iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy s3?

[flyinghippos101]

Originally Posted by mikeler

I've tried every trick I know and there is no way my iPhone 5 will make it all day. I've gone to push notifications, disabled only apps that I need notifications on and did the same with location services. I've turned down the screen brightness. I'm wondering if we got a couple of lemons.

Bluetooth and wifi services drain battery hardcore. Even if you're not connected to a network, your phone will still attempt to auto-detect networks in the area. Turning both those off will literally add hours to your battery life.

[BigServer1]

Originally Posted by mikeler

I've tried every trick I know and there is no way my iPhone 5 will make it all day. I've gone to push notifications, disabled only apps that I need notifications on and did the same with location services. I've turned down the screen brightness. I'm wondering if we got a couple of lemons.

You may have gotten a couple of lemons.

In my building, reception is notoriously bad. T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint get little, if any service. On Verizon, I'm consistently switching between a decent 3G signal and a weak LTE signal. It's constantly searching for a better signal, which is the worst thing for battery life. Even with that, I can get a full 24 hours, with 6-7 hours of actual usage and 18-24 hours of standby. I have everything enabled. Push email, push yelp, push social networks, and this includes web browsing, bluetooth, music streaming and some games as well.

When I'm at home on WiFi and a better signal, I'll get 8-9 hours of usage and 30+ hours of standby with the same usage mix, so I know signal searching definitely has something to do with it.

I'd take your phone into an Apple store, since you're covered for 90 days at least (unless you bought AppleCare+, then you're covered for 2 years.

[Power Player]

BTW on warranties - I refuse to buy them. what I do is setup a savings account and drop $100 in a month. So if something happens to my phone I have the money. If not - I still have the $$$$. Best way to go - IMO.

[BigServer1]

Originally Posted by Power Player

BTW on warranties - I refuse to buy them. what I do is setup a savings account and drop $100 in a month. So if something happens to my phone I have the money. If not - I still have the $$$$. Best way to go - IMO.

I bought AppleCare+, just to be safe. Figured for $99 it's worth it, especially since I'll have the phone for two years.

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by bad_call

gf also complained about battery running out a couple hrs before reaching destination during our day long (9 hr) road trip. might be roaming since she was using the road app. time for car charging adapter?

I am waiting on the El Cheapo adapters to come on Amazon.

Originally Posted by flyinghippos101

Bluetooth and wifi services drain battery hardcore. Even if you're not connected to a network, your phone will still attempt to auto-detect networks in the area. Turning both those off will literally add hours to your battery life.

Just turned both off, I'll see if that makes a difference.

Originally Posted by Power Player

BTW on warranties - I refuse to buy them. what I do is setup a savings account and drop $100 in a month. So if something happens to my phone I have the money. If not - I still have the $$$$. Best way to go - IMO.

I normally don't go for warranties but we did on the iPad just because my 3 year old son uses it. He is an expert at breaking things.

[bad_call]

Originally Posted by Power Player

BTW on warranties - I refuse to buy them. what I do is setup a savings account and drop $100 in a month. So if something happens to my phone I have the money. If not - I still have the $$$$. Best way to go - IMO.

in the same camp here. been burned on extended warranties in the past.

[bad_call]

Originally Posted by BigServer1

You may have gotten a couple of lemons.

In my building, reception is notoriously bad. T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint get little, if any service. On Verizon, I'm consistently switching between a decent 3G signal and a weak LTE signal. It's constantly searching for a better signal, which is the worst thing for battery life. Even with that, I can get a full 24 hours, with 6-7 hours of actual usage and 18-24 hours of standby. I have everything enabled. Push email, push yelp, push social networks, and this includes web browsing, bluetooth, music streaming and some games as well.

When I'm at home on WiFi and a better signal, I'll get 8-9 hours of usage and 30+ hours of standby with the same usage mix, so I know signal searching definitely has something to do with it.

I'd take your phone into an Apple store, since you're covered for 90 days at least (unless you bought AppleCare+, then you're covered for 2 years.

experienced bad signals in Scottsdale area last time out that way. this just using voice calls...no fancy wifi (since owning "cheapie" phone). not sure why...maybe cause it's so dang HOT there. ...lol

[BigServer1]

Originally Posted by bad_call

experienced bad signals in Scottsdale area last time out that way. this just using voice calls...no fancy wifi (since owning "cheapie" phone). not sure why...maybe cause it's so dang HOT there. ...lol

Hahaha yeah it is hot here...Finally starting to cool down now (cool down = high 80s, lol).

My service with Verizon has been much more solid than I had on T-Mobile here. I pretty consistently get 3-5 bars LTE when I'm out and about. The one real difference is my office, which is where cell service goes to die. Having anything that lets me use my phone has been great since moving over to Big Red.

[Power Player]

I know I got accused of wasting money in this thread by the one weird guy, but I will say, I have been practicing some serious cash saving tactics. My latest maneuver (besides buying racquets that are "dated") is I have vowed to never have a car payment again.

There is a cool presentation somewhere out on the web that I saw were they show how much $$ you can have if you pay off your car, and save until you can trade it in and buy your next used car for cash. then you take the $$ you were making payments on and put it in savings. In 3 years you can buy a car for cash again that will be nicer and will still be in the positive since you will get trade in value on your last one. then take that money you are saving and put it in a mutual fund, and you can end up with millions in retirement. It's really interesting.

In a much smaller way this ties to the cell phone, as I have noticed with all apple products I have ever owned, that I dont upgrade them for 2-3 years (appletv, ipod, ipad..) because they continue to receive support for so long and can run the most current OS. The issue I had with droids was their end of life would be every 2 years on paper, but in reality you would get 1 OS update and then never get another. That is just a fact. So while some people will claim they are happy with ICS on their older phone, that OS is already far behind JB and their phones will most likely never see that update.

To me, it is unfair to those owners and ends up being a money pit for many who want a current OS. So while people always say apples are expensive..well they are not if you buy the phone on a new contract. and since the phones can cycle for 4 years, you could use the same one for that long, and be on NO contract if you wanted.

So over time, you actually save money.

[Roforot]

I'm curious from the commercials, how often do you people swap playlists? Can't you do this wireless? The touching phones seems lame?

[Power Player]

Originally Posted by Roforot

I'm curious from the commercials, how often do you people swap playlists? Can't you do this wireless? The touching phones seems lame?

It is lame, but it will be standard in 2 years. And no one will trade playlists with it..that is just super lame, as most guys who go to studios (like in the samsung ad) all use apple products anyway - I speak from tons of experience there.

What they are pushing it for is using it as a wallet basically. The reason you dont see that aspect of it pushed in the ad yet is because it is not ready for prime time yet. In other words, it is considered a security risk in which people already can grab your info off your phone if they get close enough. It is not widespread or anything but it can be done. Here is a solid article citing what I am saying:

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues...1051012-1.html

[mikeler]

I turned off wireless and bluetooth and my battery has really stabilized. I'll just have to remember to turn wireless back on when I need it. I almost never use Bluetooth so that is no big deal.

[Power Player]

I bet it is bluetooth..mine is never on. Wireless though - always on.

[BigServer1]

My Bluetooth is always on since I connect in my car. Wireless is also always on. Doesn't seem to have a negative effect on battery life, but maybe it would be even better with BT off.

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by Power Player

I bet it is bluetooth..mine is never on. Wireless though - always on.

I'm 1 step ahead of you. I turned the wireless back on but left the bluetooth on and that seems to have been the battery drain.

[kimbahpnam]

My new case

[quest01]

Originally Posted by Roforot

I'm curious from the commercials, how often do you people swap playlists? Can't you do this wireless? The touching phones seems lame?

I tried the NFC a few times with someone I know who also owns a samsung gs3 and it works fine. I just wanted to see how it works and its very easy, you simply touch the back of the phones together to exchange photos, playlists, contacts or whatever. I think the google wallet will be interesting to buy items at a store by just swiping a phone. It's obviously at a beginning stage but it will catch on eventually once more stores implement them.

Also I bought the phone at Best Buy and I don't bother with any extended warranties. I never use a case, I'm not a fan of them. The only thing I use is a zagg invisibleshield on the front.

[JoelDali]

[Polaris]

Originally Posted by mikeler

I turned off wireless and bluetooth and my battery has really stabilized. I'll just have to remember to turn wireless back on when I need it. .

I wonder if you can use a "software manager" app that automatically switches on Wifi when you are home or in your office or at a Starbucks based on your celltower locations.

I'm guessing that the app store has something like Tasker or Llama apps on Google Play? They provide a cool way to make the phone smart at very low battery drain. The best thing about it was the Boolean combinations. You could set:

If (NOT AT HOME) and (HEADPHONE JACK PLUGGED IN) and (NOT ON CALL)
THEN
START MUSICPLAYER

or in your case

If (AT HOME) or (AT WORK) or (AT LOCAL STARBUCKS)
THEN
START WIFI

... and some nifty things like that. I'm pretty sure Apple uses similar underlying technology for some functionality in Passbook, but not sure if the API is available to other app developers.

[ramos77]

wifi doesn't use much battery if you're not connected to wifi, or searching for open networks...