Embodiments described herein relate to a User Equipment (UE) device, base station, and/or relay station, and associated method for improved Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) decoding for power saving and range improvement during wireless communications, e.g. during Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications and transmissions. In one set of embodiments, a UE may decode PCFICH as follows. The UE may obtain the Resource Elements (REs) that are reserved for Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), based on a largest value of the Control format Indicator (CFI), and may obtain the corresponding total number of Control Channel Elements (CCE), where one CCE corresponds to nine Resource Element Groups (REGs), which correspond to respective thirty six (36) Resource Elements (REs). The UE may number all CCEs, and perform PDCCH blind decoding over all these CCEs. The result may then be determined by checking the Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) with all possible Radio Network Temporary Identifiers (RNTIs). In this case the UE does not need to decode the PCFICH, it is decoded blindly, based on the PDCCH occupying the largest value of the CFI in subframes. If the decoding fails, then the UE may further attempt to decode with the next largest value of the CFI, i.e. the largest value of the CFI lower than the value of the CFI for which the decoding failed, and so on and so forth.