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PC World: iPhone 3G's battery life better than competetion.
- Thread starter Donz0r
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Such simplistic comparison articles are barely at elementary school science level.
They're very misleading without also showing battery sizes. For example, the stock capacities are:
iPhone 3G = 1150 mAh (?)
Instinct = 1000
Touch Dual = 1120
LG EnV = 800
Tilt = 1000
...and so forth. Notice that the iPhone 3G has a larger stock battery than most other tested phones.
The Instinct comes within five minutes and yet is a 10% smaller battery. If it turns out that the iP3G really has a larger battery, the comparisons are even worse.
Most of the other phones have easily swappable batteries, and have extended batteries available... some up to twice the stock capacity or more.
They're very misleading without also showing battery sizes. For example, the stock capacities are:
iPhone 3G = 1150 mAh (?)
Instinct = 1000
Touch Dual = 1120
LG EnV = 800
Tilt = 1000
...and so forth. Notice that the iPhone 3G has a larger stock battery than most other tested phones.
The Instinct comes within five minutes and yet is a 10% smaller battery. If it turns out that the iP3G really has a larger battery, the comparisons are even worse.
Most of the other phones have easily swappable batteries, and have extended batteries available... some up to twice the stock capacity or more.
Why is it misleading to not show the battery types? It's not an article about how efficiently the phones manage their power, it's an article about how long the phones last with the batteries they come with. And the iPhone wins out *because* Apple was able to fit such a nice battery inside. And BTW, you can get battery extenders for the iPhone as well - I don't think they've made a 3G version yet, but I remember an iPhone case with built-in battery pack that literally doubled battery life.
For one thing, some of the phones come with two batteries, a small one and an extended one. Using the battery that more closely matches the phone you are comparing to, simply makes more sense.
Consider: the original iPhone has a 1400 mAh battery. Sites like Anandtech used a Blackjack with its smallest battery (900 mAh) in their article about why EDGE was such a good choice over 3G. If they'd used the extended battery that most carriers included, the results would've been quite different... and blow their agenda.
(Never mind that a true engineering site would've at least hooked up an ammeter and figured out how much current draw was due to radios vs displays and so forth.)
Most importantly, if you think ahead to the near future...
If Apple comes out with a higher capacity battery option, would you want phone comparisons to still always use the original, smaller stock battery? Of course not.