Battery life, the old disease carries in iPhone 3G

The biggest woe for any modern mobile devices is: battery life. Faster processor, wider screen, brighter screen, more flashy lights are pointing into one culprit if they’re unable to stay alive/awake. It is a really simple math, with better specs inside; you need a longer life expectancy from the battery attached. Which lastly translate into; a bigger and heavier battery.

And since technologies are getting better and better every day, plus the vendors and manufacturers are pushing tin to compete with each others on newer specs; the battery tech has remain the same for the last years. There are some minor improvements, but it’s basically still lack the same span of life.

Apple’s new iPhone 3G is not an exception too, with 3G and GPS chips installed in it; it’s more likely these new features will drain more battery juice faster than before. I’ll let the statistics and benchmarks to do the talking, and you can compare both of the first gen iPhone specs with the new iPhone 3G by looking at Apple’s tech specs page. Or alternatively, you can Google it up.

On the outside, the iPhone 3G look almost the same. But there are some interesting changes on the inside: 10 hours of talk time while on 2G (but only 5 hours on 3G), compared to 8 hours for the old 2G iPhone; and 300 hours of standby time, compared to 250 hours. While on a 3G network, Internet surfing time is rated at 5 hours (6 on Wi-Fi) versus 6 hours on the older iPhone. Video and audio playback times remain unchanged, at 7 and 24 hours, respectively.

Bob Borchers, Apple's senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing, told Jason Snell (Macworld): “Fundamentally, 3G radios are different from 2G. 2G radios have been around a long time, so they’re more optimized. Five hours for 3G is a great benchmark in and of itself. What we’ve been able to do is be very aggressive on power management to achieve those numbers.”

Borchers then revealed: “If you need to squeeze more life out of your battery, you can turn on a setting in the iPhone’s preferences that will force it onto the 2G network, though Borchers suggested that “the vast majority of customers will want to stay on 3G.”

Just exactly what Engadget has pointed out: "The enable/disable 3G setting is real, and buried a few menus deep. There is no automatic switching, Apple just assumes you'll leave 3G on, and that the iPhone has the juice to support that usage."

I don’t think it’s necessary for Apple to provide the 2G/3G switch option, because IMHO iPhone users will instinctively make calls and transfer data at the same time on 3G network. And yes, just in case you haven’t heard it yet: the iPhone 3G allows you to transfer data over the UTMS/HSDPA network while on telephone calls.

Apple says it so: “iPhone already gives you mobile multitasking. But 3G technology lets you multitask in more places — without connecting via Wi-Fi. Since 3G networks enable simultaneous data and voice, you can talk on the phone while surfing the web, checking email, or using Maps. All from your 3G cellular network.”

All in all, this means the iPhone 3G’s battery life will be shorter than the first gen iPhone’s that you have there in your hand right now. Oh, but I’m sure this small and trivial thing with battery life will never shrink your intention to buy iPhone 3G. Am I right? ;-p

Sources are from:

Hands on with iPhone 3G (Macworld)

Did Adding 3G Halve the iPhone's Battery Life? (GearLog)

iPhone 3G lets you talk on the phone while transferring data (iPhone Atlas)

[blogged with my Treo 750v]