3G Phone Battery Life

Michael Gartenberg | July 17, 2008, 11:25 AM

In addition to the iPhone 3G, I'm spending some quality time with the new HP 910 which is Windows Mobile based. One thing I'm looking at is battery life. I agree with James Kendrick totally. While 3G radios inherently use more power to a greater degree, the added functionality of 3G leads to increases in message models. Let's face it, when you browse the web and it's a good experience, you tend to do it more. Add in things such as streaming audio or video and the driving the screen more and you're going to take a hit on overall battery life over the course of the day. We saw the exact same issues with 2.5 devices when they first rolled out. Eventually battery life will get better as both chipsets and software  improve. I have found no problem getting through a day on the road (which is when I see the highest usage models) with the iPhone, but I do need to re-charge each night.