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Is going so thin worth the tradeoff in battery life and features?

A

appswipe

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 18, 2012
282
0
Everyone gets excited every time Apple goes thinner than the previous model, but I'm curious if people really feel the tradeoff in features and power is worth it.

With products as small as the iPhone then every millimeter of space can be used for something. For me, I'm not happy with the battery life or the cameras indoor/fast motion/low light performance so (IMO) I'd much rather get an iPhone with the "fat" 4S thickness if it means more space for better camera optics and another 2hrs of battery.

But what about everyone else? Are you finding true benefits from a "thinner than the 4S" design or would you prefer to have more battery life/better optics/less heat/etc in a slightly thicker shell?
 
You obviously don't have an iPhone 5. The battery life is great and far better than the 4s.
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1348380202.486793.jpg

Yea it's worth it
 
Def. everyone is complaining about battery life? It's on LTE. Of course it won't stand up against the 4/4S. Try out any android phone for a week and you will beg to have the 5 back.
 
al0513 said:
Def. everyone is complaining about battery life? It's on LTE. Of course it won't stand up against the 4/4S. Try out any android phone for a week and you will beg to have the 5 back.
Click to expand...

I'm on LTE and my battery life is the same if not better than my 4S
 
jkim3691 said:
You obviously don't have an iPhone 5. The battery life is great and far better than the 4s.
Click to expand...
Yeah, okay. Its a conspiracy.

I have an iPhone 5 and the battery life isn't great. Yesterday was "new phone day" so obviously battery life got shot pretty quick with all the restore/playing time and also made sure all the location services I dont use were turned off. But today it was back to work and with very light usage I hit 30% by 3PM (which is equal to my 4S) while my wife hit 30% by 4PM.

Im glad youre getting such great battery life but lets not be so paranoid as to think that anyone who doesnt match your opinion is trolling.


al0513 said:
Def. everyone is complaining about battery life? It's on LTE. Of course it won't stand up against the 4/4S. Try out any android phone for a week and you will beg to have the 5 back.
Click to expand...
No LTE for me. Im on Sprint and they arent rolling out in my town for probably another year.
 
Been using the phone over 12 hrs on LTE browsing all day online and on facebook plus i been taking well over 100+ photos with and without flash all day at a party.

I'm still at 55% battery.

My IP4 would be dead now
 
appswipe said:
Yeah, okay. Its a conspiracy.

I have an iPhone 5 and the battery life isn't great. Yesterday was "new phone day" so obviously battery life got shot pretty quick with all the restore/playing time and also made sure all the location services I dont use were turned off. But today it was back to work and with very light usage I hit 30% by 3PM (which is equal to my 4S) while my wife hit 30% by 4PM.

Im glad youre getting such great battery life but lets not be so paranoid as to think that anyone who doesnt match your opinion is trolling.



No LTE for me. Im on Sprint and they arent rolling out in my town for probably another year.
Click to expand...

Conspiracy? What are you talking about...

If your battery life is worse than your 4/4s, maybe you got a dud. But many of us are enjoying the extended battery life of the 5.
 
appswipe said:
Everyone gets excited every time Apple goes thinner than the previous model, but I'm curious if people really feel the tradeoff in features and power is worth it.
Click to expand...

I haven't had a chance to settle in and do a real comparison, but I'll probably have a good idea on Monday at the end of my work day....but so far the battery doesn't seem to be worse than my 4 or my 4s.

And as far as features are concerned, exactly what feature do you assume was sacrificed? The camera is actually better than the 4s was....so that argument doesn't hold water. So what else?
 
Im on LTE and my battery life is amazing. On my 4S, battery life SUCKED. :mad: So yeah i have no idea what you're talking about and neither do you. :)
 
i have a 5, and the battery is a little close to a 4S running on iOS 5.
BUT not better.
We have 4G and LTE here in Los Angeles so that explains the quick battery drain.

@ jkim3691 maybe you don't have an iPhone 5:D:D

to be Fair, it's hard to compare.
Yes, we both have iPhone 5s but i bet i'm getting a lot more emails/ and answering them back than most people here.
Then there's this guy who updates his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus etc every 5 minutes.
 
aquadisiac said:
Im on LTE and my battery life is amazing. On my 4S, battery life SUCKED. :mad: So yeah i have no idea what you're talking about and neither do you. :)
Click to expand...

I'm gonna guess your carrier had crappy 3G service in your area and they improved it with LTE. AT&T has crappy service at my office so it makes my battery drain like there's no tomorrow. That's what I'll be comparing on Monday...does it drain as fast, faster, or less fast on Monday?
 
I personally upgraded from the 4S. So far, I have actually noticed an increase in battery life. I am, however, on AT&T in Denver, and LTE is not in my area as of yet. My network speeds have also increased drastically. I went from getting roughly 2.1 MBps on HSPA+ to now over 12 MBps, and that will shoot through the roof when LTE comes around.

I use my phone constantly for work, and on my 4S I would make it about 8-9 hours before my battery would go kaput. On my 5 it seems to be closer to 11-12 hours before the same happens. The A6 chip is also insanely faster compared to the 4S. It is more impressive than my change from the 4 to the 4S, and nearly as large a jump as the 3G (not 3GS) to the 4.

So far I have not noticed heat as an issue at all. With my 4S I would notice it getting warm after playing games for a bit, but that was also during the summer in 90+ degree days. So far with the 5 I haven't noticed any heat issues at all, but It has been closer to 70 degrees around here, and that could be helping the internals cope.

Overall, I like the changes and the new dock connector is outrageously and awesomely tiny. I also noticed about a 20% increase in speed over the dock connector when restoring my phone from the backup and transferring my 26GB or so of music, pictures and apps. I don't think this has anything to do with the connector itself, but more to do with the processor speed and larger amount of RAM.

Personally, I'd recommend getting the iPhone 5. It is better in almost every singe way, but someone else with LTE in their area can tell you if their battery experience went south. Either way, I would imagine the LTE battery life is still better than any other LTE phone by a handy margin.
 
markrivers said:
i have a 5, and the battery is a little close to a 4S running on iOS 5.
BUT not better.
We have 4G and LTE here in Los Angeles so that explains the quick battery drain.

@ jkim3691 maybe you don't have an iPhone 5:D:D

to be Fair, it's hard to compare.
Yes, we both have iPhone 5s but i bet i'm getting a lot more emails/ and answering them back than most people here.
Then there's this guy who updates his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus etc every 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

Do you want me to take pictures of it...

I'm pleased with the battery life. I have a good LTE connection in my city.
 
Geckotek said:
I'm gonna guess your carrier had crappy 3G service in your area and they improved it with LTE. AT&T has crappy service at my office so it makes my battery drain like there's no tomorrow. That's what I'll be comparing on Monday...does it drain as fast, faster, or less fast on Monday?
Click to expand...

I use my phones mostly on wifi.
 
First day out and about with the phone. Drove into NYC. Used maps quite a bit. Used Siri a bit. One very short phone call. Played around with Panorama feature quite a bit. Took some photos, reviewed some photos in the Photo app. Downloaded a couple of apps. Facebook. Email. Texting. Used some other map-based apps throughout the day. Was in and out of good cell service areas (2-bars to full). Had Wifi on all day. Bluetooth off. And used LTE in and around the city (blazing fast!).

15 hours since charge, 4 hours usage and now at 25% battery. It's pretty much what I'd expect. No disappointment, no surprise.
 
What if Apple kept the same thickness as the 4S and put in a 2000 mAh battery :eek:

Many people are saying "Battery is good it lasts 6+ hours etc". I feel that the innovation right now needs to happen with battery life. Right now the standard is to get screen on time min 6 hours and max 8 hours. Imagine in the future when they innovate in this area usage could last 12+ hours :eek:
 
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