Laptop Mag: T-Mobile phones boast best battery life

[Bateluer]

http://blog.laptopmag.com/tmobile-phones-longer-battery-life

In the course of testing smartphones, we’ve come across a curious consistency. On our battery life test, T-Mobile phones tend to outlast the same devices from other carriers, sometimes by more than two hours. For instance, the T-Mobile Galaxy S5 lasted 10 hours and 57 minutes on our test, versus 7:30 for the Verizon version. We’ve seen this pattern repeat again and again across multiple handsets — which is something shoppers might want to keep in mind when choosing a provider.

Thats a pretty impressive gap between Verizon and TMO. My first thought was that it was because of the CDMA/LTE radios and transitions. But AT&T is a GSM carrier, and they're way behind TMO as well.

 

[quikah]

Could just be LTE speed. If the T-Mobile LTE speed is much faster (which is the claim they always make) they will be spending less time with the radio on.

 

[npaladin-2000]

Could be weak signal policy. I noticed my T-Mobile devices "give up" before AT&T devices when holding onto weak signal. Probably because holding such a weak, iffy signal drains the battery much faster.

 

[Dulanic]

Could just be LTE speed. If the T-Mobile LTE speed is much faster (which is the claim they always make) they will be spending less time with the radio on.

I have a feeling this is the reason. Their LTE is the fastest. Well as long as you have good coverage.

 

[gsaldivar]

holding such a weak, iffy signal drains the battery much faster.

Yes. See the link below. CDMA phones in areas of low reception or heavy network usage will drain their battery at a much faster rate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-far_problem#Solutions

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Too many factors at stake:

- Software differences between phones

- Hardware differences between phones (to accommodate for different bands/radios)

- Network congestion

- Network reception

 

[npaladin-2000]

Too many factors at stake:

- Software differences between phones

- Hardware differences between phones (to accommodate for different bands/radios)

- Network congestion

- Network reception

All of which can impact battery life, none of which the average user is going to do anything about, and therefore all are valid factors and should be included in the test.

There's no sense saying "well my AT&T GS5 gets the same battery life as a T-Mobile GS5 once you have the same software on each one" when the fact is, they're not sold with the same software and 99% of the time will never have the same software.

Don't think of this as testing your battery life with a device. Think of it as testing your mother's battery life. Or your grandmother's. Provided they're not related to Dilbert's mother, who apparently learned Ruby On Rails over a weekend. Not her, the type of person who picks the thing off of the shelf and just uses it. That person will experience battery life differences because of the carrier's choice of software, frequencies, signal hunting logic, and frankly where they deploy their towers too. So there's no sense completely normalizing these factors.

 

[Medikit]

They should have compared stock android (Nexus and Moto G) and iPhone as well.