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there is no question that the 3g and now 3gs are worse for battery life, my question is WHY does 3g make for worse battery life? Why does 3g burn more power?

One guess is that 3G transmit a lot more data? It can also do voice and data at the same time unlike Edge?

I'm sure you can look up technical data if you really must know why.
 
So is it proper to have my 3GS plugged in (even at 100% charge) whenever possible so that it's only drawing power from a usb/wall power source?
 
maybe

One guess is that 3G transmit a lot more data? It can also do voice and data at the same time unlike Edge?

I'm sure you can look up technical data if you really must know why.

what more data though.

If the user is simply using the phone more, then indeed, that could be more data. Since it is fast, I open like five safari windows and just let them load, read them as I go, yes, that is more data

but, if I just have the phone downloading email, doing the same things as with 2g phone, wouldn't it send the SAME amount of data?

AND, it should actually be accessing the phone radio LESS since it can transfer that data in a much shorter amount of time, IMO using even less energy.

Now, the power used for the radio might be higher, lets say 1.5x watts. BUT, if it can transfer the mails in HALF the time, one should come out ahead?

But, we dont', it simply eats power - and that is what I don't get.
 
I dumped a bunch of apps and my standby time is holding up really well so far today. I haven't been using the phone much since my head has been buried editing, but it's been buzzing all morning with Exchange push. Maybe some app was going rogue. The test will be overnight standby.
 
Yesterday I had about 5 hours of use and 11 hours of standby before it went totally dead. Most of the day I had 3g off, brightness down to 25% and wifi on. I played several games throughout the day, txt a lot, made 2 short calls and was on the internet a lot. For the last 18% of battery life, I turned everything on, brightness to full and played a 3d game to drain the battery before bed, which took about 30-40 minutes.

Woke up about 3am and it was fully charged so I unplugged it. It was still at 100% when I got up for good this morning at about 830. Strange that it didn't lose any charge at all.

Overall, it seems to be doing better everyday and as long as you have a car charger and are smart with what features you have turned on, battery life shouldn't be a problem.
 
WoW, most of you guys are getting bad battery life. I'm getting anywhere between 7 - 8 hours of usage before my 3gs dies. I never charge till its dead and I'm very pleased with the life I'm getting. I'm a heavy user and stream a lot of podcasts and surf the net, pay bills, etc through my phone. I've had it since friday and i buy into the longer battery life they were selling. I'll post a screen shot when my phone is down to 10% later.
 
I have a car charger and I always have it plugged in the laptop, so battery life is pretty much a non-issue.

However, I do notice at least a 25% increase in battery life. Especially when asleep...it will read 100% for a while.
 
One word...awesome

I'm suprised at the battery life
safari
tons of SMS
a bit of YouTube
got my email going
aim

my battery life on my sidekick lx was terrible
 
You are correct in what your saying; however, cycling DOES ensure consistent battery drain and synchronization between that battery loss and the meter (in this case percentage remaining). Apple also recommends cycling the iPhone once a month for similar reasons (link below)

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

The relevant section from this post:

"For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)."

Again, this is not to IMPROVE battery life as far as hours but to keep the battery lasting longer. If you use the phone infrequently (which makes no sense BTW) the all the electrons may not be stimulated as you use power. However, which electrons are stimulated are completely random and so a power cycle theoretically ensures this - however in practice everyday use of the phone does as well.

I am not arguing with you but merely pointing this out so that people with real battery issues do not feel like they screwed themselves by not charge cycling or that cycling would solve their problem. As someone else said, there are SOO many different use patterns that its hard to compare one persons phone to another. For example, I have BT off, wifi off, brightness at 50% notifications on, auto lock at 1 min, 3G always on and push enabled. Now how many people will say they have the same settings? Many. But then if i tell you I have 6 email addresses of which 5 push, who do you think will have the better battery life?

Point is if you really want to test battery life i would run a test with someone else where everything is disabled except the cell signal. Then run the same movie in a loop and see if the phones last similar amounts of time. Cause otherwise it is just too hard to compare.
 
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