Providing a power-saving mode for control channel monitoring in discontinuous reception (DRX) scenarios. Upon waking from a sleep mode at the conclusion of a DRX off period, a baseband modem may transition to a low-power mode configured to receive and decode only a control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). If the control channel indicates during a DRX on period that communication traffic will be transmitted to the baseband modem, then the baseband modem may transition to a full-power mode to receive the communication traffic. Otherwise, the baseband modem may transition back to the sleep mode. The low-power mode may be implemented by a dedicated set of hardware configured to draw less power than a full set of hardware configured to implement the high-power mode.