Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may identify that the UE is to scan one or more frequency bands during a cell acquisition procedure. The UE may receive one or more over-the-air signals, each of the one or more over-the-air signals having a respective bandwidth that includes a corresponding plurality of channels from a frequency band of the one or more frequency bands. The UE may process individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals. The UE may evaluate, in corresponding batches for each of the individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals, each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition. The UE may acquire a cell via batch-wise evaluation of the corresponding pluralities of channels.