does bluetooth affect battery life

When using my Fitbit it drains my battery fairly quickly if I keep my Bluetooth on. For this reason I keep my Bluetooth off and only turn it on and sync it a few times a day. Also if I'm connecting to my speaker to play music it drains my battery but maybe that's just from playing music.

Bluetooth is never the cause of battery drain. Your Fitbit uses Bluetooth Low Energy; a connection uses 3 mw. The battery capacity of the phone is 1800 mw. If Bluetooth to your Fitbit were the only source of energy consumption the battery would last 600 hours.

Bluetooth to headsets and other devices operates at 10 mw. Again, if it were the only source of energy drain the battery would last 180 hours.

What is probably happening is the Fitbit app on your phone is using the energy you attribute to Bluetooth. That is abnormal; the Fitbit app is normally well-behaved. You should check with Fitbit's technical support.

And yes, it is the app playing the music that is responsible for battery drain, not the BT connection.

Not much.

Not by any appreciable amount if it's not actively connected to a handsfree device. Somewhat if it's connected but not in use. It will cause some drain if actively in use (e.g. streaming audio to the head unit in your car via bluetooth).

It all adds up, BT, wi-fi, cellular data. The less you needlessly have turned on, the longer the battery lasts.

Have you monitored? Does it drain the battery when Bluetooth is on in "Settings"? I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

Ken Douglass

kenfromplainview wrote:

I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

That circle is kind of like the light in your refrigerator. It will stay on until you leave that screen, just like the light will stay on only until you close the door of the fridge.

When you are in Settings/Bluetooth the phone is transmitting its ID, and listening for other Bluetooth devices. But its output power is only 10 milliwatts; if it was the only thing using battery the battery would last for about 1,000 hours. When you close the settings app it stops transmitting, and just listens. This takes no measurable power. If you connect it to a BlueTooth device it goes back to 10 milliwatts. But essentially Bluetooth uses no measurable power, and you won't be able to tell the difference in battery life between On and Off because there are so many variables that would overshadow it.

Meg St._Clair wrote:

kenfromplainview wrote:

I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

...just like the light will stay on only until you close the door of the fridge.

Are you absolutely positively sure that it turns off?

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

kenfromplainview wrote:

I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

...just like the light will stay on only until you close the door of the fridge.

Are you absolutely positively sure that it turns off?

I seem to recall reading some story about someone who put a webcam inside to prove just that to a disbelieving child. 🙂

I just experimented by pushing the switch back when I was a child, before webcams.

Meg St._Clair wrote:

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

kenfromplainview wrote:

I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

...just like the light will stay on only until you close the door of the fridge.

Are you absolutely positively sure that it turns off?

I seem to recall reading some story about someone who put a webcam inside to prove just that to a disbelieving child. 🙂

I just experimented by pushing the switch back when I was a child, before webcams.

I put my son in the refrigerator to prove it to him!

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

kenfromplainview wrote:

I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

...just like the light will stay on only until you close the door of the fridge.

Are you absolutely positively sure that it turns off?

I seem to recall reading some story about someone who put a webcam inside to prove just that to a disbelieving child. 🙂

I just experimented by pushing the switch back when I was a child, before webcams.

I put my son in the refrigerator to prove it to him.

I Hope that you didn't leave him in there. Have you checked to make sure?

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

kenfromplainview wrote:

I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

...just like the light will stay on only until you close the door of the fridge.

Are you absolutely positively sure that it turns off?

I seem to recall reading some story about someone who put a webcam inside to prove just that to a disbelieving child. 🙂

I just experimented by pushing the switch back when I was a child, before webcams.

I put my son in the refrigerator to prove it to him!

And he still likes you and seems like a fine man!

Demo wrote:

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

Philly_Phan wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

kenfromplainview wrote:

I keep seeing the "circle" searching for a devise.

...just like the light will stay on only until you close the door of the fridge.

Are you absolutely positively sure that it turns off?

I seem to recall reading some story about someone who put a webcam inside to prove just that to a disbelieving child. 🙂

I just experimented by pushing the switch back when I was a child, before webcams.

I put my son in the refrigerator to prove it to him.

I Hope that you didn't leave him in there. Have you checked to make sure?

Well, he has been awfully quiet since then!