More and more smartphones have the NFC option, which allows us to make mobile payments and personalized actions when passing our mobile through said accessory. An advantage that has its corresponding energy expenditure, around which many doubts arise as to whether we should carry it on or it is better to have it discounted all the time.
There are those who have become completely accustomed to touching on and off this means of connection to make sure that the NFC does not drain the battery of the mobile . A custom that is not only rooted in said point of communication, but many also relate it to Bluetooth, an aspect where it makes much more sense to think about deactivating it, although less and less with the new generations.
Users are looking for an answer about spending
In various forums and on social networks we find a clear question, how much does the NFC spend? In order to know if it should always be on or on the contrary, it is better to turn it off. The doubt would not exist if we were clear about the consumption, but nevertheless it is difficult to find out what percentage of the battery may be taking the NFC chip in smartphones.
There are also cases in which no one doubts at all about the high power consumption caused by the NFC , stating flatly that it uses a considerable amount of energy. A statement that we anticipate, does not correspond to reality.
The NFC has a minimal consumption and nothing relevant
The reality about the battery consumption that NFC produces is very different from what many imagine. We do not have to worry about it since although the NFC appears at the top of the screen “activated” it is not really making any connection or transmitting data if we do not bring it close to a compatible dataphone or tool. Your state will remain dormant until we need it.
Since it does not appear in the consumption information of Android smartphones and not in iOS, it is practically impossible to know what percentage of the battery is the one that the NFC carries with it. We can only trust those of us who have tested with it activated all day and practically the same use, but with it deactivated another day. Resulting in a battery difference of around 5% , without being able to ensure that everything comes for this reason.
A percentage so small that it can be sustained even by smart watches and smartbands, the streets are increasingly encouraged to offer mobile payment. Given its limited dimensions and tight battery, if the NFC consumed a lot, they could not support it. If in some situation the NFC consumes too much, it could be due to a specific error in the software that should not happen to us again.
The battery key between iOS and Android
Although it is difficult to know if the NFC consumes more in any of the two main operating systems, in the iPhone it is impossible to turn off the NFC since it is only activated when you open the mobile payments app or when you bring it closer to the card reader. On Android, however, we do have a button from which to manually activate and deactivate the NFC. This could cause that although in both cases we have the NFC available, the best rest and therefore with less battery consumption is in iOS.
In the two systems and in the development of the chips, they are focusing on ensuring that the “extras” such as NFC are increasingly better optimized and make us enjoy their advantages without our mobile running out of battery prematurely.
