All other things being equal, 5G probably will not drain your battery faster than did 4G. And that includes having one more radio to power.
Of course, all things are often not equal. If your behavior changes, if you start using much more data, for any combination of reasons, then battery load might increase.
According to Ericsson, 5G behavior does change. In addition to reducing Wi-Fi use--which automatically increases use of mobile networks-- early adopter 5G users also spend an average of two hours more on cloud gaming and one hour more on augmented reality (AR) apps per week compared to 4G users, says Ericsson.
But early adopters, by definition, do not behave as do mainstream users. They are heavier users.
“On average one in five users upgrading to 5G have decreased Wi-Fi usage at home and other locations,” says Ericsson. Data plans also affect usage.
“In markets like the United States, Taiwan, Switzerland, Finland and South Korea, where a higher proportion of 5G users are on unlimited plans, 22 percent have decreased their home Wi-Fi usage, while 10 percent claim they have stopped using Wi-Fi on smartphones after upgrading to 5G,” says Ericsson.
Households with three or more members actively using home broadband were more likely to report a decrease in their reliance on Wi-Fi once they upgraded to 5G, Ericsson reports.
It remains to be seen how more-mainstream consumers behave. The point is that the observation that having 5G decreases battery life is mostly caused by a change in user behavior.
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