Comments on: 4G Galaxy S III a “huge battery sucker”

By: Kosh

Kosh — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:38:58 +0000

I’m getting a “full day”, but I’ve been using BetterBatteryStats and disabling anything that causes a high number of Partial Wakelocks.

I found that location services for Google Now/Latitude were slaughtering my battery, disabled those, and I get from 5am till 11pm easily (including 1-2 hours morning and afternoon bluetooth music playing on the bus)

If I disabled 4G (even switch right over to 2G), disabled syncing I’d get more than a day, disabling mobile data/GPS/Wifi/BT would stretch me into the “a few days” category.

By: Brad Cann

Brad Cann — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:36:03 +0000

i’ve got a SGSIII 4G, and whilst im not in a 4G area, mine lasts 3 days and a bit, but i’ve turned on power saving and disabled all the “fancy” features i care nothing for. tweak the settings and stop getting facebook updates every 5 seconds and i bet it will last a lot longer.

By: Simon Reidy

Simon Reidy — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:34:05 +0000

I agree. Its always a crazy time when new iPhones launch too, as all the issues, no matter how trivial or rare will become huge social media frenzies. Sometimes it’s justified (iOS 6 maps really do suck, hence “Mapgate”) and sometimes its not (purple lens flare, scuffs, battery life and so on).

By: PeterA

PeterA — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 04:41:18 +0000

I was lucky to get 12 hours out of my iPhone 4.

Seriously, I don’t think the iPhone 5 has *worse* battery life than any other iPhone, its just the usual “if you play with me I will go flat” that all smart phones have.

When I got my iPhone 3G it would go flat in 4 hours. By the time I switched to the 3Gs my 3G was getting 8 hour days. What changed? I wasn’t playing with it every 20 seconds. Same thing with the 3GS to 4 transition. and again from my iPhone 4 to my HTC One XL.

As soon as I get used to the phone and stop looking at it and poking it every 20 seconds the battery life becomes perfectly usable. The iPhone 5 problems are just people that are playing with it more than their old phone.

By: seven_tech

seven_tech — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 04:04:38 +0000

@Ben

Some seem sensible, like yourself. But it’s just funny watching some of them take their phones back after getting ‘only’ 12 hours…..and then they say Telstra/Optus whatever are ripping them off cause they said there’s no problem, that’s normal.

Its amazing what sense of self-righteousness people come up with after being somewhat sheltered….

Its true of old dumbphone owners too- they can’t understand why a massive screened, hugely powerful, multi-talented smartphone can’t have 7 days battery use like ‘my old Nokia’…..

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:59:49 +0000

Sorry if I appear surprised, I promise I am far from it :) Been an iPhone user since the iPhone 3G, so was fully aware of what to expect. :)

By: seven_tech

seven_tech — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:56:51 +0000

@Karl

These people seem surprised. I’ve been watching the iPhone 5 battery thread and they’re very naive- they’re so used to 2 or 3 days of battery and they’re surprised when making a smaller battery and putting in 4G lowers battery life substantially. I’ve seen posts like ‘OMG I’ve been using my phone for only 3 hours on time and its already at 75%!’ Or worse ‘Something wrong with my iPhone only getting 10-12 hours out of it’…..

The rest of us chumps have been putting up with battery life like this for years. Welcome to the club Apple sheltered people- looks like Apple have become mainstream…. oh wait….

By: Marcus

Marcus — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:54:04 +0000

I’m in a somewhat unique job where my role lets me see a very large variety of devices… I’m also located on the outskirts of the Perth CBD/East Perth so while we do get signal it can be patchy.

Personally I use a Android phone on the nextG network, and its good enough.

By: Karl

Karl — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:51:33 +0000

I know somebody with an iPhone 5 and apparently the battery struggles to last the day where the iPhone 4 she had before would last ~3 days.

By: seven_tech

seven_tech — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:48:32 +0000

@Marcus

That’s only relevant if you’re in a 4G area all day though. I spend most of my time in 3G areas and it is set to LTE/WCDMA Auto. I tried turning LTE off and it made little difference.

So yes, inside a 4G area, turning 4G off makes a difference, outside it, not so much. And if you’re gonna be turning 4G off INSIDE a 4G area….why didn’t you just get the One X….

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:45:29 +0000

I picked up an iPhone5 last week from Telstra. Over the couple of days I’ve found that I’ll use about 70-80% of my phone’s battery over 12-14 hours. Bare in mind though I am a light user. YMMV.

As an example, today my phone came off charge at 7:30am. As of 2:45pm is has 76% charge, but it may have only had 5 minutes of actual use (SMS messages)

By: Moshe

Moshe — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:30:46 +0000

That inevitable comparative question: how does the iPhone 5 compare? Does it also need charging by the minute?

By: Renai LeMay

Renai LeMay — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:08:46 +0000

I’m going to test this with my One XL over the next week and see how it goes.

By: mjd

mjd — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:06:04 +0000

Rhys – You certainly can on the One XL.
4G is pretty great though….

By: Marcus

Marcus — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:05:56 +0000

I can confirm this with the HTC 4G phones as well.
Turn 4G off and it runs all day no problem, turn it on and you have to recharge multiple times a day.

By: Rhys

Rhys — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 02:42:07 +0000

Can you turn 4g off and only use 3g when blazingly fast twitter updates are not needed?

By: Drew Guttadore

Drew Guttadore — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 02:38:42 +0000

We went through the same teething problems when we got the new 3G handsets, so its to be expected. That along with spotty coverage is the reason I wait a good year before converting..