Measuring the energy consumption of communication interfaces on smartphones using a moderately-invasive technique

The mobility freedom provided by smartphones heavily depends on the energy provided by their batteries. Nowadays, smartphones are used by a large number of people, as well as the wireless communication interfaces provided by them, which give ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet. Thus, it is important to be aware of the remaining amount of energy in our smartphones. In this paper we present a detailed study of the energy consumption in two smartphone models, Nokia E71 and Motorola Milestone, focusing on the wireless communication interfaces (Bluetooth, WiFi, and 3G) in different scenarios, like standby, scanning, and transferring. We present the results obtained in several experiments conducted. These results show that the 3G connection spends more energy than WiFi and Bluetooth; and, in most cases, the Nokia device has a lower consumption than the Motorola.