Battery life improved without SIM card?

[OCDMacGeek]

Now that I moved outside of AT&T coverage, I am considering whether I should trade my 8gb iPhone for a 32 gb iPod Touch. However, battery life is a major concern for me. Although there have been rumors that the 32 gb iPod Touch has improved battery life, I don't think its been confirmed.

Based on estimates on Apple's website, it appears that the iPhone would get better battery life than the iPod Touch if it were not for power being taken for the phone aspects of the system. (iPhone = 7 hrs of video vs. 5 hrs for the iPod Touch.)

I want to conserve as much power as possible and prevent unneccesary battery usage. However, I also don't want to constantly be switching between Airplane Mode and regular mode. (There is no way to turn off the phone component of the iPhone while keeping Wifi on. You have to go into Airplane mode, which is annoying.)

Therefore, I took out the SIM card, and it now says "No SIM" in the upper left all the time.

I have not been able to do any scientific tests to see if this has improved my battery life. Has anyone checked into this to see if this basically has the same effect as turning off the phone?

Any other ideas for extending battery life on an iPhone that doesn't need the phone service?

Thanks.

 

[TEG]

Without the SIM, the antenna is not in use. I believe that there is no power traveleing though all the circuity, so I'd expect better battery life. As for your coverage, do you still have your at&t account? I would continue to use it until they choose to cancel you. I believe they just bought one of the two GMS providers in MT, so there may be zero trouble. Otherwise, there are a few in GSM providers in MT that would work with the iPhone, their stores often advertising for people to import iPhones for them to unlock. Don't do anything rash.

EDIT: Chinook Wireless provides GSM service in MT. They are the only provider in MT with new GSM services. Alltel also has GSM coverage, but new Alltel customers are CDMA only.

TEG

 

[OCDMacGeek]

Without the SIM, the antenna is not in use. I believe that there is no power traveleing though all the circuity, so I'd expect better battery life. As for your coverage, do you still have your at&t account? I would continue to use it until they choose to cancel you. I believe they just bought one of the two GMS providers in MT, so there may be zero trouble. Otherwise, there are a few in GSM providers in MT that would work with the iPhone, their stores often advertising for people to import iPhones for them to unlock. Don't do anything rash.

EDIT: Chinook Wireless provides GSM service in MT. They are the only provider in MT with new GSM services. Alltel also has GSM coverage, but new Alltel customers are CDMA only.

TEG

Thanks, its good to know that without a SIM card there is no power wasted by phone consumption.

I had heard many rumors that AT&T and Chinook Wireless were affiliated in some way, so I was hoping that this was the case. However, I needed a stable phone number so I wanted to know for sure whether I was going to be able to keep this line or if they were going to cancel it in a few months once they noticed my usage being 100% on Montana towers.

So, I called AT&T and finally talked to someone in the department that specifically handles cancellations for overuse on partner networks. He told me that there is no special arrangement with Chinook, and that they would eventually cancel me. He said I could wait for the letter or just get cancelled now. I opted to go ahead and cancel service and I am now using a work-issued Blackberry. I'm not happy about the switch to Blackberry, and have no qualms about hacking my phone to unlock, but Chinook data rates are really excessive.

Its $49.99 just for the unlimited data usage. Then you need to tack on about $49.99 for a decent phone plan. As much as I want to use my iPhone, that is just too much.

Where had you heard that AT&T bought a network in Montana? I know AT&T is expanding this year -- was it something you just heard recently?

 

[TEG]

I was confusing Chinook with Cellular One (Dobson). However, you could unlock your iPhone an use it with Chinook. They do have a number of dealers who will even do it for you (much like T-Mobile was doing with 1.0.2).

TEG

 

[OCDMacGeek]

I'm really not sure that taking the SIM out truly stops power from being wasted by the phone components. I'm getting fairly bad battery life out of my iPhone, and all I use it for is web surfing in bed nowadays. I'll have to do some scientific tests.

 

[yschutzer]

Were you able to determine whether removing the SIM card can substantially save your battery?