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cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,156
If battery is your main concern get a Droid RAZR MAXX. That thing has a crazy big battery in it.

You'd also be surprised with the size of extended batteries you can get with a lot of phones that have replacable batteries too. I think mugen makes a 3900 mah battery for the nexus s. Lol
 

DakotaGuy

macrumors 601
Jan 14, 2002
4,294
3,913
South Dakota, USA
You'd also be surprised with the size of extended batteries you can get with a lot of phones that have replacable batteries too. I think mugen makes a 3900 mah battery for the nexus s. Lol

Oh I know that I am just surprised that they can put such a big battery in and still have a nice form factor. I like my RAZR, but am jealous of that huge battery in the MAXX.
 

Trash Can

macrumors member
Jun 19, 2010
89
48
Las Vegas, NV
Oh I know that I am just surprised that they can put such a big battery in and still have a nice form factor. I like my RAZR, but am jealous of that huge battery in the MAXX.

I have the MAXX. It'll easily last two days with everything enabled (including LTE) and still have 20-30% battery remaining. The only Smart Action I have running is Night Battery Saver, which shuts down background data, WiFi, GPS, and cell data while I'm asleep. The MAXX is a fantastic device - Motorola got this one right!
 

cotak

macrumors regular
Feb 24, 2011
224
0
Of course you can turn off 3G on android phones. It's a pretty strange thing to complain and not know.

With 3G on all the time (what's the point of a smart phone if you only want to use slow data?) the iphone 4 lasted about the same as my Galaxy Nexus. People seems to think the Gnex has bad battery life. It really depends on what your settings are. If you leave tons of apps running in the back ground chances are your battery's going to take a beating because it's real multi-tasking on android. Double-twist for example has a DLNA server mode which it tells you if you turn on it will impact your battery. The other thing which I found drained the battery like no tomorrow was the vibrate on type setting for the keyboard. As a motor draws the most current when it starts up you can imagine if you keep starting and stopping the vibrate motor it's going to beat up your battery as well.

Anyhow the issue isn't that bad. It will last you a day no problem.
 

KoukiFC3S

macrumors 6502a
Jul 4, 2010
536
1
According to anandtech, the 4S can browse for 9+ hours on 3G.

This matches the Razr Maxx. It's pretty impressive, considering the iPhone has less than half the battery capacity compared to the Maxx.

I had the Maxx for 14 days, but switched to the 4S. The 4S with a battery case gives me plenty of juice to get through the day! :D
 

kevinof

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2008
744
161
Dublin/London
I have a GSM Galaxy nexus and looking at the settings right now it shows 69% left and been running 9h 8min on battery. I have an iphone4 as well and I'd say, depending on what you do, the Nexus matches or exceeds the iphone4. I certainly don't have to plug into a charger during the day and usually end up at 11pm with over 40% left.



I had to trade back my Galaxy Nexus. The battery life was horrible even with the extended battery. There was a reason why Verizon cut the price of all Galaxy Nexus batteries by 50%....
 

PracticalMac

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 22, 2009
2,857
5,243
Houston, TX
Turning off 3G is really not a feasible idea. U buy such a hi tech gadget only to not utilise it at its fullest..

Even keeping 3G on will get u a day of usage.. That's not bad as long as it gets u day..

Most of time non-3G suffices. Rarely I turn on 3G for browsing.

I have 200MB / Mo plan, and use this to reduce the chance I run over, and so far am about 100MB/Mo usage.
 

BiggAW

macrumors 68030
Jun 19, 2010
2,563
176
Connecticut
According to anandtech, the 4S can browse for 9+ hours on 3G.

This matches the Razr Maxx. It's pretty impressive, considering the iPhone has less than half the battery capacity compared to the Maxx.

I had the Maxx for 14 days, but switched to the 4S. The 4S with a battery case gives me plenty of juice to get through the day! :D

The iPhone with it's regular battery should get through the day. Mine does, even with heavy use.

The ultimate is probably RAZR MAXX for sheer battery life, but I'd say the iPhone is far and away better than most Android phones. I had a Captivate, and that thing wouldn't last the day. The iPhone is usually at ~50% at the end of the day, on a really, really heavy day, it will be around ~20%.
 

sentinelsx

macrumors 68010
Feb 28, 2011
2,004
0
The reason many people think some of the new androids outshine the iPhone 4/4S in battery longevity is their usage patterns. If your total screen on time is lower than 3-4 hours than android will always win because not only they can run for 3-4 hours max constantly (in my experience trying quite a few over a few weeks and months), they will have far better standby because 1600+ mah > 1450 mah. It is simple math. Screen off means both phones tend to draw almost equal juice if configured properly in an identical manner and the android with its huge battery will always win.

But, this all changes once your usage pattern goes further than a couple hours of screen time. I used to read quite a bit on my phones and with the long commute came youtube and video consumption and the iPhone 4 always ended up with 5-7 hours of solid screen on time while the android would struggle to touch 4 hours. That is where iPhone shines. Its ability to constantly sip juice while doing the exact same thing compared to the gas guzzler android.

Part of the reason is ofcourse those huge screens too. So in the end it really depends on usage and preference. Glad motorola has finally addressed this though and my friend with the MAXX is all praises about it. So i am keen on the newer phones coming this year. I guess this is the year android OEMs will finally cater to the battery crowd.
 

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,156
I can't speak for ICS since I haven't seen a test but iOS does a better job then Gingerbread using less power while web browsing. If you compare talk time Android usually comes up on top. This is probably cause talking uses similar amounts of power and the phone with the largest battery wins.

I can't get through an entire day with my 4s and I only use it for voice during the work day. I'm always near a charger so its not an issue.
 

4sFanatic

macrumors regular
Jan 26, 2012
172
0
Which SGS2?
There are 5 versions just in the US.
Hell, AT&T carries 3 of them. The SGS2, Skyrocket and Captivate.
Each uses a different SOC, so their power usage will vary.

The Skyrocket (SGH-I727) and the T-Mobile version (SGH-T989) are the same phone. They both use the same pentaband radio (MSM8260). You can flash the T-Mobile radio onto an AT&T Skyrocket and is will work on T-Mobile's AWS 3G band.
Just like you can flash the Skyrocket's radio onto the T989 and it will active the LTE frequencies on the MSM8260.


So what's ur point and how is it relevent to the topic - :confused:
 

rjohnstone

macrumors 68040
Dec 28, 2007
3,905
4,498
PHX, AZ.
So what's ur point and how is it relevent to the topic - :confused:
It's very relevant.
If you want to compare battery life, pick a device.
The SGS2 line alone uses several CPU/GPU SOC configurations.
Some are better than others at managing power.
The SGH-I727 vs. the SGH-T989 is one example of how the exact same device can also have variations is power usage.
The T-Mobile version gets better life due to the fact the the LTE radio is disabled since T-Mobile doesn't use it.

If you failed to see that, you need help.
 

Savor

Suspended
Jun 18, 2010
3,742
918
I hope that IF Motorola does make this year's Nexus phone, they better pack a battery at equal or even higher capacity than the MAXX.

It looks to me the MAXX wins battery life in terms of voice calling, LTE, and even Wi-Fi at 12+ hrs! Seeing 20+ hours for voice calling is just plain ridiculous for a smartphone. I hear PhoneDog ranks the Galaxy Note as probably 2nd best when it comes to battery among Androids at least based on real life usage.

Battery life for Wi-Fi browsing is the most important to me since I am usually on it and iPhone 4 was the best in that area back in 2010 and most of 2011. Looks like the MAXX takes the crown. I can't wait when smartphones have Wi-Fi browsing and video playback at 20+ hours and music playback at 100+ hours in a single charge. I would probably only need to charge it ONCE per week and can have the Wi-Fi switch and push notifications always on. Perhaps even 2-3 weeks since I have multiple phones to use.

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