 AM (missed the moment but at 10:15 AM the screen was already off - so let’s assume 10:15 anyway).

WIFI Youtube test summary: Total battery life was 5 hours and 6 minutes (total 306 minutes).

Bluetooth Interenet on Android battery consumption results

Start - fully charged - opened the long Youtube video at 12:29 PM (this test was done a few days after the WIFI test, many reboots in between so no likely cache effects) as per screenshot below:

Nearing the end - battery reduces to about 2% at 6:50 PM:

The phone powered off at around 6:55 PM (was watching when phone powered off).

Bluetooth Youtube test summary: Total battery life was 6 hours and 26 minutes (386 minutes).

Results summary

While using Bluetooth, phone had 386 minutes battery life - 80 minutes more than when using WIFI. This means when using Bluetooth on Android in our test, battery life was about 26% longer than WIFI.

Want to try Bluetooth Internet? Please kindly visit the EcoDroidLink Bluetooth Access Point page for more info - just check if your Android phone/tablet is compatible, then you can order the ready-to-use EcoDroidLink Bluetooth Access Point or even easily assemble one yourself from a Raspberry Pi model B computer and other parts locally then just order the EcoDroidLink-system SD-Card!