Help GNes vs iphone 4s battery life

[brounmoney]

I'm talking out of the box also. They are superior phones all in all. The GN has far less advantages over them than they do over it. All three of those devices have superior hardware to the GN. Hardware updates don't happen so the GN will always be behind there. When those phones get their ICS update the GN will lose the only thing that makes it anything special.

So I have had an HTC phone that was running Froyo and got updated to gingerbread and man did that slow down the phone. Opening the message app was a headache, and opening half the apps took way longer than before. It took be back to when I had the iPhone 3G after it had been out for 2 years it was so slow.

You can tell me all this stuff about hardware being better in all three of those phone, but the software is where those devices really start to lose. Those custom versions of android slow down the phone period. My old nexus s will run circles around those phones running gingerbread. Yea sure you Internet may be faster, but just running android you can't beat stock android.

Also you said when those phones get ICS. How about if they get ICS. I have heard more companies promise the lastest OS and never deliver. I mean it got posted that Samsung was going to start releasing ICS last week, and then they said that was not true. You watch those phones still want have it by the end of the summer. And if by some crazy chance they do it will be behind the version the GNex is running. Also watch those phones will be slower after the update.

You are talking about Blur, sence, and touchwiz. Come on.

 

[Sandroidfan]

I'm talking out of the box also. They are superior phones all in all. The GN has far less advantages over them than they do over it. All three of those devices have superior hardware to the GN. Hardware updates don't happen so the GN will always be behind there. When those phones get their ICS update the GN will lose the only thing that makes it anything special.

Even if they get ICS soon, Gnex is still holding edges in my opinion. On the software side, they won't get the latest ICS as quick as Gnex and theirs is skinned OS unlike stock OS in Nexus. Hardware wise, G Note has giant screen and Maxx has huge battery over Gnex. But that's about it. Nexus is still better than those in CPU/GPU, screen quality. The only exception is international G Note with 1.4Ghz Exynos, but that one is not available in US unfortunately.

As for battery life of 4S vs Gnex, I think GSM nexus is fairly close to it if not better. Because 4S on verizon is only 3G/CDMA, if you turn off LTE on Verizon nexus the battery life is easily comparable or better I think.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

This is my typical workday on the GNEX. 4 hours from charge to discharge.
On the iPhone. 12-14 hours.

 

[erric]

This is my typical workday on the GNEX. 4 hours from charge to discharge.
On the iPhone. 12-14 hours.

I had to turn LTE off for that very reason

 

[mrspeedmaster]

I had to turn LTE off for that very reason

Funny thing, i had most of the services off and brightness at the lowest setting withe the most aggressive 15 sec timeout.

You shouldnt have to turn off anything.
Ive been told to.turn.syncing. to.turn.off wifi. To turn.off.gps. to turn off bluetooth.

A smart phone shouldnt be crippled like that. I never had to turn off skype or.any chat messenger app on my other phones. The gps should auto turn on automatically when the apps need them (with the ability to disable).

4 hours is ridiculous. It wouldnt be so bad if the phone charged on normal 5a USB socket. none of.my micro usb chargers are strong enough (hp touchpad, droid inc, verizon mifi) to keep the gnex alive past 1 pm noon.

 

[Shockwave78]

I have had both..

The Gnex i have returned twice, and this third one i have kept since the first week of January.

The initial shock on launch day of the Gnex and how bad i though battery life was , was just horrible. I looked forward to it for months as something that would finally pull me away from the iphones i have used since there initial launch. After about a week of the battery life i could not handle it anymore and returned it and kept my Iphone 4. Then i started missing the screen of the Gnex and bought another one about 3 days later since everyone here was telling me I most likely had a bad battery and also the phone takes awhile to show try battery life.

This brings me to the day before Christmas(sorry if my previous dates don't line up, i believe all this happened in a much shorter time span now) I was taking pictures for the first time really heavily with the Gnex and realized the camera flat out sucks! I could not deal with it and returned it and caved in and bought a iphone 4s.

Initial thoughts...it was the same damn thing as my iphone 4. No huge differences in performance i would say, maybe a 30% increase all around the board. The big thing was the camera though, Christmas day i took a boat load of photos and they were great. I was happy with my purchase and stayed with it until around January 7th or so...

The gnex just kept calling me back...finally i gave in again and returned the 4s for it and have not looked back since up until the ipad announcement last week.

For some damn reason once the new ipad was released the iphone has just been calling my name again. I am really setting myself up for disappointment if i do it again and i know i will be back eventually to the Gnex. Stupid ass phones taking up all my brain power

As far as battery life?....The 4s i would say is about 30% better. I made up for that while at work. Instead of keeping my phone in my pocket, i leave it on my desk charging while out at work. Just charge the thing whenever you can and you will be fine. The times i notice it though is when i am out on the weekends. Its always going dead or i have to look for a charger. Hopefully the $8 3800mah battery deal from yesterday solves that problem.

 

[Sandroidfan]

This is my typical workday on the GNEX. 4 hours from charge to discharge.
On the iPhone. 12-14 hours.

It's not that surprising with so much screen on time with high brightness you are using. I know you are not fan of turning off things to save battery. But if you are not using Google+, Gtalk, signing out of them will give you quite big of extra juice. Especially G+ is big battery hog. You need to disable syncing it at least if you want to use that app.

 

[brounmoney]

I have had both..

The Gnex i have returned twice, and this third one i have kept since the first week of January.

The initial shock on launch day of the Gnex and how bad i though battery life was , was just horrible. I looked forward to it for months as something that would finally pull me away from the iphones i have used since there initial launch. After about a week of the battery life i could not handle it anymore and returned it and kept my Iphone 4. Then i started missing the screen of the Gnex and bought another one about 3 days later since everyone here was telling me I most likely had a bad battery and also the phone takes awhile to show try battery life.

This brings me to the day before Christmas(sorry if my previous dates don't line up, i believe all this happened in a much shorter time span now) I was taking pictures for the first time really heavily with the Gnex and realized the camera flat out sucks! I could not deal with it and returned it and caved in and bought a iphone 4s.

Initial thoughts...it was the same damn thing as my iphone 4. No huge differences in performance i would say, maybe a 30% increase all around the board. The big thing was the camera though, Christmas day i took a boat load of photos and they were great. I was happy with my purchase and stayed with it until around January 7th or so...

The gnex just kept calling me back...finally i gave in again and returned the 4s for it and have not looked back since up until the ipad announcement last week.

For some damn reason once the new ipad was released the iphone has just been calling my name again. I am really setting myself up for disappointment if i do it again and i know i will be back eventually to the Gnex. Stupid ass phones taking up all my brain power

As far as battery life?....The 4s i would say is about 30% better. I made up for that while at work. Instead of keeping my phone in my pocket, i leave it on my desk charging while out at work. Just charge the thing whenever you can and you will be fine. The times i notice it though is when i am out on the weekends. Its always going dead or i have to look for a charger. Hopefully the $8 3800mah battery deal from yesterday solves that problem.

Thanks for the detailed report. I had the iPhone 4 from the day it launched and other than looking different from the 3g what really change. Yes it was faster, by the os was the same thing. That was 2 phones ago so I was trying to refresh my memory on the battery. For what I have lost in battery I have gained in over all experience with the nexus devices. There is not question this is the best phone I have ever owned. I would have to put the iPhone 3g as the second best phone. I just really never fell in love with the shape of the iPhone 4. If apple could change iOS they could really put them self back were they once were. They could do what they have done with the iPad. I am by no means wanting to go apples way. I love my gnex and hope that the extended battery can keep getting better over time.

 

[kylecummins]

You can't have the screen on that long. I have not SEEN one screen shot of ANYONE here with the battery usage showing more than 2 hours yet..

There ya go, fairly normal day - standard battery.

Lots of radio streaming while driving the forklift in and out of WIFI area around work, some web browsing and texting.

 

[Shockwave78]

Thanks for the detailed report. I had the iPhone 4 from the day it launched and other than looking different from the 3g what really change. Yes it was faster, by the os was the same thing. That was 2 phones ago so I was trying to refresh my memory on the battery. For what I have lost in battery I have gained in over all experience with the nexus devices. There is not question this is the best phone I have ever owned. I would have to put the iPhone 3g as the second best phone. I just really never fell in love with the shape of the iPhone 4. If apple could change iOS they could really put them self back were they once were. They could do what they have done with the iPad. I am by no means wanting to go apples way. I love my gnex and hope that the extended battery can keep getting better over time.

Pretty much the exact reason i left..ios is getting stale and has been the same since 07/08 really...The layout/look has never changed which is just unreal.

My disappointment started with the iphone 4, i was certain they were going to change the UI somehow but never did. Sadly, i don't think they are going to change it for at least another 3yrs.

Verizon just jumped on bored a year ago, along with Sprint and all these other world wide carriers. To all these "new" iphone users the OS is new and refreshing from everything else, Apple has no reason to change it. But at some point the scales will start to tip and they will start to lose market share. It is inevitable..it happens to all things.

 

[brounmoney]

Pretty much the exact reason i left..ios is getting stale and has been the same since 07/08 really...The layout/look has never changed which is just unreal.

My disappointment started with the iphone 4, i was certain they were going to change the UI somehow but never did. Sadly, i don't think they are going to change it for at least another 3yrs.

Verizon just jumped on bored a year ago, along with Sprint and all these other world wide carriers. To all these "new" iphone users the OS is new and refreshing from everything else, Apple has no reason to change it. But at some point the scales will start to tip and they will start to lose market share. It is inevitable..it happens to all things.

You right and all those reasons are why I left for android. As long as Google keeps changing things and making it new I am all about android.

 

[zerocool79346]

Screen is a big hog. You can't even watch a full 2 hour 720p movie on it. Period.

You can't have the screen on that long. I have not SEEN one screen shot of ANYONE here with the battery usage showing more than 2 hours yet.


I dont like putting my screen to sleep every 15 seconds. I have to unlock it so many times. With the iPhone 4, I know for a fact you can watch 6 hours of continuos 720p movie.

this is a joke right?

And my personal best

 

[mrspeedmaster]

this is a joke right?

And my personal best

Impressive.

Question are you using a stock radio and rom?
And can you show a screen that proves you didnt charge anytime in that session?
Lastly, are you on any cellular data? Not just voice?

 

[Dubbin1]

Screen is a big hog. You can't even watch a full 2 hour 720p movie on it. Period.

You can't have the screen on that long. I have not SEEN one screen shot of ANYONE here with the battery usage showing more than 2 hours yet.


I dont like putting my screen to sleep every 15 seconds. I have to unlock it so many times. With the iPhone 4, I know for a fact you can watch 6 hours of continuos 720p movie.

Look around the forum and you will see a screen shot I posted that shows 28hrs of use... Just the other day I was even able to watch a full 2hr netflix movie with under 20% left on the battery.

 

[zerocool79346]

Impressive.

Question are you using a stock radio and rom?
And can you show a screen that proves you didnt charge anytime in that session?
Lastly, are you on any cellular data? Not just voice?

Look at the graphs I posted. If I had charged there would be a green line under the blue one below them. I'll post an example of what I am talking about if you don't know what I'm talking about.

The first set is not a stock ROM, but it is approx equivalent to what I got on 4.0.2 out of the box. The second is the 4.0.4 leak with no tweaks, stock everything right down to the battery. Neither had data disabled, the second was wifi for the majority while the first was all 3G.

I literally watched The Return of the King: Extended Cut which is 4:20 minutes in 720p mkv form all the way through on a single charge while stock.

 

[EnIXmA]

I get 2 days of battery with 3 hours of on screen time. My brightness is a bit high too
I am using a custom rom and kernal with the regular battery.

 

[PhilosoRaptor]

I think this is my best screen time:







Under near-constant use (as above), I usually at least get 4.5 hours at a minimum. I have several other screenshots of it over 5 hours. I think those screens are either with Lean Kernel or whatever kernel is part of Codename Android at that time. But I actually didn't notice much difference in battery life between stock and with these custom ROMs and LV Kernels. As mentioned above, I think the display and cell radios are the biggest power hogs on this phone.. more so than a lot of other phones for the display, IMO. My friend has a Droid 3 and every time I check his battery stats, "Display" is usually 2nd to or close to "Android OS" and that's with a screen-on time of 3+ hours. My wife has a Rezound now and I'm going to be comparing it to that too since it has an SLCD display at the same resolution. I don't remember my OG Droid taking near that much power for its display, though it was usually the highest drain, but not by 30+%.

 

[jamesoja]

I average around 6 (w/extended OEM battery) on GN and 9 with the iPhone 4s. GN with LTE always on.

 

[brounmoney]

This is what I got today. I am on the GSM galaxy nexus on att. I am running 4.0.2 with not custom roms. Please don't tell me no one can use the screen for two hours before the battery dies. I still have 45% battery left. Oh I do have the extended battery.

 

[jamisont]

I'm talking out of the box also. They are superior phones all in all. The GN has far less advantages over them than they do over it. All three of those devices have superior hardware to the GN. Hardware updates don't happen so the GN will always be behind there. When those phones get their ICS update the GN will lose the only thing that makes it anything special.

You have no clue on hardware.
Galaxy note probably but certainly not rezound and razr.
Gnex has better Ap display memory which is major part of hardware.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

Looks like a lot of you guys are:

1) Running custom roms.
My cousin is running a custom rom and he get gets twice the hours I get.
I have a work issued phone so I can't custom/root or change radio.
My perceptions are out-of-the-box

2). Many of you guys are on GSM model. I am on the Verizon version. The one most likely to be sold in the US

3) In a few screenshots, some of you are 100% wifi.
If I was 100% wifi usage, I'd get 3 days out of an iPhone.

So many of us who are stuck with a default Verizon phone will not see the battery life posted here.

Also are you guys running full background services and sync? Leave Skype on? Email?

I have have 5 IMAP accounts and 3 calendars polling every minute and this is one of the reason why I get shitty battery life (3-4 hours).

The iPhone supports PUSH IDLE imap out of the box and that is why I get 12-14 hours versus 4 hours on the Galaxy Nexus. The iPhone doesn't need to have ANY services shut off and it performs admirably.

 

[brounmoney]

Looks like a lot of you guys are:

1) Running custom roms.
My cousin is running a custom rom and he get gets twice the hours I get.
I have a work issued phone so I can't custom/root or change radio.
My perceptions are out-of-the-box

2). Many of you guys are on GSM model. I am on the Verizon version. The one most likely to be sold in the US

3) In a few screenshots, some of you are 100% wifi.
If I was 100% wifi usage, I'd get 3 days out of an iPhone.

So many of us who are stuck with a default Verizon phone will not see the battery life posted here.

Also are you guys running full background services and sync? Leave Skype on? Email?

I have have 5 IMAP accounts and 3 calendars polling every minute and this is one of the reason why I get shitty battery life (3-4 hours).

The iPhone supports PUSH IDLE imap out of the box and that is why I get 12-14 hours versus 4 hours on the Galaxy Nexus. The iPhone doesn't need to have ANY services shut off and it performs admirably.

What you are saying is true for you as an Verizon user, but the problem is you can't really compare the Verizon iPhone with the Verizon Gnex. The iPhone is 3g+ not 4g. You need to compare the GSM Gnex with the iphone. When we do that the phones battery life are very close. I do understand that being in your position you are better off with the iPhone, but me and all the people I know on att or t mobile have got option of the Gnex. Yes it is easier for Verizon customers to get the Gnex, but it may be close number for the other carriers. The Gnex is not the most popular android phone or the easiest to use.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Looks like a lot of you guys are:

1) Running custom roms.
My cousin is running a custom rom and he get gets twice the hours I get.
I have a work issued phone so I can't custom/root or change radio.
My perceptions are out-of-the-box

2). Many of you guys are on GSM model. I am on the Verizon version. The one most likely to be sold in the US

3) In a few screenshots, some of you are 100% wifi.
If I was 100% wifi usage, I'd get 3 days out of an iPhone.

So many of us who are stuck with a default Verizon phone will not see the battery life posted here.

Also are you guys running full background services and sync? Leave Skype on? Email?

I have have 5 IMAP accounts and 3 calendars polling every minute and this is one of the reason why I get shitty battery life (3-4 hours).

The iPhone supports PUSH IDLE imap out of the box and that is why I get 12-14 hours versus 4 hours on the Galaxy Nexus. The iPhone doesn't need to have ANY services shut off and it performs admirably.

Yes, GSM one will be more battery friendly than Verizon LTE one. Two biggest battery killers on verizon Gnex are LTE radio and huge SAMOLED screen. iPhone doesn't have those. It has only 3G radio and small 3.5" LCD screen. Simply it's smaller and slower data phone than Gnex.

On the battery curve screen you posted, you had screen on more than 50% of entire time and mostly on 4G. And you had screen brightness higher than 50%? Then it's no wonder you get around 4 hours.

Also IMAP based emails pulling every minute are battery suckers on any phone. Push emails are much better. I use only push based emails and it has very little impact on battery. If you can't use push on your emails, increase the sync interval to like 5 or 10 minutes at least.

 

[zerocool79346]

Looks like a lot of you guys are:

1) Running custom roms.
My cousin is running a custom rom and he get gets twice the hours I get.
I have a work issued phone so I can't custom/root or change radio.
My perceptions are out-of-the-box

2). Many of you guys are on GSM model. I am on the Verizon version. The one most likely to be sold in the US

3) In a few screenshots, some of you are 100% wifi.
If I was 100% wifi usage, I'd get 3 days out of an iPhone.

So many of us who are stuck with a default Verizon phone will not see the battery life posted here.

Also are you guys running full background services and sync? Leave Skype on? Email?

I have have 5 IMAP accounts and 3 calendars polling every minute and this is one of the reason why I get shitty battery life (3-4 hours).

The iPhone supports PUSH IDLE imap out of the box and that is why I get 12-14 hours versus 4 hours on the Galaxy Nexus. The iPhone doesn't need to have ANY services shut off and it performs admirably.

I've gotten the exact same battery life with in half an hour on all of the 4.0.3 ROMs as I did completely stock 4.0.2 and YES I do have the Verizon version. 4.0.4 is admittedly much better on battery in my experience.

I also push 2 email accounts (though I only receive 10-12 emails a day), 3 calendars, Facebook, HaxSync, and I would bet I text more than you by 2-3x. I'm VERY VERY rarely on wifi when at school because Verizon's 3g is faster than my apartment complex's wifi.

That 2hr and 51min screen time was at home where I was (literally, didn't think to take a picture of it but I promise its true) without signal 80%+ of the time but was still on cell data more than wifi. I am like you, I don't believe in shutting down my smartphone's abilities, I will never ever be caught with an app like Juice Defender because I find it to be pointless to cripple it like that.

I don't have 4g where I live, and quite honest as crappy as Verizon's LTE network is, I have no desire to have it right now, so that's a mute point for me. I'll likely leave it disabled when we do get it just because of how unreliable it is.

I can say this, IMAP push should have absolutely been included, its an embarrassment that it wasn't, but such is life.

 

[sean76]

ok I didn't even read through this whole thread before seeing how flamed the OP was getting! To be honest, this is a pretty good comparison! I'll chime in on my experience with the LTE GNex vs the Iphone 4s on at&t.

I have a very short to the point answer- The GNex Wins hands down!

I've recently switched to a shinny new 4S for various reasons, the most important being I was getting terrible, and I mean terrible LTE service in my home. Long story short VZW let me cancel the line with no fee.

So I added a line to my family plan on at&t and they're service works greatttt in my home, and just about everywhere else as well. Ended up with a Note, and while it was a great phone, at the end of the day it was just too big to carry around every day, all the time. So I did the unthinkable, I took the hit and got an iphone 4S! Honestly, as a former apple user, the thing just works...Email is awesome on it, HSPA+ is plenty fast, and as an every day phone, it just does everything I need at the moment.

But when were talking battery life, it absolutely sucks! And I mean SUXXXX! I'm getting about 5 hrs with heavy usage, and about 7 hrs with moderate! lol...For a phone with 3.5 inch screen ,thats terrible! Anyway, It will be going on ebay when the SG3 drops on at&t!