Your cart
There are no more items in your cart
WiFi, 4G, Bluetooth: which outdoor settings?
To achieve precise positioning and prolong the battery life of your tablet or smartphone, it's essential to adjust the settings before you set off. Here's an example for iPad and iPhone.
Turning off Wi-Fi and cell phones for greater precision
It's true that Wi-Fi consumes little energy, and you might think that it's not necessary to turn it off on a smartphone or tablet. However, you need to be vigilant about the positioning errors that can result, with potentially serious consequences.
Even when equipped with an accurate GPS, a device may rely on triangulation via wifi or 3G/4G cellular networks, as explained in our dossier. In urban environments, accuracy is acceptable (around 5-10m), but in the wilderness, positioning errors can reach several tens of meters.
This problem is common in marine navigation: far from the coast, GPS is very accurate, but near the coast, with wifi enabled, significant errors can occur if the device picks up a wifi signal. For accurate navigation, it is therefore advisable to deactivate wifi and cellular data.
Please note: using a Wi-Fi AIS or Wi-Fi multiplexer on a boat does not present this risk, as they are not used for positioning.
To disable wifi on an iPhone or iPad: go to Settings > Wifi, then deactivate it.
Cutting 4G cell phone power consumption
For 4G communications, the rule is: the further you are from the base station, the more your device increases its signal to maintain the connection, which increases energy consumption.
It's therefore advisable to deactivate cellular data when you're too far away or don't need a data connection. This will still allow you to receive regular calls.
On an iPhone/iPad, go to Settings > Cellular Data and deactivate cellular data.
Keep Bluetooth on when you need it
Bluetooth, which consumes very little power, can remain activated if you're using an accessory that depends on it, such as a wireless headset or an external GPS. If this is not the case, it's best to deactivate it to avoid unnecessary power consumption.
On iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Bluetooth and switch to 0 or I as required.
Please note: in Airplane Mode, an Apple device disables all radio connections (Wi-Fi, cellular), but neither GPS nor Bluetooth are affected.