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3G s vs 3G: Battery life and dropped calls
The two major weaknesses of the iPhone 3G for me have been its short battery life and dropped calls. I'd like to hear from those that have had both models how they compare on these issues. Apple's discussion board is filled with new 3G s owners complaining about even shorter battery life, but it's not clear how representative are their experiences. And I've heard little on dropped call improvements.
That's because as far as I can tell, there are no improvements in terms of dropped calls.
I carried around a 3GS and 3G in parallel and found they dropped calls in the same locations at the same times. The iPhones have just never been terrific voice phones. It's not Apple's priority.
Dropped calls are a tough metric because they're reliant on both handset and carrier based issues. For instance, in NY and SF, AT&T's 1900 Mhz 3G network is desperately oversaturated. You're hopefully going to see a dramatic improvement in call completion when they bring the 850 Mhz 3G online later this year.
I think the 3GS is great, but I think it's great as a pocket computer. If you're looking for a better phone-call experience, the 3GS isn't going to help you.
I carried around a 3GS and 3G in parallel and found they dropped calls in the same locations at the same times. The iPhones have just never been terrific voice phones. It's not Apple's priority.
Dropped calls are a tough metric because they're reliant on both handset and carrier based issues. For instance, in NY and SF, AT&T's 1900 Mhz 3G network is desperately oversaturated. You're hopefully going to see a dramatic improvement in call completion when they bring the 850 Mhz 3G online later this year.
I think the 3GS is great, but I think it's great as a pocket computer. If you're looking for a better phone-call experience, the 3GS isn't going to help you.
I don't have as much quantitative data, but anecdotally I'd say battery life is marginally better -- you'll notice a slight bump but nothing dramatic. Just be careful about push notifications, for both 3G and 3GS. I'm pretty sure that's sapping my juice faster than anything.
From what I've seen, Apple's battery life estimates are pretty much spot on. I'm working on an article showing just that but there's a significant improvement in WiFi battery life, the issue is that there's no real improvement in battery life over 3G so I'm guessing most users don't find any real improvements when they are out and about.
Battery life during video playback and WiFi web browsing are noticeably improved over the 3G.
While gaming though, battery life is reduced thanks to the more powerful GPU. You get better frame rates, but you also get worse battery life.
Battery life during video playback and WiFi web browsing are noticeably improved over the 3G.
While gaming though, battery life is reduced thanks to the more powerful GPU. You get better frame rates, but you also get worse battery life.
Apples and oranges. Push notifications will use less battery than background tests, obviously. People may still complain about the base battery life either way.
I have noticed a change in dropped calls on the AT&T network in the SF bay area. It still drops calls multiple times driving south on 280 from South SF to Palo Alto. This is AT&T's problem and not the iPhone. Same thing happens with other 3G phones. It's pretty sad we can't get a good network in Silicon Valley. Hopefully the 850mhz will help. When AT&T had TDMA on 850 and GSM on 1900, GSM was totally awful (almost useless) until they switched it to 850.
But I love my 3GS. I am very glad I upgraded.
But I love my 3GS. I am very glad I upgraded.
I love my 3GS and carry a charger everywhere, but for how much I use it battery life is abysmal. I will never put a FATASS battery case on it either.
I change my device fairly often working in PDA/Smartphone accessory sector, and currently use Xperia, HTC Touch Diamond and finally after resisting iPhone for a while, I got myself iPhone 3GS yesterday. And I am disappointed. Disappointed with battery life, disappointed with dropped calls. Battery for me last 6 - 8ish hours. OK, I do have push emails on and WiFi is turned on. But In places where I have two/three bars on the iPhone, it drops calls while as my other devices works perfectly well. There are times where it doesn't even let the call through, even though it has two/three bars. My main reasons for getting one? Purely to bring together my iMac and my MacBook to work together.. Would I get one knowing these issues with dropped calls and battery life? I would seriously say no. Do I love my iPhone? Humnnnn... Answer has to be yes even though my other devices do run better and are in my opinion have many features iPhone does not have.
I upgraded from a first-gen iPhone to a 3GS, and it's a pretty dramatic improvement in my opinion. The battery life with 3G data turned on isn't super (like every other 3G phone out there) but it's definitely manageable. With regards to dropped calls, I didn't have a whole lot of trouble with the 1st gen (I live in Nashville, and AT&T's network here is pretty good), and I've had even less trouble with the 3GS. Of course, I've only had the phone for ~2 weeks, so I've got a bit of time to go before I say it never drops a call, but it certainly seems better.
I upgraded from a first-gen iPhone to a 3GS, and it's a pretty dramatic improvement in my opinion. The battery life with 3G data turned on isn't super (like every other 3G phone out there) but it's definitely manageable. With regards to dropped calls, I didn't have a whole lot of trouble with the 1st gen (I live in Nashville, and AT&T's network here is pretty good), and I've had even less trouble with the 3GS. Of course, I've only had the phone for ~2 weeks, so I've got a bit of time to go before I say it never drops a call, but it certainly seems better.
Upgraded on launch day from 3G to 3GS and I am experiencing greatly reduced dropped calls. The phone gets 2 extra bars of signal at my house and now I can actually use it at home! The O2 UK coverage in my area is shocking so this is a real improvement.
For a real world test on the battery I performed a completely un-scientific experiment. Last year the week after getting the iPhone 3G I went to London for the day, took a load of pictures, used maps to find my way around and listened to music on the train on the way there and the battery died at about 4pm - annoyingly before I got home. This year when I performed the same experiment of taking photos, listening to music nearly all day, using maps and the compass to find my way about in areas I hadn't been before I managed to listen to music on the train on the way home and still have roughly 1/3 of the battery remaining when I got home (after an hour train journey).
I think that although the iPhone isn't a battery powerhouse, it has been improved slightly. Should now be able to avoid running out partway through the day, but still needs to be charged every night.
For a real world test on the battery I performed a completely un-scientific experiment. Last year the week after getting the iPhone 3G I went to London for the day, took a load of pictures, used maps to find my way around and listened to music on the train on the way there and the battery died at about 4pm - annoyingly before I got home. This year when I performed the same experiment of taking photos, listening to music nearly all day, using maps and the compass to find my way about in areas I hadn't been before I managed to listen to music on the train on the way home and still have roughly 1/3 of the battery remaining when I got home (after an hour train journey).
I think that although the iPhone isn't a battery powerhouse, it has been improved slightly. Should now be able to avoid running out partway through the day, but still needs to be charged every night.
