Battery Life

Using the iPhone you already know it's not going to last very long on battery; I didn't have enough time to run the full suite of battery tests, but those that I did run will give you a good idea of what to expect.

The first test is a strict email benchmark. I created a gmail address and signed up to receive all of the latest postings from some of the most popular newsgroups through Google Groups via email. The end result is a mailbox that gets over 5000 messages a day, and a perfect worst case scenario email test.

All three devices were run on the Edge network to be the most balanced, but keep in mind that the Blackjack supports 3G and the iPhone can run over WiFi. Bluetooth was enabled during the test, but remained unpaired with any devices.

The Blackberry Curve was the only device out of the three that could receive emails instantly, and it did so much faster than either the Blackjack or the iPhone. Both the Blackjack and iPhone automatically checked the mailbox at 15 minute intervals, but in actual email download speed the iPhone was clearly faster than the Blackjack.

Battery Life Test - Email

Battery life for email was a clear victory for the Curve, lasting just over a full day doing nothing but checking emails. Keep in mind that all three devices were set to their silent profiles, meaning that the Blackberry was constantly vibrating as it received multiple emails each minute.

The iPhone more than measured up to Apple's own estimated 6 hour battery life during Internet use, lasting 6 hours and 53 minutes. The Blackjack on its standard battery came in last at a bit over 5 hours. From our experience, the extended battery would probably bring the Blackjack up to the iPhone's battery life.

It's important to note that these tests are best case scenario as I'm not walking around town with the phones while testing them, which would be far more stressful on battery life. That being said, the Blackjack and iPhone simply don't cut it for high volume email devices, there's just no replacing the Blackberry. For casual email though, either will work fine.

Our other battery life test is strictly web surfing; we loaded a series of nine web pages stored on a local server and looped the test until the batteries ran down. The screen was left enabled on the Blackjack and iPhone but we couldn't force the Curve to do the same, so its results are slightly inflated by having a screen that went to sleep after the first 30 seconds of use.

Battery Life Test - Web Browsing

This time on WiFi, the iPhone comes in closer to its estimated 6 hour internet battery life. Again, you're looking at best case scenario battery life; watching a lot of videos on YouTube will run the battery down

It Crashes? Privacy Concerns
Comments Locked

85 Comments

View All Comments

  • CaptainDDL - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Could you take a picture of what the iPhone shows when you're trying to connect to a secure Wi-Fi connection? Thanks.
  • slashbinslashbash - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Love the Group X reference.

    And once again Anand reminds me why I read Anandtech and don't really visit any other tech sites. He covers everything I want to know in a way that other reviewers can't.

    It's strange but I guess understandable that the iPhone doesn't use AIM/iChat/etc. AT&T (and any other carrier for that matter) would rather not have the iPhone than give up the lucrative SMS plans. But I doubt it will be long before there's a web-based AJAXy AIM client that will run beautifully on the iPhone and only use the data plan, not SMSes.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    I'm glad people got the reference and didn't just think that there was something horribly wrong with me :)

    I don't want a web based AIM client, I want AIM support from Apple in the same fashion as SMS support on the iPhone. Dammit Steve, you know it'd be awesome.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Zirconium - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    I don't want Apple's iPhone, I just want BANG BANG BANG!!!
  • frank5592 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    get to top of web page by double tapping the gray top menu bar

    Very helpful for long web pages

    Great review, very impressive work and by far the best review of the iphone

    BTW, typing this on iphone safari and noticing that predictive typing is some what slow and does not always show up
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Thanks for the tip and the comment, I've updated the review :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Chaotic42 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Seriously, this was an *excellent* review. I don't even have a cell phone and I couldn't have cared less about the iPhone before I read this, but I was bored. This answered every question that I or anyone I've talked to about the phone has had, and it was a great read. It makes me want one now.

    *Very* well done, Anand.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Thank you so much for your kind post, there's no better feeling than pouring a lot of work into an article and getting a response like that. Thanks again :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Dennis Travis - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Agreed, your iPhone review was totally outstanding. You covered everything and then some and took the time to explain each feature in a way that anyone can understand.

    Another great review Anand. Told me everything I wanted to know about the iPhone.

  • michael2k - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    It sounds like you will want an iPhone if:
    1) You have $600
    2) You like the iPod
    3) You like Star Trek: The Next Generation

    The only thing missing is voice recognition! And flexible roll up displays.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now