considering jumping ship to iphone

[sygyzy]

I think you should do it. Get the iPhone 5, you'll love it.

 

[zoiks]

Yep. Until you start using Apple maps, you'll be happy.

 

[monkey333]

The Galaxy Note 2 has good battery life from what I hear but that's because it has a huge battery =)

This times eleventy billion..

 

[saratoga172]

Changed right when the iphone came out and suddenly everything else goes down...that's crap.

Still as shown on that graph unless you get LTE full time, you're probably gonna have below average battery life anyway with the iPhone 5.

I've mentioned it before and I want to mention it here cause it's relevant. How often are we away from a charger for our device. We can charge in the car, at home in any room, from any computer, probably even can charge at the office if needed. Aside from that how long are you actually using the phone? I'd bet that if you took an average of everyone with a smartphone to determine their actual usage time in a full 12 hour day, it would be quite small compared to the supposed 4-5hours web browsing time or whatever other metric you wish to measure. Further I have never had a phone that did not last me all day and like I said chargers everywhere so it's not necessarily an issue. Your usage might differ but I've always wondered why it mattered if you can talk for 6 hours or browse the web for 4 before the battery dies. Do you really have 6 hour conversations and look at the internet for 4 hours at a time? Not to mention there are things you can do to maximize your battery life on some devices. Disabling wifi, android has some CPU sleep apps that shut off one or more cores on a CPU when in deep sleep. If you're into rooting and that on android I believe some roms have the ability to turn off the network when the device is asleep (my Transformer Infinity can turn off wifi when sleeping but come back on when I wake up the device for example).


I think any new phone will have sufficient battery life for most people. Sure watching videos will eat the battery...I think screen time uses the battery most for me. So I'd look at the software you want and whether the device fits your needs and has a feature set you'd be happy with.

Here is why talk time and browsing time matter for some people. And this is literally how my day went today...Up to this point. This is typical of days I travel for work or am going out after work.

I was at the airport for 4 hours this morning waiting for my delayed flight to get in. I pulled out my laptop and phone to tether and work in the airport. Plugged my laptop into the power outlet and personal phone into laptop. Gnex on Verizon. My work phone is an iPhone 4s on Sprint's craptacular not now network.

I start working and by the time my flight is boarding I've spent almost 2 hours on my work phone talking to customers, coworkers, etc. My iPhone had not been plugged in at all since 7am and it was now noon. My iPhone was at 85% battery when I got in line to board...82% when I put it in airplane mode after playing a game.

As soon as I got off the plane I received multiple emails, missed calls, voicemails for issues that needed to be addressed. When I travel I carry the USB cable and AC adaptor for my phones. I never carry a car charger. It just adds another two cables I have to keep up with. And my space is limited as is. The only rental I've ever gotten that's had a usb port in the car was a Sonata I had. Even the Challenger I have today only has 12v ports.

After getting off the plane I spent another 2 hours on the phone, used maps for 20 minutes to navigate to my destination, answered texts from coworkers, read and responded to close to 100 emails and snapped a few pictures in the process. Overall usage is over 6 hours. I've had no chance to charge the phone. I'm not about to pull out 6 cables to charge everything. That's for when I'm back at the hotel. My devices need to last me all day with moderate use.

I'm currently at 31% battery and sitting in a location where I'm on an extended connection. And with the iPhone I'm not worried about the phone dying on me. With 30% I can go 12 hours easy if it's not being constantly used. Since it's later it'll easily get me through the next 3-4 hours until I get back to my hotel.

All the while my personal phone, Gnex on Verizon, has mostly been used for texts and some mail checking. A little music listening, about 30 minutes of phone calls and a bit of checking some news. I always leave 4G on, WiFi off, Bluetooth is usually on especially traveling since I use an earpiece, sync and gps on. It gets pretty good battery life but is put to shame by my iPhone. When it got plugged in at 4 it was at 17% and unlike the iPhone when it starts getting below about 40% I stop using it as much as I can because it could go fast.

I couldn't have a device that can't last all day.

This is why people are so caught up on numbers and statistics. My Gnex can easily make it through a 10 hour day at the office and have 75% battery life left with 30-40 minutes of usage. Using my iPhone the same will have closer to 85-90...and I usually go days without charging the iPhone.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Just for the record, GNexus was never touted to have a good battery to begin with.

 

[saratoga172]

Just for the record, GNexus was never touted to have a good battery to begin with.

I realize that. My point was that there is a reason they do these battery benchmarks and why people salivate and discuss them. They serve a purpose. You mentioned them not being important.

I don't closely regard any of them but if I see an iPhone or Razr Maxx has 2 extra hours of browsing time or screen on time, then that may sway my purchase in that direction.

Personally for my Gnex I'm around a power source almost everywhere I go except when I travel for business. Charger in my car, desk at work, couple at home for various devices.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I am simply saying that if you take the average smart phone user and observe their usage it is nowhere near what the benchmarks are illustrating. Thus most of the devices on the list will suit their needs provided the software is to their liking. Then i pointed out that many people have chargers everywhere now so it is easy to plug in your phone for a bit.

Thats all

 

[Oyeve]

I don't know. The battery on my iPhone 5 lasts about as long as the battery on my sgs3. Of course lte drains the iPhone as lte in NYC is lousy.