Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for smart power saving at a user equipment (UE), comprising a first and second transmit chain. According to aspects, the UE may identify one or more subframes in which the second transmit chain is not scheduled for uplink (UL) transmissions, determine the first transmit chain is scheduled for UL transmissions during at least a portion of the identified subframes, and perform envelope tracking (ET) for a scheduled uplink transmission using, at least portions of the first and second transmit chains during the determined at least a portion of the identified subframes.