The Advantages of Using Wi-Fi on Your Smartphone

Wi-Fi is a method for devices such as smartphones to connect wirelessly to the Internet using radio waves. Connecting to the Internet using Wi-Fi requires a hotspot, but it is always faster than the 3G cellular networks which smartphones can also use to connect, and occasionally faster than 4G. Using Wi-Fi when it is available can also prove to be cheaper and make your phone run more efficiently in the long run than relying on cellular networks.

When you use a Wi-Fi network to access the Internet from your phone, the data usage does not count against your bundled data. Mobile providers often allocate a certain amount of data for free each month and charge you a fee for any data usage beyond this. By connecting via Wi-Fi wherever it is available, you can save your bundled data for situations when you might not be close to any Wi-Fi hotspots.

In many situations, your speed using a strong, dedicated Wi-Fi connection is faster than that of using your mobile network. It is very noticeable when transferring larger files. If you need to download large files or stream media to your smartphone in a hurry, it is much better to do so via Wi-Fi.

Battery life is extremely important for smartphones because you will not be able to connect to the Internet or use certain functions such as the camera flash if your battery is too low. Using Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet drains less battery life than using a mobile network, especially in situations where the cellular coverage fluctuates. Since Wi-Fi is generally faster than using mobile networks, you will also not spend as much time transferring the data, which further decreases battery usage.

The word “drains” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.