“It’s assumed by those who pay attention to Apple rumors that the iPhone 5 will feature a new design with a bigger and the ability to access wireless carriers’ new 4G networks, particularly AT&T’s and Verizon’s LTE service,” Dwight Silverman reports for The Houston Chronicle. “After all, if the Android competition has these features, the iPhone should, too, right?”
“Well, not so fast,” Silverman reports. “After spending some time the past few days with the Galaxy Nexus, Google’s flagship Android device, I’m not so sure.”
Silverman reports, “The battery life on the Galaxy Nexus is abysmal when it’s connected to the LTE network. It’s far worse than the original Sprint EVO, the first Android phone with a massive screen that also accesses a so-called 4G network, and its battery life was notoriously awful. It only takes a few minutes of using the Galaxy Nexus on LTE for the battery meter to noticeably deplete, and heaven forbid you should do any sustained access that involves lots of screen activity. I watched a half-hour of video via Netflix, starting when the battery was at full charge. Thirty minutes later, it was down by 50 percent… Other LTE-based Android phones have similar issues, but this Nexus takes the Bad Battery Life crown.”
Read more in the full article here.
Truth! So who is telling the truth? This reviewer stated that he gets 33 hours under heavy use. So which one do you think is telling the truth?
http://betanews.com/2011/12/18/verizon-galaxy-nexus-first-impressions-review/
33 hours lol.
the guy is a nutcase. Reading the article the guy bashes the iPhone 4S with the 8MP camera and praises the 5MP camera on the droid.
I have a feeling he had the phone plugged in to power for 30 of those 33 hours…
He’s flat-out lying. Notice that when he compared iPhone 4S specs to the Galaxy Nexus, he used the base model iPhone 4S and the top-of-the-line Nexus, but failed to mention price.
Delusional insight. If he is consistent with this, he would need to go to clinic.
LOL… read his responses when called out on his report about the Nexus… You should also see his comparison of the Kindle Fire to the iPad 2.
Imagine the car manufacturers held these standards (or at least one!) and did this with their gas consumption. I love how smart Apple is in calling out the problems with shoe horning technology that seems so cool but actually causes problems. Consumers are too stupid to realize these issues by third party companies and will blame the phone manufacturer instead.
I wouldn’t want to upgrade to LTE and lose my unlimited data anyway.
Oh really? Why doesn’t Apple make the iPhone screen 1″ tall then if battery life were to be the be all and end all. Pathetic article.
I still feel that 4″ is the next logical evolution of the iPhone screen. Any smaller and we lose real functionality in the race for more legibility in web pages. Screen real estate is where it’s at.
You and I disagree on many things, BLN, but I agree that a 4″ display makes sense and will be part of the spec for the iPhone 5 (and the next iPod touch, please!). The number of pixels won’t change, so the resolution will go down to 288 ppi. But the 30.6% increase in display area will be welcomed by many for email, maps, books, video, and gaming.
A 4″ screen would be fine, but 4.5″ or 5″ is just getting too large. Not only regarding battery life, but just for carrying the thing around in your pocket.
Well, according to the sales data from the Android world (where you have phones from smaller than 3″ to over 4″), the smaller screens seem to be far more popular than the 4″ devices, mostly for a fairly logical reason (people don’t like holding a brick to their ear).
exactly.
If the iPhone screen can be adjusted to 4″ without making the iPhone huge… I’m for it.
If it makes the iPhone a huge brick… I’d rather not have it. I have an iPad for bigger screen size.
A girl that used to work with me got one of the 4″ screen android phones, she is about 5′ and very petite. The phone was half the size of her head.. It just looked very odd.
And she dropped it multiple times that I know of anyway.
I think you left out the other fairly logical reason…the free phones tend to be the smaller, less capable ones.
I always figured those larger screens really only served a market for people of size — that is, if you can palm a basketball, then these super-sized screen phones are for you.
They should distribute them at Rochester’s Big & Tall…
What good is the speed if the battery life cannot support normal usage throughout the day?
I recall a lot of disparaging comments about the original iPhone being 2G. Apple said that it was because the 3G chipsets were too power hungry. Sure enough, even after waiting for the next generation chipsets, the battery life on the iPhone 3G was reduced. Moral of the story – Apple is wise enough to wait until the technology is usable.
Other companies, however, are desperate for any buzzword that might steal some strength from the iPhone. So it’s large displays, super AMOLED, and 4G for the Google Galaxies. Too bad that its a device built for sprinting and not a day-long marathon.
Apple will bring 4G when it makes sense.
Apple may also be waiting for LTE to actually be fielded by the carriers in enough locations to make it worthwhile for the average user.
No sense pissing of customers by selling them something they can’t use.
AT&T is still fielding EDGE (2.5 G) in my neck of the woods.
The trick for new technology is to introduce it just as it’s ripening so that it’s fresh but not too fresh.
It’s not that LTE is bad, it’s just premature. It’s too close to the bottom of its S curve, or rather at only the second knuckle in its LATTE curve, to be viable at this time.
is this a joke. do younthe writer believe 1 phone is an example of them all? wow, what passes for reporting these days is awful.
Well, LTE is awful on any phone.
However, this is mostly thanks to first generation of chipsets. Apple said from very beginning that they will skip it, and use next generation LET chip.
So iPhone 4G or iPhone 6 (no, not iPhone 5, because the phone will be sixth, and iOS will be sixth) might easily have LTE capability with new cellular network chip.
I have a friend who works at Verison and loves his Android phone. I asked him about the poor battery life on the LTE phones. He said they recommend that people leave the phone plugged in when they use LTE. That made me bust out laughing. Guess people should buy a super long extension cord with their LTE phones. It’s the return of the corded phone.
I was in the AT&T store 2 days ago buying a new Bluetooth speakerphone (Blueant S4) overheard another salesman telling a customer that he “only” has to remove his battery to reset his android phone maybe once a week to fix any problems. and that he has never seen a Virus on android, but he runs 2 Antivirus apps to make sure.
It must really suck being an android sufferer.
Ask the Windows sufferers. Same principle. A rip-of of Apple technology, poorly made, turns into the bug and malware nightmare the freetards and pseudo-cheepos deserve.
Android = Windows reloaded.
(unfortunately due to Steve Jobs himself. He trusted the wrong (mole) guys. Twice.)
As my father taught me : if you buy something cheep, you will buy twice. (or even more often. And suffer a lot more).
Always buy real quality stuff that costs a few dollars more. End of story.
Ahahaha… I remember doing that constantly with my Palm phones. So many others from many brands had to reset at least once a week or two… I don’t miss those days!
My friend has an iPhone 4. They complained that it was acting just a little buggy. I asked when they last turned it off and back on???
“Oh, its been 3 or 4 months.” They said. “Why?”
After they recycled the power, everything ran just fine.
🙂
Apple guy told me once a month, need it or not. 🙂
LTE also isn’t widely available yet. Even Verizon, which appears to have the largest LTE network, only has coverage in major metro areas, and even that is very spotty. And in places where it supposedly has blanket LTE coverage, I know people who can’t get a signal or downloads stop mid-streat.
LTE will be nice once the technology is installed and the bugs worked out, but it’s just not all it’s marketed to be yet.
why would apple call their 6th iphone “iphone 5”?
Why does anyone care how fast the cellular data network is? Are people regularly streaming audio or video or playing network games over the cell network? I assume these people have unlimited data plans, otherwise such pursuits will get really expensive, really fast.
If I’m doing something with my iPhone that requires serious use of the internet, 99.9% of the time, I’m on Wi-Fi, usually at home. Cellular data is for quick info lookups, map searches, and other things you do when you’re busy transiting from point A to point B. And for those things, 3G is plenty fast enough.
I can’t help but think that LTE is more about marketing “faster” to customers who otherwise might not buy a new phone, than something anyone actually needs.
——RM