“Apple fans have been looking over at the big, beautiful screens of Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5 for a long while now,” Mark Rogowsky reports for Forbes. “And while the continued sales success of the iPhone shows many are satisfied with what they’ve got, there is little doubt many are salivating at the prospect that next month’s iPhone 6 announcement will at last bring larger displays to Apple’s flagship product.”
“Indeed, rumors from the supply chain suggest the move to 4.7 and 5.5-inch screens will generate so much demand that Apple could sell 70-80 million before the year is out,” Rogowsky reports. “But could it be possible that the killer feature of the iPhone 6 isn’t the display itself, but something behind it? Yes, I’m talking about the battery.”
“I recently returned from some travels in New York and then up to Maine,” Rogowsky reports. “Between staying in touch, relying on GPS often and dropping in and out of coverage (blame the subways and the rugged terrain of Acadia National Park), the battery on my iPhone would not have made it through a single one of my 9 days away from home without help from a charger or an external booster.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote on Thursday:
Apple needs to do a better job explaining to users who might not be very technically inclined how their iPhones work and how to maximize battery life.
We’ve met people with iPhones who’ve never downloaded a single app, never updated any of the apps they do have, never updated their OS, never even restarted their iPhones, never removed photos and now have no more room left to snap another, never turned Bluetooth off/on, never increased their data-fetching interval, never turned off push email, leave their iPhones in hot car glove boxes for hours, have never disabled even a single push notification, never adjusted display brightness, allow every app access to location services, have never reduced their Auto-Lock interval, never deactivated Automatic Downloads, and grant every app the ability to Background App Refresh.
These people are the iPhone “users” who “hug walls” and constantly complain about their iPhone’s battery life. It’s like complaining about Congress, but never bothering to cast a vote.
Apple should include more than just a link to their website on the “instruction” card they put in each iPhone box. Apple’s in-package “instructions” take simplification to a ludicrous level; they are harming users, not helping them. Apple should include the same battery information they include on their website, how it works and how to maximize it, printed on a card, in every box. Maybe some of these cards will even get read.
Our iPhones last and last and last. And last. And last some more. Why? Because we RTFM and therefore know how to use them.
All that said, we’d welcome a bigger iPhone battery because, let’s face it, limiting your device’s capabilities in order to maximize battery life isn’t optimal. Obviously, Apple is leaving too much work for the user when it comes to battery management. We’d take a few millimeters thicker devices for longer battery life. When it comes to battery life, it’s better to err of the side of overkill than “just enough when managed properly by experienced users.”
Related articles:
More iPhone 6 images leaked, 5.5-inch model to feature 2,915 mAh battery – August 16, 2014
Samsung mocks iPhone users at airport power outlets – August 14, 2014
The ultimate guide to solving iOS battery drain – April 7, 2014
