Skip to main content

VoLTE may offer better audio and battery life for smartphones

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The CDMA and GSM standard have both been around for a number of years as the standard in wireless communication. If you’ve made a phone call on a cell phone in the last twenty years or so, then GSM or CDMA were the technology that made it possible. However, new tech known as VoLTE – or Voice over LTE – wants to change that, and it may do so while improving your battery life, and giving higher audio quality.

VoLTE is in many ways a lot like VoIP, except that it utilizes a data connection through LTE spectrum to accomplish the task, rather than the IP protocol. It’s already being implemented international markets, but has yet to be injected into the U.S. despite the huge growth of LTE in the last two years. Slowly but surely though the technology is being tested by infrastructure firms as they prepare to bring VoLTE to the United States, as it really is the long term goal for voice communication. VoLTE offers CD-quality audio to customers by utilizing LTE bandwidth to communicate, much like how Skype has higher quality audio than your average telephone. The service, in testing by Metrico Wireless on MetroPCS, could greatly improve battery performance as well as give all the other benefits promised so far.

Recommended Videos

Not everyone is convinced though. MobileBurn reports that the testing may be over-exaggerated given the lack of scale. It cites incidents in LTE performance like the HTC Thunderbolt, which while it could argue itself as the first LTE phone, was brutal in battery life. Despite this, Verizon Wireless is already jumping on board and promising a launch by the end of the year and into 2014. The cost, for carriers, however, is significant. While simultaneously adding bandwidth load to their LTE networks, VoLTE will also do away with counting minutes, and instead utilize everything over data. Cell phone plans will essentially become 100 percent data-oriented.

It’ll be at least a year until we see VoLTE begin to roll out across the country with Verizon, Metro PCS, or one of several potential carriers. Between its offer of higher audio quality, reduced energy usage, and the end of counting minutes, it certainly is a no-brainer for customers to take advantage of, so long as the price is rig’ht.

Joshua Sherman
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Joshua Sherman is a contributor for Digital Trends who writes about all things mobile from Apple to Zynga. Josh pulls his…
TikTok returns to Apple, Google app stores in U.S.
TikTok logo on an iPhone.

The TikTok saga continues. Apple reinstated the popular app to the App Store on Thursday evening, and a short while later Google followed suit and put it back on the Play Store. The move came after Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly sent a letter to the tech giants assuring them that they will not face any penalties in relation to a law that banned the app in the U.S. last month.

Both Apple and Google removed TikTok from their respective U.S. app stores on January 18, the day before the law banning the app went into effect. Then, on January 20, newly elected President Trump signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the ban to give his administration “an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward.”

Read more
Android 16’s latest beta promises deeper mobile photography controls
The Android 16 logo on a smartphone, resting on a shelf.

Google has started rolling out the second beta update of Android 16 for supported Pixel devices. There are not many user-facing features arriving with this build, but Google is making a few framework changes that will enhance the camera experience for users in the near future.

The most notable change is a new hybrid auto exposure system arriving with the Camera2 API upgrade. So far, users have only had access to rudimentary controls in the auto-mode for capturing stills and videos. For deeper controls, there was no other option than digging into the cluttered Pro mode.

Read more
Why are really old iPhones suddenly so popular?
A photo of a Galaxy S25 Plus showing an Instagram page.

Depending on what you see in your social network feeds, you may have noticed a sudden rise in the use of old Apple iPhone models, along with equally ancient digital cameras, to take photos, and wondered what was going on. Why use an old iPhone, when new ones have better cameras? One possible reason is an emerging social trend in South Korea, where people are clamoring for old Apple iPhone models specifically for the cameras and the type of photos they can take.

It’s part of a trend referred to as “youngtro,” a portmanteau of young and retro, and is most popular among Millennials and Gen Z, according to a report published in English by The Korea Times, from a story in the Korean Hankook Ilbo newspaper. The interest goes beyond “vintage” smartphone cameras and even extends to dated, discontinued digital cameras, and is so popular, even well-known singers and celebrities are embracing the trend, sharing photos on social media where the old cameras and smartphones take an equally centerstage role in the image.

Read more