Realistic bluetooth battery usage?

[netnothing]

I don't have or use a bluetooth.....but I buddy of mine just got the 4S as his first iPhone.

He works at home, and uses the iPhone as his primary phone. He does mostly sales, so he's on the phone a lot.

He's on Verizon, and uses a Jawbone Hero headset. Usually has 4 bars in his apartment.

Apple lists the stats for the 4S at:
Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G

Any ideas on what he should realistically expect those numbers to be using bluetooth?

While working, he really doesn't use the phone for anything (no games, no email, maybe some texting). He's on WiFi at home as well.

Thanks!

-Kevin

 

[deeddawg]

I can't speak to the talk time, but if he has a landline he might consider using a speakerphone and Google Voice (the service, not the app) to handle work calls.

GV can ring both his home phone and cell, and he can set blackout times for each line so work calls go to voicemail or cell instead of home phone outside of work hours. For example, calls go to the landline only between 8am and 5:30pm, to cell phone between 12-1pm and 5:30 to 9pm, then voicemail outside those hours.

 

[netnothing]

So, anyone have any realistic numbers for iPhone 4S battery drain while using a bluetooth headset, compared to no headset?

-Kevin

 

[deeddawg]

It's be cool to have actual figures, but I'm not sure you'll see anything definitive. I'd expect the power drain from using a bluetooth headset is likely to be significantly less than the drain from being on calls. I'd look to total talk time on a charge as the primary metric. Although Apple says "up to 8 hours" on 3G, that figure will be heavily influenced by how good the cell signal is at his location and may be substantially lower. I suspect that would be the more limiting factor than the use of bluetooth.

Possibly a silly question, but does the battery time really matter in this instance?

If he's working from home, using a bluetooth headset, is there a reason he can't leave the phone plugged into the charger (or computer USB port) for part or all of the day?

 

[netnothing]

If he's working from home, using a bluetooth headset, is there a reason he can't leave the phone plugged into the charger (or computer USB port) for part or all of the day?

Yes, he certainly can leave it plugged in.

More than anything, I, as well as he, was curious as to how much using a bluetooth headset reduced the total talk time. Naturally it will just by the simple fact that you are using the bluetooth radio, whereas if you were just talking on the phone (or using the Apple headphones), the BT radio wouldn't be on.

So ideal case would probably be full bars, talking directly on the phone without really using the phone for anything else....you'd get almost 8 hours (per Apple).

Now do the same thing and talk via a bluetooth headset, I'm guessing that number is significantly less. I was just wondering if anyone had any rough numbers or experience.

-Kevin

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Apple lists the stats for the 4S at:
Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G

Any ideas on what he should realistically expect those numbers to be using bluetooth?

In my experience Bluetooth doesn't affect the battery life of the phone a whole lot, but good luck finding a headset that will last more than about 3 hours on a charge.

 

[deeddawg]

In my experience Bluetooth doesn't affect the battery life of the phone a whole lot, but good luck finding a headset that will last more than about 3 hours on a charge.

Buy two! Talk on one while the other charges.