Gadget Techie

UPDATE: Once you are done reading this post, make sure to go to the homepage of this blog (http://gadgettechie.net) to read the other parts of this series. You can also click on the Apple category on the right of this page.

You can find the other parts of this series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
If you haven’t already done so, I would suggest reading part 1 of this series (iPhone 3G: Battery Life - Part 1) to better understand the testing procedure, results of the first test, and my thoughts on what might be causing the low usage time.

For those too lazy to go read that post, here is a brief synopsis: I basically ran a battery life test on my iPhone 3G running on the EDGE network (everything else was OFF). The test consisted of leaving the AIM app running since it is the only app that keeps your phone active and uses data. With these settings, the battery life was abysmal with 5 hours and 28 minutes of usage and 7 hours and 14 minutes of standby.

In part 2 of this series, I tested the phone with the following settings:
3G: On
Location Services (GPS): Off
Wifi: Off
Push: Off
Fetch: Manually
Brightness: 50% – Auto-Brightness On
3rd Party Apps Installed: Yes

Again I ran the AIM application to simulate real life usage and got the following results:

As you can see, the usage time is very close to the advertised usage time for 3G (5 hours). However, what bothers me is how turning the iPhone’s 3G off in part 1 of this series only saved an hour of battery life!

Now, as I said in the last post, it is possible that my magnetic holster is the culprit. I ran this test WITHOUT the holster and got reasonable results (although I would have liked to have gotten higher numbers).

This now leads to my third test. My third test will be EXACTLY the same as the first test (everything off, EDGE usage only) except this time without the magnetic holster since the first test was done WITH the magnetic holster.

If the results of this third test (EDGE only, no holster) are the same as the first (EDGE only, with holster), then I believe it is safe to say that the magnetic holster has no effect on the battery. But then that leaves me wondering how turning OFF the 3G only saves you 1 hour of battery when it is supposed to double your battery life according to Apple. The only thing I can think of is that the AIM application only wastes battery because it leaves the LCD screen on and not because it is constantly using data. If this is the case, then yes, both the EDGE and 3G usage times should be close. However, this also means that the maximum usage time I can get is roughly 5 hours and 30 minutes! Much less than is advertised for EDGE.

After I finish the third test (EDGE only, no holster), which should be finished in about an hour, I will charge my phone overnight and run a fourth test. This fourth test will not use the AIM application. Instead I will see what results I get with normal usage of the phone (talking, texting, checking email, etc). First with EDGE, and then with 3G. I will do both without my magnetic holster to insure that the usage times I am getting are not being affected by any external factors that have nothing to do with the phone itself.

If the results of these tests are of any interest to you, make sure to subcribe to my blog via RSS, Twitter, or email. You can find links to all of these in the panel on the right of the page.